ISic000218: I.Sicily inscription 000218

Page from Fazellus 1558 (Rome copy on Google Books)
ID
ISic000218
Language
Latin
Text type
funerary
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text of Fazellus 1558 ;
  • Line.1: Mommsen: [---]Sempronio
  • Line.2: Mommsen: ((mulieris)) L Primioni
  • Line.3: Gualtherus 1624, Torremuzza 1769, 1784 (ex Gualt.): XVIII

Physical description

Support

Description
Fazellus lists this as one of a number of ancient marble tablets to be found in private houses in Termini
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: unknown cm, width: unknown cm, depth: unknown cm

Inscription

Layout
Three lines of Latin letters, if Fazellus' layout is reliable
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: unknownmm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: unknownmm

Provenance

Place of origin
Thermae Himeraeae
Provenance found
The text is reported in Fazellus' De Rebus Siculis (1558) as being in a private house in Termini ('In domo Garfofali'); it was already either unfindable or illegible ('litera abolita') by the time of Gualtherus (1624)

Current location

Lost

Date

Presumably of imperial date, 1st — 3rd century CE (AD 1 – AD 300)
Evidence
No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

Interpretation of this text (lost) remains extremely problematic. Fazellus is the only authority who may have seen this (it is implied in his account, but not explicit); all subsequent authorities did not. Consequently, subsequent versions of the text posterior to the 1558 edition of Fazellus all appear to be attempts to intepret the text reported in Fazellus. This contains a reversed C prior to Sempronio in line 1; a symbol in the form of the arabic numeral 7 at the beginning of line 2. Other inscriptions from Termini employ a reversed C in a role other than that of the abbreviation for (freedperson of) a woman; however in each case the symbol stands directly before a numeral, and so has reasonably been interpreted to signify 'circiter'; that context does not apply here. Fazellus can be shown, in another surviving text (ISic000146) to have reported such a reversed C correctly, so the transcription here need not be doubted. There is, in turn, no obvious parallel in Fazellus for the use of the symbol '7' (in another text, also lost - ISic000119 - a symbol comparable to a '6' is however apparently employed to signify a hedera). What is not clear is how Mommsen arrived at the text which he presents in CIL, in which the reversed C is arbitrarily transposed to the beginning of line 2 and/or substituted for the '7'. It is also noteworthy that in subsequent editions the numeral is variously presented as XIV and in Gualtherus as XVIII (the latter surely an error of transcription from his source). There is also no material basis for the rectangular form within which Gualtherus places the text.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions
Discussion

Citation and editorial status

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