ISic000170: Dedication of funerary plot for the parents of Cn. Domitius Piso

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 2023-07-06
ID
ISic000170
Language
Latin
Text type
funerary
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
View in current site

Edition

Loading...

Apparatus criticus

  • Text based upon autopsy of the surviving fragment and the text of Gualtherus

Physical description

Support

Description
Large fragment of thick plaque of hard brown/grey limestone, all sides broken and heavily abraded. Face is polished. Rear has deep, but intentional, step cut out of right hand side (thus stone is deeper on left hand side). More of the stone was preserved below when it was first seen in the early 1600s.
Object type
plaque
Material
limestone
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 26.5 cm, width: 43 cm, depth: 16 (with protrusion), 9.5 (without) cm

Inscription

Layout
Only two lines of Latin text are preserved (two more below were previously observed). There is a large vacat (at least 47mm) above line 1, so it seems likely that there is no missing text above. Neat comma-shaped interpunct line 2.
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 59-62mm
Line 2: 55-6mm
Lines 3-4: Irrecoverable height, only seen by Gualtherusmm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Thermae Himeraeae
Provenance found
The inscription was seen by Gualtherus (no later than 1624) on the wall of the town hall ('in foro superiori, in pariete praetorii'). Subsequent records are derivative of Gualtherus, and only the upper part has since been found in the stores of the Museo Civico.

Current location

Place
Termini Imerese, Italy
Repository
Museo Civico Baldassare Romano
Autopsy
Antoniou, 2023-07-06, upper part only, in the Depositi of Museo Civico Baldassare Romano, room 1, scaffold 8, shelf 6
Map

Date

first century CE (AD 1 – AD 100)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

Bivona wrongly states that Mommsen was the last to see this text intact, but Mommsen makes no claim to have seen any part of the stone and simply reports the text from Gualtherus, noting that later editions are derivative from Gualtherus. Mommsen rightly also notes that Gualtherus offers no indication that the stone was damaged or missing letters at the ends of either lines 2 or 4; it is however clear that at least the letter N followed in line 2 (traces are visible); whether the numeral was only X, or larger, cannot be known, nor whether 'datus' was written as 'd(atus)', or 'dat(us)' or as 'datus'. It appears that the stone has gone unrecorded between Gualtherus' report and our own identification of the surviving upper fragment in the museum in 2023. Bivona (1994) suggests that given his name, and that the land for the tomb was assigned to his parents, Cn. Domitius Piso must have been a notable figure in Thermae Himeraeae. There are numerous literary and epigraphic attestations to the gens Domitia across Sicily from a broad period (Republican-4th century CE). Notable, particularly, is a Domitius Himeraeus from Thermae Himeraeae (ISic000169).

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
7/24/2025