ISic000463: Epitaph of a goatmeat seller

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 2016-06-27
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 2016-06-27
ID
ISic000463
Language
Latin
Text type
funerary
Object type
plaque
Status
edited
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy;
  • 1: Schubring: IORIAMA+; Mommsen: IORIAMAL
  • 2: Vertical stroke at start of line, but impossible to know if letter or decoration.

Physical description

Support

Description
Part of a substantial slab of local off-white limestone. Broken top, right and below; cut away (subsequent to the original carving) on the left. Roughly finished on the reverse.
Object type
plaque
Object condition
fragment
Dimensions
height: 43.5 cm, width: 37 cm, depth: 9.5-10.5 cm

Material

Description
limestone

Inscription

Layout
Two, possibly three lines of large letters with a decorative motif of a branch/vine with berries filling the equivalent of a line-space in between; guidelines above and below each line. A vacat of up to 14.5 cm below the last visible line of text.
Text condition
incomplete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Very well cut, tall, v-cut letters. A with a broken bar, M with vertical outers, short inner bars, N with short diagonal, O slightly ovoid.

Letter heights
Line 1: 50-60mm
Line 3: 65-68mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Syracusae low certainty
Provenance found
First recorded by Schubring in 1865 in the Siracusa museum, specific provenance not recorded. Transcribed by Orsi in 1889, on display in the old scala epigraphica (vetr. 37), and now in magazzino B.
Map

Current location

Place
Siracusa, Sicilia
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 279
Autopsy
Prag 2016-06-27
Map

Date

Roman (AD 101 - AD 500)
Evidence
No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

Transcribed by Schubring in materials sent to the Berlin academy in October 1865 (his no.219; now in the CIL archives), but no details of provenance are recorded. Ferrua proposed reading 'caprinarius' in the final line, accepted by both Rizzo and Chioffi.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
2/24/2026