ISic000169: Epitaph for Domitius Himeraeus, his sister Domitia and his wife Alfia Zotica

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 2021-09-27
ID
ISic000169
Language
Latin
Text type
funerary
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text after ILTermini, controlled against photograph (Bivona does not explicitly report ligatures or tall letters in the text);
  • 1: There may be the trace of the foot of the praenomen at the start of the line (compatible with A).
  • 3: Torremuzza: Alfiae (i.e. gives no indication of the lacuna at the start of line)

Physical description

Support

Description
A thick rectangular plaque of grey limestone, slightly damaged on the left edge, but intact on the other three sides, with rectangular recesses for clamps in each preserved edge (two each on the upper and lower edges (middle and right), with possibly a third lost from the left end on each of the upper and lower edges; one on the right edge).
Object type
plaque
Material
limestone
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 28.5 cm, width: 69 cm, depth: 10 cm

Inscription

Layout
Three lines of roughly equal and centred latin letters filling the face of the stone, words separated by lightly carved interpuncts.
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 45-50mm
Line 2: 43-48 (T = 58)mm
Line 3: 45-50mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Thermae Himeraeae
Provenance found
First recorded by Torremuzza in the inscriptions of Palermo (1769). The attribution to Termini is based upon the cognomen / ethnic Himeraeus rather than any other evidence.

Current location

Place
Palermo, Italy
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonino Salinas , 3577
Autopsy
Photographed 2021-09-27 in Palermo museum, but no formal autopsy
Map

Date

Bivona suggests that the onomastics (presence of tribal, use of Aulus and lack of cognomen in the sister's name) imply a date in the first half of the C1 CE (AD 1 – AD 50)
Evidence
textual-context

Text type

funerary

commentary

Mommsen concluded that this piece was 'origine non urbana, potius Thermitana', but it appears that this rests solely upon the cognomen 'Himeraeus', rather than any firmer evidence, since the first attestation of the stone is in Torremuzza's corpus of Palermitan inscriptions, at which point it was in the museum of the Jesuits in Palermo.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
5/27/2024