ISic000980: Epitaph for Paula

Apparatus criticus

• The text is lightly engraved, and Kaibel's text is based upon a cursory autopsy by Mommsen ('Descripsit festinans, ut ipse ait, Mommsen'); and many of the corrections gaps or other omissions in Kaibel's text are in fact not a true reflection of what is on the stone (see already the better, but previously unpublished, reading of Orsi). ;
• line.2: Kaibel: ΖΗΙΑΣ; Orsi: ΖΗΓΑΕ.
  
• line.3: Kaibel: ΛΝΕΛΙΙ; Orsi: ΑΝΕΑΥΤΕ
  
• line.4: Kaibel: bΙΟΝ; Kaibel: ΚΑΛ////
  
• line.5: Kaibel: ·Τ//ΠΑ
  
• line.6: Kaibel: ΑΡΙΟ\ΙΟΥΡΙΤΗ////; Orsi: ΑΡΤΑΛΟΥΡΙΟΥ; Ferrua: ΑΡΤΑΒΟΥΡΙΟΥ
  
• line.7: Orsi: ΑΜΠΡΟΤΑΤΩΝ

Physical description

Support

Description

A tablet of white limestone, intact on all four sides, roughly chiselled on the reverse. Traces of plaster on the edges.

Object type

plaque

Material

limestone

Condition

complete

Dimensions

height: 24 cm, width: 35.5 cm, depth: 5 cm

Inscription

Layout

Seven lines of Greek letters, with traces of red paint. Lines 1-3 are more formally / monumentally carved, from line four onwards the carving is lighter and less carefully laid out, rising to the right.

Text condition

complete

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1-3: 15-26mm

Line 4-7: 10-22mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 7: 0-17mm

Provenance

Place of origin

Syracusae

Provenance found

From the , date of discovery not recorded (already in the inventory as of 1885).

Map

Current location

Place

Siracusa, Italy

Repository

Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 100

Autopsy

Prag, 2018-09-10

Map

Date

Evidence

internal-date

Text type

funerary

commentary

The text was also seen and transcribed by Orsi in the first of his Taccuini, in later 1888. Ferrua already correctly read the name of the consul of 427 CE in line 6 (PLRE II, Ardabur 3), observing that the variant in Arta- is well attested (for Latin Ardabur, Greek Ἀρδαβούριος).

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 492606
• EDR: -
• EDH: -
• EDCS: 39102133
• PHI: 140457

Printed editions

• G. Kaibel, Inscriptiones Graecae Siciliae et Italiae, additis graecis Galliae Hispaniae, Britanniae, Germaniae inscriptionibus, Inscriptiones Graecae consilio et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae Editae. Volumen XIV., XIV (Berlin: Georgius Reimerus, 1890), at 14.0159
• ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 36.0875
• C. Wessel, Inscriptiones Graecae Christianae Veteres Occidentis, Inscriptiones Christianae Italiae (Bari: Edipuglia, 1989), at 675
• Paolo Orsi, I Taccuini. I. Riproduzione anastatica e trascrizione dei Taccuini 1-4, a c. di Gioconda Lamagna e Giuseppina Monterosso, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Monumenti Antichi. Serie Miscellanea 20 (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider Editore, 2018), at Tacc. 1, p. 78

Discussion

• Antonio Ferrua, «Le iscrizioni datate della Sicilia paleocristiana», Kokalos 28–29 (1983 1982): 3–29, at 18 no.57

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Simona Stoyanova
• Valentina Mignosa
• system

Last revision

6/11/2021