ISic000695: Fragmentary monumental Latin inscription
- ID
- ISic000695
- Language
- Latin
- Text type
- honorific
- Object type
- plaque
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
Text from photograph, and following the speculative restoration of AE 1989, 339b; 1: Manganaro: [M.] Ulp[io Traiano, patri Imp. Caes. Nervae Traiani
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Two joining fragments of a marble plaque, bearing a monumental inscription. The left fragment appears to preserved an original vertical left edge, but is broken on the other three sides; the right fragment may preserved an original right edge, but this seems less certain; it too is broken on the other three sides. The plaque is presumably likely to be one of a number of joining plaques e.g. from the architrave of a building.
- Object type
- plaque
- Material
- marble
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 30 cm, width: 48 cm, depth: 4.5 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- Three partially preserved letters of a single line of monumental letters
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 190mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Tauromenium
- Provenance found
- In the stores of the ancient theatre, but with no evidence of original time or exact location of discovery
Current location
- Place
- Taormina, Italy
- Repository
- Antiquarium del Teatro Antico
- Autopsy
- None
- Map
Date
dedication to Trajan? (AD 98 – AD 117)- Evidence
- office
Text type
commentary
These two joining fragments forming the letters VLP, would seem most likely to contain the name Ulpius and, given the clearly monumental form, it is very difficult not to associate this with the Emperor Trajan in some form. Manganaro saw a parallel in CIL 8,8316 = ILS 307, a dedication to the father of the emperor, after 112 CE: M(arco) Ulp[io] / Traian[o] / patr[i] Imp(eratoris) Cae[s(aris)] / Nervae [Tra]/iani Au[g(usti) Ger(manici)] / Dac(ici) po[nt(ificis) max(imi)] / tr(ibunicis) po[t(estate) - - - co(n)s(uli)] / VI p(atris) p(atriae) [----] (text of ILS). L'Annee Epigraphique reported the fragment instead as a dedication to the Emperor himself: [Imp(eratori) Caes(ari) M(arco)] Vlp[io Traiano (?) --- ]. The question-marks in the AE version must reflect the fact that parallels of dedications to Trajan as Marcus Ulpius Traianus are not readily available (the nomen appearing normally only in inscriptions referencing him prior to his accession to Emperor).
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- Printed editions
- « L’année épigraphique: revue des publications épigraphiques relatives a l’antiquité romaine. », L’année épigraphique : revue des publications épigraphiques relatives a l’antiquité romaine., 1888, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/630058599, at 1989.0339b
- Giacomo Manganaro, «Iscrizioni Latine nuove e vecchie della Sicilia», Epigraphica 51 (1989): 161–96, at 165 no.24 fig.24
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- Simona Stoyanova
- James Hua
- system
- Last revision
- 8/5/2024