ISic001346: Epitaph for Titos Ailios Victorinos

Apparatus criticus

Text based on photograph and previous editors;
B.1: Mommsen TITO S[-]ATAR/ae;
Walther, Amico, Torremuzza, Ferrara, Kirchhof, Ferrua, Korhonen: ἔτη ις´, μῆνες ε´; Kaibel, Wessel: ἔτη ις´ (vel ιγ´), μῆνες ε´ (vel θ´)
B.2: Walther, Amico, Torremuzza, Ferrara, Kirchhof, Ferrua, Korhonen: αὐτοῦ; Kaibel, Wessel: αὐτῶν

Physical description

Support

Description: Fragment of the lower part of a marble relief, probably belonging to a sarcophagus, with inscribed text on the moulding. The rear is smooth, with rough border projecting at the base. The feet of a person or a horse are preserved of the relief above the inscription. The surface is somewhat worn.
Object type: plaque
Material: marble
Condition: damaged
Dimensions: height: 17 cm, width: 40.5 cm, depth: 4.2 cm

Inscription

Layout

The remains of one line of Greek letters, preceded by a plain cross (which may be a later addition), are preserved on the moulding at the base of the relief.

Text condition

No data

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: 30-37mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: not recordedmm

Provenance

Place of origin: Catina
Provenance found: First observed in the Cathedral of S. Agata.
Map

Current location

Place: Catania, Italy
Repository: Museo Civico di Catania ,
Autopsy: Only a fragment was preserved after the 17th century, seen by Mommsen in Museo Biscari, who believed it was modern. Seen later by Korhonen in magazzino superiore, Collezione Biscari.
Map

Date

Later 2nd century CE or first half of 3rd century CE (AD 150 – AD 250)

Evidence: No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

Walther and Vallambert (in Cod. Vat. Lat. 6039 f. 85v) describe the relief, in which a bare-headed man with a long tunic was surrounded by two young boys, one riding a horse, the other leading another horse (the names of the boys were inscribed on the relief ΜΕΜΦΙΣ and ΔΕΚΕΝΙΟΣ, the latter written right to left). The epitaph was considered to be Christian by the editors before Ferrua because of the cross symbol before Τίτος. However, the symbol has proven to be later, perhaps modern, since Vallambert in the mid-16th century did not see it. The cross may have been inscribed at a later stage to make the object “more Christian”. Apart from this, there is no other evidence for a Christian provenance of the inscription: the subject of the relief argues rather in favour of a pagan provenance of the document, as Ferrua remarks. The two naked young men near horses may refer to the Dioscuri, just as the expression ἀδελφοὶ εὐσεβεῖς may refer to another pair of brothers famous in Catania, the Pii fratres, named also in IG 14.502 = ISic001323. The grave could also have been built not by the brothers of the deceased, but “metaphorically” by the Pii fratres, that is by his mother under the protection of the divine brothers.

Korhonen favours a dating to the second half of the 2nd century CE because Titus Aelius was often adopted by freedmen after the reign of Antoninus Pius. For the expression ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ as the equivalent of sua pecunia, see IG 14.574 = ISic001393.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor