ISic000781: Funerary inscription of Aurelius Samohil

Apparatus criticus

• Text from autopsy

Physical description

Support

Description

Thin slab of white marble, broken vertically in two and subsequently reconnected. The edges are all lightly damaged (chipped), with a couple of the letters along the top edge partially obscured, and the bottom edge is more heavily damaged; the stone is otherwise intact. The rear is finished and smooth.

Object type

plaque

Material

marble (white)

Condition

complete

Dimensions

height: 29.5 cm, width: 46 cm, depth: 1.6-2 cm

Inscription

Layout

A single line of Hebrew is followed by 14 lines of Latin; the Latin text observes a more or less regular left margin, irregular on the right. The lower right and left corners contain small incised menorahs, with the last line of text between them consisting simply of 'overspill' from the preceding line, offset towards the right.

Text condition

legible

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: 7-15mm

Lines 2-15: 9-19mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: not measured

Provenance

Place of origin

Catina

Provenance found

Found in the vicinity of the Chiesa S. Teresa, on via Antonino di Sangiuliano, during works for installation of telecoms in May 1928.

Map

Current location

Place

Catania, Italy

Repository

Museo Civico di Catania , 540

Autopsy

Display, Voci di pietra no.32

Map

Date

Evidence

internal-date

Text type

funerary

commentary

This is the only Latin (and Hebrew) inscription from the Jewish community in Sicily, and it is the longest Latin text from the Jewish diaspora in this period; it also provides the earliest datable evidence for the Jewish community in Catania. The Latin is marked by phonological and syntactical errors (e.g. mi(mihi) et osxoris (uxori)), and it is likely that Latin was chosen not because it was familiar but because it was the high status language of public documents - the inscription aims to present Aurelius as a member of the local élite. The Hebrew is very formulaic and does not prove good knowledge of the language. Lassia is a rare name found otherwise in Campania in the early Imperial period. Threats of this sort against damage to the tomb are common in pagan and Christian inscriptions also. It is notable that Aurelius appeals equally to Roman, Jewish, and divine authority for protection.

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 175684
• EDR: -
• EDH: -
• EDCS: 8400264
• PHI: 178069

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 1984.0439
• ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 55.1081
• ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 46.1243
• Guido Libertini, «Epigrafe giudaico-latina rinvenuta in Catania», Atti della Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche 64 (1929): 185–95, at ph
• J.-B. Frey, Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum: recueil des inscriptions juives qui vont du IIIe siècle avant Jésus-Christ au VIIe siècle de notre ère, 2 vol. (Vatican City: Pontificio istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1936), at 1.650
• 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 310-311 fig.264
• Giacomo Manganaro, «Greco nei pagi e latino nelle città della Sicilia romana tra I e VI sec. d.C.», in l’epigrafia del villaggio, a c. di A. Calbi, A. Donati, e G. Poma (Faenza, 1993), 543–94, at 564 fig.7
• D. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), at no.145
• T. Grüll, ‘“ Conquerors, Patriarchs and the Law of the Lord”. Interpretation of a Late Antique Jewish Epitaph’, Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica, no. 34 (2000): 23–38.
• Kalle Korhonen, Le iscrizioni del Museo civico di Catania : storia delle collezioni, cultura epigrafica, edizione (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), at 228
• Giacomo Manganaro, «Giudei grecanici nella Sicilia di eta imperale (documentazione epigrafica e figurativa)», Minima Epigraphica et Papyrologica 9–10 (2005 2004): 357–72, at 360-362 fig.2
• Claudia Giuffrida, ‘Aurelius Samohil between Ius and Identity’, Codex. Giornale Romanistico Di Studi Giuridici Politici e Sociali 1 (2020): 59–88, at 75-80

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Serena Agodi
• Simona Stoyanova
• system

Last revision

3/31/2022