ISic000655: Honorific inscription for Clodia Falconilla

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 2023-05-09
ID
ISic000655
Language
Latin
Text type
honorific
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy;
  • 5: Eck: a[viae]

Physical description

Support

Description
Marble plaque made up of nine joining fragments, of which both the top and the bottom are lost. Surface and back smooth and polished.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
damaged
Dimensions
height: 63 cm, width: 80 cm, depth: 2 cm

Inscription

Layout
Five lines of Latin text, in straight alignment and shifted toward the right, with a wider left margin.The letters in the first line, which is partially legible, are of slightly greater module than those in the following lines, and are more widely spaced. The last line – of which only parts of one or more letters are preserved (perhaps an A and and the left apex of a V; an M is also possible) are preserved – appears more centered, with both left and right margins wider.
Text condition
partly_illegible
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1-4: 80mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 5: 30-35mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Centuripae
Provenance found
Discovered by Guido Libertini during the excavation campaigns conducted starting in 1925, within the complex of spaces near the so-called former Barbagallo Mill, i.g. the area of the so-called "Edificio degli Augustales" , in a zone overlooking the Vallata Difesa, near the Church of the Crucifix. The contextual information is not very clear. Specifically, the author states that he found the inscription “a sei o sette metri più a nord del Mulino, [dove] si trovava un’ampia costruzione, una parte della quale, di forma rettangolare e non inferiore agli 11 m di lunghezza, era pavimentata in marmo e circondata, sembra, da una platea in pietra". Currently on display on the ground floor in the Antiquarium, Room III
Map

Current location

Place
Centuripe, Italy
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale di Centuripe , KA0858
Autopsy
Prado 2023-05-09
Map

Date

Early 2nd century, mother of cos. 108 CE (AD 100 – AD 120)
Evidence
prosopography

Text type

honorific

commentary

The document is linked to I.Sicily000656 through the same dedicant, Sosius Priscus, a member of the Pompeii Sosii Prisci Falcones, a family very likely originating from Centuripe. The inscription likely came from a context of dedications made for members of this family. Libertini hypothesized that the inscription originally accompanied a statue dedicated by a certain Sosius Priscus to his mother, Falconilla, whom he believed could perhaps be identified with Sosia Falconilla, daughter of Q. Pompeius Sosius Priscus, consul in 169 CE, and already known from an inscription from Iulia Cirta (CIL 8.7066), or possibly with another, slightly later, Falconilla. On the basis of the letterforms, he dated the inscription to the beginning of the 3rd century CE.Manganaro mentioned the text in 1989, proposing the restoration [Cl]odi[ae] P. f(iliae) in the first line and noting the letter A in line 5, which had been overlooked by Libertini. According to Eck, Clodia Falconilla, mater Pompei Falconis, honorand of the inscription, should be identified as the mother of Q. Pompeius Falco, consul suffectus in 108 CE and husband of Sosia Polla, daughter of the consul Q. Sosius Senecio and Iulia Frontina, herself daughter of the cos. III Sex. Iulius Frontinus. The dedicant Sosius Priscus, consul ordinarius in 149 CE, son of Falco and Polla, would thus have been Clodia’s grandson. On these grounds, Eck proposed restoring the final A in the inscription as a[viae].

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Francesca Prado
Contributors
Last revision
7/31/2025