ISic000804: Dedication of a statue to Ceres, by Iulius Acilius Hermes, sevir
- ID
- ISic000804
- Language
- Latin
- Text type
- dedication
- Object type
- statue base
- Status
- edited
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text from autopsy;
- Line.2: alternatively: d(ecreto) d(ecurionum) d(edit); d(edit) d(e)d(icavit)
Physical description
Support
- Description
- The inscription is incised on the face of the ovoid base which forms part of the same block from which is carved the statue of Ceres, 1.7m high. The base is 56 cm wide, 31.5 cm deep and 7.5-10.5 cm high.
- Object type
- statue base
- Material
- marble (white)
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 7.5-10.5 cm, width: 56 cm, depth: 31.5 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- The Latin text is engraved over two lines (letters c.20 mm high, but of uneven height), to a maximum length of 52 cm.
- Text condition
- No data
- Technique
- chiselled
- Pigment
- No data
- Lettering
The letters show some irregularity, with fairly pronounced serifs, and lengthy tails to the letter R. The first two words are separated from the rest by a space; an interpunct is visible at the end of the dedicant’s name, and the final abbreviated phrase is separated from the rest by a large hedera (ivy leaf). The letter I in line 1 is frequently taller than the rest (but so too is the first L in line 1); the final I of line 1 is somewhat irregularly carved.
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 18-25mm
- Line 2: 19-23mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation lines 1-2: 7-15mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Halaesa
- Provenance found
- Excavated 8 September 1970; found on the floor of the west portico, between rooms 2 and 3
- Map
Current location
- Place
- Halaesa, Italy
- Repository
- Antiquarium e sito archeologico di Halaesa , ME 20194
- Autopsy
- On display in room A of the antiquarium
- Map
Date
Statue can be dated stylistically to the late Antonine period (i.e. the 180s or 190s CE), and the text is compatible with such a date. (AD 180 - AD 199)- Evidence
- context
Text type
commentary
The statue has been carefully analysed by Portale (2009: 80-87), who highlights the association of Ceres with imperial ideology (key traits of fertility, abundance and good fortune, and associations with female members of the imperial house), and can be dated stylistically to the late Antonine period (i.e. the 180s or 190s AD). The form of the inscription is entirely compatible with such a date (the text could belong to the second or third century AD). The statue may have stood, originally, in an elevated niche in room six or seven of the portico (Portale 2009: 80 n.30), which would have facilitated the reading of the inscription. A similar, although slightly earlier, acephalous statue was found in the same area of the portico (Portale 2009: 82 fig.8) and may be associated with the dedication to Concord by another sevir (ISic000768).
The gens Acilius may be attested in another fragmentary text from the agora, ISic000801 (for the presence of the name in Sicily, see Facella 2006: 287 and 293; Prestianni Giallombardo 2012: 195 n.116).
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 175724
- EDR: 075546
- EDH: -
- EDCS: 9401430
- PHI: -
- 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 1973.0273
- G. Scibona, «Epigraphica Halaesina I», Kokalos 17 (1971): 3–20, at 19 no.9 fig.1-2
- Giacomo Manganaro, «La Sicilia da Sesto Pompeo a Diocleziano», Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2.11.1 (1988): 3–89, at 47
- G. Scibona, ‘Statuary’, in Alesa Archonidea. Guide to the Antiquarium, ed. G. Scibona and G. Tigano (Palermo: Regione Siciliana, 2008), 31, at 31 ph
- Elisa Chiara Portale, «Le sculture da Alesa», in Alaisa-Halaesa. Scavi e ricerche (1970-2007), a c. di G. Scibona e G. Tigano (Messina: Sicania, 2009), 67–92, at 80-87 fig.7
- Anna Maria Prestianni Giallombardo, «Spazio pubblico e memoria civica. Le epigrafi dall’agora di Alesa», in Agora greca e agorai di Sicilia, a c. di C. Ampolo (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2012), 171–200, at 183 fig.175
- J.R.W. Prag e G. Tigano, Alesa Archonidea: il lapidarium, Introduzione all’archeologia di Halaesa 8 (Palermo: Regione Siciliana, Assessorato beni culturali e identità siciliana, Dipartimento beni culturali e identità siciliana, 2017), at no.37
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 1/19/2021