ISic001260: Inscribed statue base for Gaius Claudius Marcellus

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo 2009-10-06
ID
ISic001260
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
honorific
Object type
base
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • text from autopsy

Physical description

Support

Description
A large quadrangular block, intact on all sides except the rear which is uneven and damaged. The surviving faces are all finished smooth. This description assumes that the inscription is on the front face and others are described relative to that from the perspective of an individual facing the inscription. The upper surface carries holes for clamps on the middle of the left and right sides. In the rear upper edge, slightly to the right of centre, and open to the broken edge behind, is a large square cavity; a second such cavity is cut into the right corner of the upper rear also, open to the rear and the right. The lower surface (previously visible when the stone was inverted in storage, prior to the current display) has two very large oblong footholes for a statue situated towards diagonally opposed corners of the stone. It is clear that the stone has been used as a base, or part of a base, more than once, and on one occasion inverted in relation to the other. Muscolino argues that the footholes on the base are of a size suggesting an equestrian statue, and that the block must have either been cut down since that use, or part of a larger multi-block monument; and he further speculates that the same was true for the base when used for Marcellus. It is impossible to know with which phase the clamp holes belong, but more likely with the use for Marcellus (and so on the upper face when used). It should further be noted (not observed by Muscolino) that the inscription is not obviously centred in relation to the block, strongly encouraging the view that the block, when used to honour Marcellus, was part of a larger base/monument (whether bearing an equestrian statue or otherwise). See further in the commentary below.
Object type
base
Material
breccia
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 33 cm, width: 92.8 cm, depth: 81 cm

Inscription

Layout
The text is laid out over two lines, off-centre, with the first line set 2-3 letters in from the left margin, the second, longer line c.4 letters in from the left margin. A large single letter appears to sit centrally to the face of the block immediately below lines 1-2.
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1-2: 35 (but Υ 39mm, omicron as small as 28mm)mm
Line 3: 50 or moremm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Tauromenium
Provenance found
Found, together with ISic001259 in March 1770 during work to expand the convent of Santa Maria di Valverde on the northern side of what is now Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, on the site of the caserma dei carabinieri (see Muscolino 2009-10: 431 for detailed location). This is the same area from which come two other honorific bases found in situ in excavation in 1978, in proximity to the likely bouleuterion of the later Hellenistic town.
Map

Current location

Place
Taormina, Italy
Repository
Antiquarium del Teatro Antico , 2
Autopsy
Prag April 2006
Map

Date

79 BCE (79 BC – 79 BC)
Evidence
prosopography

Text type

honorific

commentary

The individual commemorated is presumably C. Claudius M.f. Marcellus who was praetor with proconsular imperium in Sicily in 79 BCE (RE Claudius no.214). The use of the nominative is notable, since it is less common on honorific inscriptions in Greek (see J. Ma, Statues and cities : honorific portraits and civic identity in the Hellenistic world (Oxford 2013), pp. 21-23), especially in the later Hellenistic period and for those other than gods, exceptional individuals, and athletes. Its use in family monuments is perhaps worth noting (see Ma, pp. 167-168), when we consider the unusual placing of the text in relation to the stone, the fact that the block appears to be part of a larger monument, and the much disputed nature of what appears to be a large letter 'gamma' in the third line, centrally placed below the text. Muscolino (2009-10, at pp. 421-423) suggests that it is not a true letter, but both strokes appear quite genuine. In the context of a potentially large monument, and Cicero's evidence for the existence of statues honouring multiple members of the Marcelli in several cities (Cic. Verr 2.4.86; The Marcellan relationship with the island, often classed as patronal, goes back to the conquest of Syracuse by M. Claudius Marcellus in the Second Punic War), it is perhaps worth reconsidering Manganaro's suggestion, 1979, p.443, that the 'gamma' serves as a numeral (although he thought this signified multiple bases to the same individual), and that this was part of a large monument commemorating multiple members of the family who had held power on the island.

It is worth comparing the variety in the formulation of the four bases from this part of Tauromenion. The base for Nymphodoros son of Philistion (ISic003124) is the only example at Tauromenion to employ the full formula dedicating the honorand in the accusative to the divine in the dative (in this case 'all the gods', which is encountered with some frequency in Hellenistic Sicily, especially along the north coast of the island). The base for Nymphodoros son of Eukleides (ISic003125) employs the same accusative formulation, but without the dative dedication to a divinity, or the reflexive phrase τᾶς εἰς αὑτὸν, in similar fashion to the base for Olympis son of Olympis (ISic001259) which substitutes his Pythian victory as the reason, rather than his goodwill to the city). The base for Marcellus as noted simply presents the name of the Roman governor in the nominative.

Bibliography

Digital editions
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Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
8/6/2024