ISic000805: Fragmentary latin inscription mentioning a proconsul

Photo J. Prag
ID
ISic000805
Language
Latin
Text type
honorific
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
View in current site

Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy (Prag)

Physical description

Support

Description
A fragment of a pinkish marble slab, chiselled on the rear. Part of the right margin is preserved, but the stone is broken on all other sides.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble (pink)
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 26 cm, width: 31 cm, depth: 4-4.5 cm

Inscription

Layout
No data
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1-3: 50mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Halaesa
Provenance found
Excavated 9 September 1970, on the pavement near the entrance to room 2 of the west portico of the agora
Map

Current location

Place
Halaesa, Italy
Repository
Antiquarium e sito archeologico di Halaesa , ME 20228
Autopsy
On display.
Map

Date

3rd century CE (AD 201 – AD 300)
Evidence
No data

Text type

honorific

commentary

The text is an honorific for an individual of proconsular rank, since the titles proconsul and clarissimus vir and the epithet optimo all appear in the dative. The curve of a letter is visible at the end of line 1 on the break (not noted by the original editor) and while this could in theory be a C, in context it must be an O (as Manganaro noted). Since there is space for no more than one more letter at the edge of the stone, this is presumably the end of a name in –idius, followed by a blank space. The traces at the start of line 3 cannot be resolved with certainty; Manganaro suggested [Halaes]ịṇị, as those responsible for the honorific, although such a phrase might be expected at the end of the text and the ethnic in the genitive plural (after e.g. res publica or similar). Manganaro also plausibly suggested that optimo was followed in the next line by civi ac patrono, i.e. ‘excellent citizen and patron’, which would make the honorand a citizen of Halaesa who had achieved high imperial office. As Scibona observed, the form of the letters (and the use of the term clarissimus vir) place this text in the third (or fourth) century.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions
  • AE at 1973.0274 Zotero FAIR
  • G. Scibona, «Epigraphica Halaesina I», Kokalos 17 (1971): 3–20, at 20 no.10 fig.3 Zotero FAIR
  • Manganaro (1988) at 88 no.37 n.490 Zotero FAIR
  • A. Facella, Alesa Arconidea: ricerche su un’antica città della Sicilia tirrenica (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2006), at 294 Zotero FAIR
  • G. Scibona, ‘The Epigraphs’, in Alesa Archonidea. Guide to the Antiquarium, ed. G. Scibona and G. Tigano (Palermo: Regione Siciliana, 2008), 25–27, at 27 ph Zotero FAIR
  • 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 184 fig.178 Zotero FAIR
  • 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.33 Zotero FAIR

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
1/19/2021