ISic001387: Fragmentary Greek inscription (funerary?)
- ID
- ISic001387
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- unknown
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text derived from Torremuzza 1769;
- line.3: Torremuzza gives no indication that anything is missing after the sigma
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Neither the material nor the form of this inscription is recorded.
- Object type
- unknown
- Material
- stone
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: cm, width: cm, depth: cm
Inscription
- Layout
- No data
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1: mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Adranon
- Provenance found
- Reported at second-hand by Torremuzza (1769), who was sent the text by Nicolaus Capretti.
Current location
Lost.
Date
A date in the period 4th — 1st century BCE seems most likely, but it is impossible to be certain in the absence of further information (400 BC – 1 BC)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
The stone is probably a funerary inscription. Franz (CIG III, 5737) proposed expanding the text as Ἀρχε[λαΐδ]ας Πολυσ[τράτου] or Πολυσ[θένευς] (i.e. “(tombstone) of Archelaidas, son of Polystratos/Polysthenes”). However, the name Ἀρχελαΐδας is not attested for Sicily, and the alternatives in Ἀρχε- known for the island mostly do not end in –ας (Ἀρχέδαμος is common; Ἀρχεθάλης, Ἀρχέλας, Ἀρχέστρατος, Ἀρχέτιμος, Ἀρχέτιος are all found). Πολύστρατος is attested once on Sicily, Πολυσθένης is rare and not known in western Greece/Sicily. Torremuzza does not indicate anything was missing after the final letter, and the rare name Πόλυς is attested in Sicily, on a vase inscription from Gela of the fifth century BC (Dubois, IGDS 142 c; = Arena, Iscr. Sic. II 23), although one would then expect Πολυος for the genitive patronymic.
It is impossible to date this text, in the absence of further information, although it is most likely to belong to the Hellenistic period.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- Printed editions
- Gabriele Lancillotto Castelli principe di Torremuzza, Siciliae et objacentium insularum veterum inscriptionum nova collectio (Panormus: Excudebat Cajetanus Maria Bentivenga, 1769), http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/books/Castelli1769, at 268 cl. 18 no. 38
- Gabriello Lancellotto Castelli Principe di Torremuzza, Siciliae et objacentium insularum veterum inscriptionum nova collectio prolegomenis et notis illustrata, et iterum cum emendationibus, & auctariis evulgata, 2nd (1st is 1769) (Palermo: typis regiis, 1784), http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/books/Castelli1784, at 287 cl. 18 no. 38
- A. Boeckh et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols (Berlin: Ex Officina Academica, 1828), at 3.5737
- 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 14.0568
- S. P. Russo, Illustrazione storico-archeologica di Adernò (Atesa, 1911), at 59-60
- J.R.W. Prag, «Epigrafia», in Museo Regionale Saro Franco di Adrano. Le Collezioni Archeologiche, a c. di Gioconda Lamagna e Nicola Franceso Neri, vol. 2, 3 voll. (Palermo: Regione siciliana, 2015), 315–30, at 317-318 no. B
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- system
- Simona Stoyanova
- Last revision
- 2/17/2022