ISic003010: I.Sicily inscription 003010

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana

ID: ISic003010
Language: Ancient Greek
Text type: dedication
Object type: block
Status: edited
Links: View in current site

Edition

Apparatus criticus

Text as in Manganaro 1977 ;
3: Cavallari: -]ΣΙΜΟΣ
4: Cavallari: -]ΤΩΝ; Kaibel: [Ἀρί]στων

Physical description

Support

Description: A block of compact limestone (colour not reported), described as 'pietra di Taormina'. Intact above, to right and below (although with some chipping to the edges, and with the upper right corner of the face lost; broken approximately in half (?) on the left side. The measurements reported by Orsi (W 29, H 32, D 26) differ slightly from those reported by Cavallari and repeated by Manganaro.
Object type: block
Material: limestone
Condition: damaged
Dimensions: height: 28 cm, width: 31 cm, depth: 23 cm

Inscription

Layout: Four lines of Greek letters; the text appears to be centred on the stone, with slight vacat below.
Text condition: incomplete
Technique: chiselled
Pigment: No data
Lettering: . Based upon the single published photograph: regularly and neatly carved fine lettters without serfis or significant terminations. Alpha has straight bar; Mu has vertical first and last, with midstrokes descending halfway; omicron is small and mid-line; sigma has diverging top and bottom strokes, the mid-strokes meeting at half width; omega is nearly full height, slightly ovoid, open with short horizontal tails. No editor records the size of the letters.
Letter heights: Line 1: mm
Interlinear heights: Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Syracusae
Provenance found: Found in November 1886, during the demolition of 16th cent. fortifications at the entrance to Ortygia.
Map

Current location

Place: Siracusa, Italy
Repository: Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 6288
Autopsy: None
Map

Date

4th century or 3rd century BCE based on the letters. (400 BC - 201 BC)

Evidence: lettering

Text type

dedication

commentary

Wrongly attributed to Tauromenium in SEG (presumably due to a misreading of the reference to the type of stone). The text was published twice in NSA, firstly by Fiorelli/Cavallari, on the basis of a squeeze taken by Cavallari, and subsequently by Orsi, based upon autopsy (with a transcription by hand recorded in the first of his Taccuini). In Orsi's transcription, the remains of upsilon at the start of line 4 is clearly indicated, but omitted by Fiorelli/Cavallari. Kaibel's reading of στων for the final line appears to be based upon the unsatisfactory published version of Orsi's transcription in NSA 1889. Manganaro's correction back to Υ in 1977 is correct, unaware of Orsi's original reading. The trace is visible in the photograph in Manganaro 1977. The restoration of [Ἀγαθῶ]ι goes back to Kaibel; of [--κλ]εος to Manganaro. Manganaro notes that a name such as Κρύτων or Βρύτων might stand at the end of line 4; but a relative pronoun in the genitive plural is surely at least as plausible.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

Last revision

11/3/2022