ISic003204: I.Sicily inscription 003204

Photo R.J.A. Wilson 2009
ID
ISic003204
Language
Latin
Text type
honorific
Object type
block
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text controlled against photograph ;
  • 1: Gentili: C·F·C...
  • 2: Gentili: traces of three letters after SEPVL, implying TAR; Manganaro: Sepulla [- - pa-]
  • 3: Gentili: TR(?)...; Manganaro: -tri [pientissimo]

Physical description

Support

Description
A large slab or block of limestone, broken across the lower and right sides.
Object type
block
Material
limestone
Condition
damaged
Dimensions
height: 60 cm, width: 90 cm, depth: 44 cm

Inscription

Layout
Vacat at top followed by parts of three lines of Latin letters, seemingly centred on the stone.
Text condition
incomplete
Letter heights
Line 1-3: 90mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Syracusae
Provenance found
Found during excavations in 1949-50 along the course of the via F.S. Cavallari, apparently in re-use in the remains of the ancient road leading to the monumental Roman arch south of the amphitheatre
Map

Current location

Place
Siracusa, Italy
Repository
Area archeologica della Neapolis, Orecchio di Dionisio e Teatro Greco
Autopsy
Photographed by Wilson 2009 in the archaeological park near the amphitheatre.
Map

Date

Early Augustan (Gentili) (50 BC – 1 BC)
Evidence
No data

Text type

honorific

commentary

Given the form and monumentality of the stone, an honorific seems marginally more likely than a funerary text, and in turn TR... at the start of line three seems most likely to be the start of 'Tribuno militum', and not the continuation of 'patri' from the previous line as suggested by Manganaro. The shape of the final letter on line 1 seems more favourable to Manganaro's suggestion of Q than Gentili's reading of C. The Quirina tribe is well attested on Sicily. The traces in line two seem only to be resolvable as SEPVLLA and the final trace is compatible with E, to give the necessary dative ending for the cognomen, centred on the stone. Sepulla does not however seem to be otherwise attested as a cognomen. If the suggestion of tribunus militum in line 3 is plausible, this becomes a rare addition to the attested evidence for former soldiers in the coloniae of Sicily, and the stone's form and location would suggest a text from the early years of the colonia. Compare the inscriptions from Termini Imerese, ISic000094, ISic000095, ISic000096, ISic000098.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
3/29/2022