ISic000315: Fragmentary inscription of a civic magistrate

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana
ID
ISic000315
Language
Latin
Text type
honorific
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Line1: Text restored on the parallel of ISic000337
  • Line2: Text restored on the parallel of ISic000337

Physical description

Support

Description
Fragment of a white marble slab. The left margin is preserved, but otherwise broken top, right, and below. The rear is finished and smooth. The left edge is finished and smooth. A moulding is preserved on the left side, 3.5 cm wide, and beginning 4.7 cm in from the left edge.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 17.8 cm, width: 26.3 cm, depth: 3.5-3.8 cm

Inscription

Layout
Beginning of two lines of Latin letters, set within the moulding. Red paint is preserved in some of the letters.
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: greater than 30mm
Line 2: greater than 41mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: 62mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Catina
Provenance found
Probably from Catania

Current location

Place
Catania, Italy
Repository
Museo Civico di Catania , no inventory number
Autopsy
Display, Voci di pietra no.11
Map

Date

1st century CE, or beginning 2nd century CE (so Korhonen) (AD 1 – AD 125)
Evidence
No data

Text type

honorific

commentary

Although none of the texts of ISic000337, 0315 or 0316 join together, and all show minor differences in form or material (e.g. compare the moulding on each), the text presented on each appears to be the same. A manuscript in the Vatican library records a fourth, similar fragment seen in the Museo dei Benedettini by C. Stevenson in the 1880s. The text, which may be common to all these fragmentary inscriptions, can be restored as it has been here.

The texts are probably honorific inscriptions. Marble slabs of this sort are commonly attached to a statue base or similar monument. The base itself would be made out of a different, cheaper, local stone (e.g. volcanic stone), the more expensive imported marble reserved for the inscription. The existence of multiple texts, apparently for the same person, has two possible explanations: either the same honorific inscription was repeated on all four(?) sides of the statue base or other monument; or else there were multiple honorific statues or monuments in Catania for this one individual (both possibilities are attested elsewhere). The remainder of the inscription will have included details of the rest of his career (compare the inscriptions for Quintus Atilius Severus (also of the Claudian tribe) and Lucius Rubrius Proculus). Lucius Caelius Macer is one of five duumviri known from Roman Catania.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
1/19/2021