ISic000820: Fragment of a base or altar, which mentions an aedes

Apparatus criticus

Text of Prag, based on autopsy ;
Line.3: Manganaro (1961) 131 asserted that "nella linea 3 la quarta lettera é sicuramente i, mentre la lett. successiva poteva essere n, in margine alla quale si sia verificata la rottura della pietra", and proposed the name Cari[nus]. The fourth letter is quite clearly an E: the curvature and erosion of the stone mean that the upper and middle bars of the E are very faint, but the lower bar is absolutely clear. The traces which Manganaro suggested were compatible with N at the end of the same line appear rather to belong to a letter R, in a superscript position following the D in line 4, as is more clearly visible at the end of line 5.
Line.6: Manganaro did not comment on the traces of one or more letters visible below line 5. The remaining traces are most readily compatible with M or N.

Physical description

Support

Description: An irregular fragment of grey limestone (perhaps from the south bank of the Simeto river), broken on all sides, with only parts of the front and rear faces preserved. The rear presents a regular surface, picked rather than smooth. The front has the remains of a recessed panel, with part of the left margin preserved proud of the surface. The surface of the panel is lightly curved, in convex fashion along the horizontal plane, suggesting a cylindrical shape for the original block/monument from which the fragment derives.
Object type: altar
Material: limestone
Condition: No data
Dimensions: height: , width: , depth:

Inscription

Layout

The inscribed panel is 0.115 m high at the left margin and has a maximum preserved height of 0.14 m, reducing to c. 0.095 m on the right margin; the maximum preserved width of the panel is 0.12 m. The inscription, of which traces of 6 lines are visible, is set out in the recessed panel. Part of the left margin of the text is preserved, but the full extent of the text is unknown, probably continuing above, right and below.

Text condition

No data

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: incompletemm

Line 2: 21mm

Line 3: 23-25mm

Line 4: 25mm

Line 5: 26mm

Line 6: incompletemm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: 10mm

Interlineation line 2 to 3: 7-9mm

Interlineation line 3 to 4: 13mm

Interlineation line 4 to 5: 8mm

Interlineation line 5 to 6: 10mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Adranon
Provenance found: Found during construction work for an irrigation cistern in 1959, within the so-called Dionysian walls, in contrada Mola,
Map

Current location

Place: Adrano, Italy
Repository: Museo Archeologico Regionale di Adrano , 11701
Autopsy: Not currently on display; in the local offices of the soprintendenza
Map

Date

2nd century CE (AD 101 – AD 200)

Evidence: lettering, textual-context

Text type

No data

commentary

The text makes reference to an aedes (‘temple’, or ‘shrine’), and to something being done at the personal expense (sua pecunia) of the individual responsible for the text or being honoured in the text. These two elements suggest that the inscription referred to an act of building / euergetism related to the construction, repair, or decoration of the aedes. Given the curving form of the fragment, the suggestion by MANGANARO (1961, p.131) that this might be part of a cylindrical altar is appealing, although part of a statue base or other monument is no less plausible. The preserved section of the rear face suggests that this was either a relief monument, or a hollow cylindrical one.

The rarity of words beginning care- suggests that line 3 begins with the continuation of a word such as aedificare from the previous line. There is no obvious parallel for the form DR. Given its position in the text, seemingly near the end, and separated by the unusual double interpunct, it is reasonable to treat it as an unusual form of abbreviation of the very frequent D(ecreto) D(ecurionum), i.e. D(ec)r(eto) D(ecu)r(ionum) (so already MANGANARO 1961, p. 131). There is no reason to think that the letters were added later (as was suggested by MANGANARO who did not note the second example at the end of line 4), since this is already an atypical form of abbreviation, and there is nothing about the engraving to suggest the letters are by a different hand.

If the letters DR DR are expanded as decreto decurionum, then this text may attest to the status of Hadranum in the imperial period as being that of a Latin municipium, but no certainty is possible (for the problems of municipal status in imperial period Sicily, see (inter alia), D. Vera, "Augusto, Plinio il Vecchio e la Sicilia in età imperiale. A proposito di recenti scoperte epigrafiche e archeologiche ad Agrigento", Kokalos 42 (1996), 31-58 and J. R. W. Prag, "Sicilia Romana tributim discripta", in M. Silvestrini (ed.), Le tribu romane. Atti della XVIe rencontre sur l'épigraphie (Bari 8-10 ottobre 2009) (Bari 2010), 305-311.

This is the only surviving inscription in Latin from the ancient site of Adranum.

Bibliography

Digital editions

TM: 521012
EDR: -
EDH: -
EDCS: 13400138
PHI: -

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor