ISic001660: Lilybaeum honours Diognetos Megas as euergetes

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ID
ISic001660
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
honorific
Object type
plaque
Status
draft
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • text checked against photograph

Physical description

Support

Description
Although consistently described as marble in publications, the stone is a compact limestone, not a marble, in the form of a thick slab/plaque. The stone has suffered light damage to the edges, especially the right side; the final line is almost entirely worn away, as are some of the letters on the left.
Object type
plaque
Object condition
complete
Dimensions
height: 42 cmwidth: 70 cmdepth: 20.5 cm

Material

Description
limestone

Inscription

Layout
No data
Text condition
complete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Regular and neat letters, thinly incised, all of equal height, and slightly variable width, without serifs. Alpha with broken bar, beta with closed loops (upper slightly smaller), Mu has full length slanting strokes; omicron full size; sigma has horizontal top and bottom, middle strokes taking the full width; rhomboid omega.

Letter heights
Line 1-5: 25mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Lilybaeum
Provenance found
Found in the 1939 excavations of the domus romana in insula 1 of Capo Boeo, in the collapse in the frigidarium of the baths subsequently constructed in the domus (and so in secondary deposition)
Map

Current location

Place
Marsala, Sicilia
Repository
Museo archeologico regionale Lilibeo Marsala - Baglio Anselmi , 4489
Autopsy
Observed on display by Metcalfe, 2015-04-18
Map

Date

2nd or 1st century BCE (as late as early Augustan acc. to Wilson and Manni Piraino; but Manni Piraino also suggests 2nd century BCE). The form of the letters might imply an earlier date in this range (200 BC - 1 BC)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

honorific

commentary

This man is the father of one Marcus Valerius Chorton, honours for whom are recorded in two lost inscriptions (one from Mazara, one from Marsala), preserved in the antiquarian tradition (ISic001096 = IG XIV.273) and ISic001097 = IG XIV.277). The inscription is a rare (for Sicily) attestation of an individual honoured as euergetes (benefactor).

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
2/23/2026