ISic002945: A gymnasiarch crowns a group of youths

Apparatus criticus

Text from autopsy;
2: Manganaro: Η[---]; lapis: traces are visible of a right-leaning vertical stroke at the end of the line, not easily compatible with Η.
9: Manganaro: line omitted by error?
10: Libertini: ΕΥ[---]
11: Libertini: Ζ[---]
15: Robert (BE): πρύτ[ανιν---]; Biondi: Ἔρυτ[ον]

Physical description

Support

Description: Part of a thick slab/plaque of offwhite marble, intact on the left side, and at the top, broken to the right and below. Part of the upper left corner is lost from the face of the stone, and there is damage to the front face across the top. The rear is worked and the main part of the rear face is slightly hollowed out, with the surface picked; there is a lightly pronounced ridge of c. 3m width at the edges, with the rear expanding outwards towards the base, with the stone thickening in a way that is not immediately explicable; however the stone itself is actually thicker at the top than at the bottom.
Object type: plaque
Material: marble
Condition: fragment
Dimensions: height: 26 cm, width: 23 cm, depth: 7.0-9.6 cm

Inscription

Layout

15 neatly carved lines of Greek letters, of which the first four are larger. There appears to be a slight vacat at the top; lines 1-3 are indented by the equivalent of 1-2 characters at most; from line 4 onwards the left indentation increases, with clear vacats after lines 5 and 6, and a fixed left margin (c.7 cm vacat) from line 7 onwards; a vacat is consistently inserted between each name in the list from line 7 onwards.

Text condition

incomplete

Technique

chiselled

Pigment

No data

Lettering

Elegant letters with minimal serifs/terminations visible on longer strokes (e.g. on tau, sigma and epsilon). Alpha has straight bar; beta has smaller upper loop, with the two loops connected without meeting the vertical; epsilon has shorter middle bar; theta is a full-size circle with a detached horizontal stroke at the centre; kappa has full length arms; mu has near vertical first and last strokes, with the middle strokes meeting a small way above the baseline; xsi is formed of vertical with three horizontals, the middle one of shorter length; omicron is full-size; pi has equal length vertical strokes; sigma has horizontal topo and bottom strokes; phi is ovoid, with vertical taller than other letters (14-15mm); omega full size, near circular, but open at the base. Traces of a secondary text include lunate epsilon (see commentary).

Types

Letter heights

Line 1-2: 11-15mm

Line 3-5: 9-12mm

Line 6-15: 7-10mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: 10mm

Interlineation line 2 to 3: 8mm

Interlineation line 3 to 15: 5-7mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Centuripae
Provenance found: Described by Libertini as a chance find (as also ) during the work to construct the road which descends from the twon adjadent to the Chiesa del Crocifisso (and specifically in the stretch of c.80m directly adjoining the church).
Map

Current location

Place: Catania, Italy
Repository: Museo di Archeologia dell'Universita di Catania , 05/103
Autopsy: Autopsy by Prag, 2016.05.12 in the archaeological collection of the University of Catania
Map

Date

2nd century BCE (200 BC - 101 BC)

Evidence: lettering

Text type

honorific

commentary

The stone records (probably under a missing eponymous magistrate, above line 1, but the space is tight for a further line) the crowning by a gymnasiarch (Euboulidas, son of ?), of a series of paides (Manganaro suggests this signifies 14 yr olds, Cordiano 14-18; in any case, pre-ephebate) for their eutaxia (organisation, discipline, manoeuvering ability) with a thureos (type of shield). A list of names follows, name + patronymic in gen, with a vacat separating the two elements. Manganaro correctly rejects the Roberts' suggestion of a different reading for last surviving line, where Η is clear, rather than Π. Dated to the second century BC primarily by letter forms (but note also the presence of iota adscript). Manganaro observes the use of eutaxias in genitive without the preposition huper. The text fits will within the context of considerable later Hellenistic prosperity in Sicily and the evidence for extensive gymnasial activity, and the military training noted with such contexts (with potential relevance also for the employment of local soldiers by the ruling Roman power at this time (see e.g. Manganaro 1963: 55 n. 31; Cordiano 1997: 54 n. 141 and especially Prag 2007).

Traces of a secondary inscription are visible on the stone on the lower left margin of the front face: principally the letters ΝΕ (lunate epsilon) at right angles to the main text, level with lines 12 and 13; traces of what may also be a Φ (Biondi) or a staurogram are also visible immediately above the other letters on the orientation of the main text. These are noted by Biondi, but not by earlier editors. As Biondi notes, they apppear to belong to a later inscription, but if so that has subsequently been worn away again.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Discussion

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor