ISic002995: Inscribed altar or statue base

Apparatus criticus

Text based upon autopsy;
line.1: Orsi: [Ἐπὶ ?]; Manganaro: [ἐ]..;
line.7: Orsi: Ἀράθων

Physical description

Support

Description: A quadrangular base of off-white limestone, with a moulding running around all four sides of the bottom edge (now lost on the left side). The upper part of the base is lost. All four sides are smoothly finished, and the front side preserves a Greek inscription of at least 6 lines.
Object type: altar
Material: limestone
Condition: damaged
Dimensions: height: 36 cm, width: 54.5 (49.7 excluding the moulding) cm, depth: 40.5 (35.7 excluding the moulding) cm

Inscription

Layout

The inscribed face is maximum 0.26 m high and 0.497 m wide. The text is extremely irregular and uneven in its layout, with letters of varying size and the horizontal of the lines very erratic. The text appears to observe the left margin with some consistency, but is extremely irregular on the right. The full height of the face is employed: the final line is squeezed.

Text condition

incomplete

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: incompletemm

Line 2: 20-30mm

Line 3: 20-23 (phi is 35)mm

Line 4: 17-35mm

Line 5: 17-28 (omicron is 10)mm

Line 6: 17-25mm

Line 7: 20-30mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: 8mm

Interlineation line 2 to 3: 15-20mm

Interlineation line 3 to 4: 0-13mm

Interlineation line 4 to 5: 0-10mm

Interlineation line 5 to 6: 0-35mm

Interlineation line 6 to 7: 0-10mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Adranon
Provenance found: Found by Orazio Cavallaro in 1896, predio del cav. Reale, contrada Ardichella, on the north side of Mendolito, approx. 5km NNW of modern Adrano; subsequently passed to the Reale family in 1906, and acquired by the museum in 1957 (gift of the Reale family).
Map

Current location

Place: Adrano, Italy
Repository: Museo Archeologico Regionale di Adrano , 11647
Autopsy: When studied in 2015 was in the depositi of the Parco archeologico della Valle del Simeto, Adrano
Map

Date

Perhaps 3rd or earlier 2nd century BCE (300 BC – 150 BC)

Evidence: lettering

Text type

dedication

commentary

Traces of at least two letters are visible at the upper left of the inscribed face (vertical strokes only), with room for one or two letters preceding. Empty space follows, but there may be traces of further letters to the upper right. It is impossible to know how much has been lost from the top of the block. Confusion in some transcriptions regarding the final letter of line 4 (Εὐπολέμου sometimes read as Εὐπολέμον) is the result of a scratch or unintentional stroke on the stone, which is not part of the final letter.

The names are all very common, attested across the Greek world and in Sicily, with the exception of Νεμήνιος, which is distinctively Sicilian (13 out of 16 known instances are Sicilian (add the example at Halaesa in SEG 59.1100 to the 15 in LGPN).

The priestly position of ἱεροθύτης (hierothytes) is also attested in Agrigentum (IGDS I, no.185), Malta (IG XIV, 953), Soluntum (ISic001413), Segesta (ISic001111), as well as in a recently found bronze inscription of uncertain Sicilian provenance (IGDS II, no. 76, attributed to Agrigentum). Winand (1990, p. 129-139) discusses all but the most recently found instance, and concludes that while the instance(s) at Agrigentum reflect the colonial Rhodian influence on the city, in the other cases, including Adranon, the origin of the position is likely to be Syracusan influence. The unusual Doric form ἱαροθύτης is only otherwise attested in the recently found bronze inscription (IGDS II, no. 76) and at Rhodes (C. Blinkenberg, Lindos. Fouilles et recherches, 1902-1914. Vol. II, Inscriptions, 2 vols, Copenhagen Berlin 1941, vol. I, I, nr. 26).

Already Paolo Orsi (1900, p. 42-43 nr. 1) proposed restoring the word ἐπὶ in line 1, and in this he was followed by Manganaro (1961) and Dubois (IGDS II, no.107). The two vertical strokes visible top left are compatible with this, and the word would be expected in the eponymous dating formula which the two names in the genitive of line 2 imply; the title of these two officials may or may not have appeared at the upper right. Eponymous officials without an explicit title are relatively common in Sicily, and the traces on the stone suggest a signfiicant gap, so that there is no necessary need to restore anything further after the word (see Manganaro 1961, p. 129 n. 13 for discussion of the title ἄρχοντες, and the surveys of Sicilian eponymous officials in R. Sherk, The eponymous officials of Greek cities V: the register, in ZPE, 96, 1993, pp. 267 295 and P. Di Veroli, Nuovi eponimi della Sicilia ellenistica, in ZPE , 110, 1996, pp. 309 310).

It is impossible to know whether the stone was a statue base or an altar (parallels for both altars (uninscribed) and small bases with similar texts can be found at Akrai, e.g. Bernabó Brea, Akrai (1956), p. 139-140; ISic001031, ISic001029 and esp. ISic001024). In either case, this is likely to have been a dedication to a divinity by the college of hierothytai and Manganaro (1961, p. 128 n. 9) suggested that it was an altar dedicated to the local divinity Adranos. This must remain speculation, however attractive. It is likely that the name of the deity to which it was dedicated appeared at the top of the inscription, perhaps on the, now lost, upper moulding of the stone.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor