ISic002032: Fragment of monumental Greek inscription
Edition
Loading...
Apparatus criticus
- Text from autopsy;
- 1: Orsi: ΠΙΣΤ; lapis: the initial vertical does not join the upper horizontal, and the spacing is too narrow for Π, whereas the upper bar of the Τ is simply lost on the right
- 3: Trace of a horizontal forming the upper part of a letter such as Γ, Τ, Î
Physical description
Support
- Description
- A large thick fragment of a slab of the local soft off-white limestone. Partially intact across the top, but broken on the other three sides. Roughly cut flat on the reverse.
- Object type
- plaque
- Object condition
- fragment
- Dimensions
- height: 24 cm, width: 19.3 cm, depth: 7.5 cm
Material
- Description
- limestone
- Type > subtype
- stone.unspecified > unverified
Inscription
- Layout
- Traces of 3 lines of Greek letters
- Text condition
- incomplete
- Technique
- chiselled
- Pigment
- No data
- Lettering
Tall wide, plainly v-cut letters with very slight wedge serifs at the terminals.
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 75mm
- Line 2: 70-73mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: 20mm
- Interlineation line 2 to 3: 20mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Syracusae
- Provenance found
- From Epipolai, possibly recovered August 1887 (certainly no later than 1888)
Current location
- Place
- Siracusa, Sicilia
- Repository
- Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
- Autopsy
- Prag 2016-10-11, magazzino B, cassette 37
- Map
Date
Late Hellenistic? (200 BC - 1 BC)- Evidence
- lettering
Text type
commentary
The large omicron and the horizontal outer bar of the sigma suggest a date after 200 BCE, and the size of the letters suggests some sort of monumental text, but without a more detailed provenance than simply 'Epipolai', little more can be said, except that this is a rare surviving instance of public epigraphy from later Hellenistic Syracusae.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: -
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- Paolo Orsi, «Nuove esplorazioni nelle catacombe di S. Giovanni nel 1894», Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità , 1895, 477–521, at (1889), 386
- Paolo Orsi, I Taccuini. I. Riproduzione anastatica e trascrizione dei Taccuini 1-4, a c. di Gioconda Lamagna e Giuseppina Monterosso, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Monumenti Antichi. Serie Miscellanea 20 (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider Editore, 2018), at Tacc. 1, p.51
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 6/8/2026