ISic001148: Funerary inscription for a family, including Nemenidas and Cleopatra

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana

ID: ISic001148
Language: Ancient Greek
Text type: funerary
Object type: plaque
Status: edited
Links: View in current site

Edition

Apparatus criticus

Text from autopsy;
d.3: Brugnone reads σεῖο to match text in line 2, autopsy reveals the epsilon is missing in line three (σῖο).;
Brugnone reads Νεμηνία, autopsy reveals Νεμινίδα

Physical description

Support

Description: Rectangular plaque of grey-brown stone, well-squared, but cut down on left side. Rear appears relatively flat, although slightly curved.
Object type: plaque
Material: stone
Condition: No data
Dimensions: height: 31 cm, width: 44.5 cm, depth: 11.5 (on right)-12 (on left) cm

Inscription

Layout: Text is divided into two bands. The top band is separated into three columns, with a thin, serifed vertical line on a slight tilt between each column of text. Each column contains three lines of Greek. The bottom band contains three lines of continuous text, although with a vacat in the first line. Large empty vacat at the bottom of the stone.
Text condition: No data
Technique: chiselled
Pigment: No data
Lettering: Use of alphas with broken mid-bar in top band, but not in bottom. Use of epsilon with arrow crossbar in top band, but not bottom (except for one instance in line 4). Use of lunate epsilon in bottom band, but not in top. Use of lunate sigma in bottom text. Serifs more pronounced in top band. In the top text, Omegas are smaller consistently than the rest of the text. Text in bottom band is carved lightly and irregularly. As Brugnone notes, it seems likely that the lower section was cut by a different hand.
Letter heights: Line 1: 16-23mm; Line 2: 17-26mm; Line 3: 19-25mm; Line 4: 9-14mm; Line 5: 10-19mm; Line 6: 11-19mm
Interlinear heights: Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Thermae Himeraeae
Provenance found: The place, date, and circumstances of the discovery are unknown, but the piece is assumed to come from Termini Imerese

Current location

Place: Termini Imerese, Italy
Repository: Museo Civico Baldassare Romano , 132
Autopsy: Antoniou, 2022-07-06. On display in Museo Civico Baldassare Romano
Map

Date

2nd — 3rd century CE (AD 101 - AD 300)

Evidence: No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

Probably belonged to a family tomb. As Brugnone notes, it is possible that the missing name at the beginning of line 1 of column 1, and the missing name at the beginning of the lower band of text, is Aristodamos, attested in the inscription as the father of Nemenidas. The missing word at the end of column 1 is an unrecoverable superlative, Brugnone suggests several possibilities: ἀπλούστατος, εὐσεβέστατος, εὐτυχέστατος, σωφρονέστατος. Given the difference in text in the bottom band, these lines were perhaps added later. These lines are written in metrical form, with the description of Cleopatra as divine in line 1 of the bottom band in iambic trimeter, and the following two lines in hexameter. Brugnone notes that these poetic lines are very similar to the phrase "sit tibi terra levis" common in Latin funerary epigraphy, but that it can also be found in Greek contexts as well. It is possible that Nemenidas and Cleopatra are the parents of the poet, Aristodamos Nemenidas Persios, honoured in ISic001135 also at Thermae Himeraeae. Brugnone even posits the hypothesis that this Aristodamos may have even written the verse inscribed on this plaque. Aristodamos is a name attested elsewhere in Sicily. The name Cleopatra, very frequently attested, is unsurprisingly linked to Hellenistic Egypt, but also has one other attestation in Thermae Himeraeae ISic000100

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

Last revision

8/23/2023