ISic000176: Epitaph for [-]ettius Faustus, set up by Optatus
- ID
- ISic000176
- Language
- Latin
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- plaque
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
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Apparatus criticus
- Text based on autopsy;
- 2: There is the possible trace of a horizontal bar at the start of the line, compatible with E or T.
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Rectilinear grey limestone plaque, missing left edge and large part of lower left corner. Abrasion in top right corner. Traces of (modern?) mortar and modern paint on sides. Rear is flat.
- Object type
- plaque
- Material
- limestone
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 23.5 cm, width: 32 (at top), 20 (at bottom) cm, depth: 7.5 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- Three lines of Latin text, each with missing section on the left. Appears to be centred on stone (on horizontal, but not vertical, axis). Use of triangular interpuncts. The interpunct in line three has chipped to look indistinct from the previous letter.
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 48-51 (T=62mm)mm
- Line 2: 42-48mm
- Line 3: 41-45mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Thermae Himeraeae
- Provenance found
- The place, date, and circumstances of the discovery are unknown, but the inscription is assumed to come from Termini Imerese and was first recorded in the museum by Mommsen in CIL
Current location
- Place
- Termini Imerese, Italy
- Repository
- Museo Civico Baldassare Romano , 75
- Autopsy
- Antoniou, 2023-07-05. In the Depositi of Museo Civico Baldassare Romano, room 1, scaffold 8, shelf 2
- Map
Date
Imperial (AD 1 – AD 300)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
As noted by Bivona (1994), the most obvious restoration of 'ettio' in line 1 is Vettius, as the gens Vettia is known to exist in Sicily in the Ciceronian period. This does not exclude a variety of other options, e.g. Mettius, Settius, Tettius, etc. Both Faustus and Optatus are common Latin cognomina and exist elsewhere in Thermae Himeraeae and elsewhere. It is unclear whether there is space for a praenomen at the start of line 1. The nomen in line 2 could well be [Vett]ius (there is a possible trace of the cross-bar of the T): the formulation is a little unusual, with no indication of the relationship between Faustus and Optatus, with the most likely resolution being that they are members of the same family.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 285259
- EDR: 127474
- EDH: -
- EDCS: 22100107
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- T. Mommsen, Inscriptiones Bruttiorum Lucaniae Campaniae Siciliae Sardiniae Latinae. Pars posterior. Inscriptiones Siciliae et Sardiniae, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, consilio et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae editum, 10.2 (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1883), at 10.7405
- Livia Bivona, Iscrizioni latine lapidarie del museo civico di Termini Imerese, vol. 9/8, Kokalos Supplementi / Sikelika serie storica (Palermo / Rome, 1994), at 98
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- Simona Stoyanova
- system
- Alex Antoniou
- Last revision
- 6/25/2024