ISic001370: Epitaph for Tychemos
- ID
- ISic001370
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- plaque
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text based on photograph;
- line.2: lapis: Τύχημος (i.e. Τύχιμος); Ferrua: Εὐτυχήμος (i.e. Εὐθυδήμος); Amico: Τύχηλλος
- line.4: Kirchhoff: Ἰ[α]νυαρίων; Kaibel, Wessel, Korhonen: Ἰενυαρίων
- lines.8-9: Wessel and Korhonen read two Christograms
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Marble plaque with rounded corners, set in plaster in modern times.
- Object type
- plaque
- Material
- marble
- Condition
- complete, broken
- Dimensions
- height: 18.5 cm, width: 21 cm, depth: 1-5 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- No data
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Lines 1-9: 10-20mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: not recordedmm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Catina
- Provenance found
- Found in 1720 (1724 according to Muratori) “ante aream coenobii S. Mariae Annunciatae”.
Current location
- Place
- Catania, Italy
- Repository
- Museo Civico di Catania , 271
- Autopsy
- Observed by Amico in Museo San Nicolò l’Arena, later by Korhonen in Magazzino del Cortile, Collezione dei Benedettini (formerly sala VI 79).
- Map
Date
4th century CE (AD 301 – AD 400)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
This Christian epitaph does not present the ἐνθάδε κεῖται formula, but directly the date of death expressed by the aorist of τελευτάω and the age of the deceased with the participle ζήσας. This is followed by the indication of the purchase of the tomb (with the aorist of ἀγοράζω) by the deceased, for him and his descendants (ἠδίοις is an hypercorrection): for the reference to the descendants in pagan and Christian epitaphs in Catania, see IG 14.563 = ISic001382, SEG XVII 440 = ISic001628. On καλὸν βίον ζήσας/βιώσας, see also IGUR 2.626. The name of the deceased, Τύχημος (probably Τύχιμος), is not otherwise attested; Ferrua’s reading is palaeographically improbable (furthermore, Εὐτύχημος is not attested in imperial age, see BCH 45 (1921) p. 19 III, 101 from Kythera, 3rd cent. BCE), as well as Leclercq’s reading Τύχηλλος.
Note that the text has been badly overpainted in early modern times, leading to several misleading letter forms (e.g. initial epsilon as sigma)
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 492983
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: 39101750
- PHI: 140875
- PHI: 316280
- Printed editions
- V. and Statella Amico E., Catana Ilustrata, vol. 3 (Catanae, 1741), at 269 no.13
- A. Boeckh et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols (Berlin: Ex Officina Academica, 1828), at 4.9485
- F. Ferrara, Storia di Catania sino alla fine del secolo XVIII (Catania, 1829), at 371 nο. 2
- 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 14.0551
- Antonio Ferrua, «Osservazioni sulle iscrizioni cristiane catanesi», Bollettino Storico Catanese 3 (1938): 60–74, at 69
- C. Wessel, Inscriptiones Graecae Christianae Veteres Occidentis, Inscriptiones Christianae Italiae (Bari: Edipuglia, 1989), at 853
- Antonio Ferrua, Note e giunte alle iscrizioni cristiane antiche della Sicilia (Vatican, 1989), at 117 no.445
- Kalle Korhonen, Le iscrizioni del Museo civico di Catania : storia delle collezioni, cultura epigrafica, edizione (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), at 200
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 12/22/2022