ISic001648: Epitaph for Theodoule (?)

Apparatus criticus

• Text based on photograph and on Korhonen's edition;
• line.1: Agnello: ἔν[θαδε κῖτε]
  
• lines.1-2: Agnello: δούλη [τοῦ Θεοῦ]; Ferrua: [Θεο-]|δούλη [ζήσασα ἔτη κ]; Korhonen: [Θεο-]|δούλη [---]; also ἡ δούλη τοῦ [θεοῦ] (short name) is possible, such as in IG 14.549 = ISic001368
  
• line.3: Ferrua 1982-83: [γεννηθεῖσα]; Ferrua 1989: τελευτᾶι [γεννηθεῖσα]; Korhonen: τελευτο[ῦσα ἐτῶν ---· ἐγεννήθη]
  
• line.4: Ferrua 1938, Agnello, Korhonen: μὲν τῆι ὑπ(ατείαι) [Ἀυρηλιανοῦ Αὐγ(ούστου) τὸ β καὶ Κλαυδί-]|ου Καπιτω[λείνου τῶν λαμπ(ροτάτων); Ferrua 1982-83, 1989: μὲν τῆι ὑπ[ατίαι Κεσαρί]ου κ. Ἀττικοῦ
  
• line.5: Agnello: [ἀποθανοῦσα δὲ]; Ferrua 1989: [κυμιθῖσα δὲ]; Korhonen: ἐτελεύτησε (?) δὲ (ἐκοιμήθη δὲ is also possible)
  
• line.6: Orsi: Νω[εμβρίων]; Ferrua 1989: τῆι πρ(ὸ) ς Νων[ῶν Μαείων]
  
• lines.7-8: Ferrua 1938: [με]τὰ τὴν ὑπα[τίαν Διοκλη]τια(νοῦ) κ. Κουσ[ταντίου τὸ β]; Agnello: [Διοκλη-]|τια(νοῦ) κ(αὶ) Κου[σταντίου; De Grassi (ap. Ferrua); Ferrua 1982-83, 1989, Korhonen: [με]τὰ τῆν ὑπα[τ. Ὁνωριου Αὐγ.] τὸ ια κ(αὶ) Κουσ[ταντίου τὸ β]

Physical description

Support

Description

Marble plaque damaged on the right, traces of reuse on the rear. The text is inside an engraved tabula ansata.

Object type

plaque

Material

marble

Condition

fragment

Dimensions

height: 40 cm, width: 37 cm, depth: 3.2 cm

Inscription

Layout

No data

Text condition

No data

Lettering

Letter heights

Lines 1-8: 20-30mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: not recordedmm

Provenance

Place of origin

Catina

Provenance found

Found in a cemetery close to the now-demolished Chiesa di San Clemente.

Current location

Place

Catania, Italy

Repository

Museo Civico di Catania , 312

Autopsy

Observed by Orsi in Museo Civico, later by Korhonen in Magazzino del cortile, Museo Civico (formerly sala VI 123).

Map

Date

Evidence

internal-date

Text type

funerary

commentary

The epitaph is extremely damaged, so the identification of the deceased is doubtful. According to Ferrua and Korhonen, the deceased is a woman named Theodoule, a frequent name in Christian inscriptions from Sicily and from Catania in particular (see also SEG 46.1261 = ISic001423 and Korhonen 2004: 80). Another possibility is to read at l. 2 δούλη [τοῦ θ(εο)ῦ, as Agnello did, and hypothesize a short name after the epithet as in IG 14.549 = ISic001368. Δοῦλος / δούλη τοῦ Θεοῦ is an epithet that frequently recurs in Christian inscriptions from Sicily, see e.g. ILipara 788 = ISic002833 and ILipara 789 = ISic002876.

Another problem is raised by the presence of a double date, which is indeed not uncommon in Christian inscriptions, see IG 14.525 = ISic000964. Ferrua in 1938 assumed a date of birth during the second consulate of Aurelian and Claudius Capitolinus (274 CE) and a date of death during the second consulate of Diocletianus and Constantius (297 CE). If accepted, this would be the oldest dated inscription in Sicily. If the first supplement at ll. 4-5 is quite convincing (at l. 5 Καπιτω is certain), the last supplement is more dubious, because of the unusual abbreviation of the name Διοκλη]τια(νοῦ) and the omission of the number of his consulate. Furthermore, the consular date, not typical in the paleo-Christian inscriptions, and the palaeography do not argue in favour of dating the inscription to the 3rd cent. CE. Therefore, Korhonen (whose text is adopted here) accepts the supplement at ll. 7-8 proposed by Ferrua himself later in 1982-83 and suggested to him already in 1938 by De Grassi, establishing the date of death of the deceased at the eleventh consulship of Honorius and the second of Constantius. However, the best supplement at ll. 4-5 still remains the one suggested by Ferrua in 1938, which sets the date of birth in 274 CE: the scholar, therefore, hypothesises an error by the stonecutter, who would have mistaken the date of birth of the deceased.

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 645087
• EDR: -
• EDH: -
• EDCS: -
• PHI: 316250
• PHI: 331399

Printed editions

• Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Istituto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell’arte (Italy), e Reale Accademia d’Italia, «Notizie degli scavi di antichità», Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1876, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1646037, at 223
• ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 36.0840
• Antonio Ferrua, «Osservazioni sulle iscrizioni cristiane catanesi», Bollettino Storico Catanese 3 (1938): 60–74, at 61-63
• S.L. Agnello, Silloge di iscrizioni paleocristiane della Sicilia (Rome, 1953), at no.87
• Antonio Ferrua, «Le iscrizioni datate della Sicilia paleocristiana», Kokalos 28–29 (1983 1982): 3–29, at 9 no.19 = 15 no.46
• Antonio Ferrua, Note e giunte alle iscrizioni cristiane antiche della Sicilia (Vatican, 1989), at 109-110 no.415a
• Kalle Korhonen, Le iscrizioni del Museo civico di Catania : storia delle collezioni, cultura epigrafica, edizione (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), at 167

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• Marta Fogagnolo
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Alex Antoniou
• Simona Stoyanova
• system

Last revision

12/22/2022