ISic000620: Fragmentary monumental Latin inscription from the amphitheatre

Apparatus criticus

• Text after Manganaro and photographs

Physical description

Support

Description

four separate blocks each bearing one or more letters, which appear to join up to form part of a monumental text

Object type

block

Material

limestone

Condition

No data

Dimensions

height: 60 cm, width: 298 (combined) cm, depth: 20-37 cm

Inscription

Layout

No data

Text condition

No data

Letter heights

Line 1: 375mm

Interlinear heights

Provenance

Place of origin

Syracusae

Provenance found

First reported by Paolo Orsi in 1889, as lying in the garden of the custodian's hut near the amphitheatre, and as coming originally from the amphitheatre

Map

Current location

Place

Siracusa, Italy

Repository

Area archeologica della Neapolis, Orecchio di Dionisio e Teatro Greco

Autopsy

No autopsy, but last reported as in the chiesetta di S. Nicolò, just north of the amphitheatre at the entrance to the archaeological park.

Map

Date

Evidence

lettering

Text type

building

commentary

Orsi in NSA reports the dimensions of all four blocks: (a), reading TIL, is 1.2 x 0.6 x 0.25m; (b) reading E is 0.45 x 0.6 x 0.37; (c) reading IE is 0.48 x 0.6 x 0.31; (d) reading B is 0.85 x 0.6 x 0.2. The inscription blocks were photographed in the 1970s and 1980s seemingly outside the entrance to the small church of S. Nicolo at the entrance to the archaeological park, but they are no longer in that position and have not recently been observed. Buonocore reports autopsy in 1987. The dating of the amphitheatre is much disputed, between the Augustan period and the early third century CE, and since the inscription can only itself be dated on prosopographical or palaeographical grounds, the arguments either for its date, or to use it to date the amphitheatre rapidly become circular. Wilson has argued strongly for an Augustan or earlier first century date. Certainly it is difficult to assert on palaeographical grounds that the inscription must be second or even early third century CE, and a first century date seems at least as possible.

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 175784
• EDR: 081527
• EDH: -
• EDCS: 30200068
• PHI: -

Printed editions

• Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Istituto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell’arte (Italy), e Reale Accademia d’Italia, «Notizie degli scavi di antichità», Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1876, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1646037, at 385
• Roger Wilson, ‘On the Date of the Roman Amphitheatre at Syracuse’, in Philias Charin: Miscellanea Di Studi Classici in Onore Di Eugenio Manni, vol. 6, 6 vols (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider, 1980), 2217–30, at 2217-2218, 2230 tav.2.1
• Giacomo Manganaro, «La Sicilia da Sesto Pompeo a Diocleziano», Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2.11.1 (1988): 3–89, at 55 n.273
• Giacomo Manganaro, «Iscrizioni Latine nuove e vecchie della Sicilia», Epigraphica 51 (1989): 161–96, at 183-184
• R.J.A. Wilson, Sicily under the Roman Empire: The Archaeology of a Roman Province, 36 B.C. - A.D. 535 (Warminster: Aris and Philips, 1990), at 40 n.68, 82 n.167
• M. Buonocore, Epigrafia anfiteatrale dell’occidente romano. III. Regiones Italiae II-V, Sicilia, Sardinia et Corsica, Epigrafia anfiteatrale dell’occidente romano (Rome: Quasar, 1992), at 119 no.84, tav. XXXIII fig. 2
• Paolo Orsi, I Taccuini. I. Riproduzione anastatica e trascrizione dei Taccuini 1-4, a c. di Gioconda Lamagna e Giuseppina Monterosso, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Monumenti Antichi. Serie Miscellanea 20 (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider Editore, 2018), at 248, Tacc.4 p.44

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Tuuli Ahlholm
• Simona Stoyanova
• system

Last revision

6/28/2024