ISic003334: Funerary inscription for Xenokritos son of Hephaistokles, of Massalia

Apparatus criticus

line.2: Orsi 1915 and in the museum inventory read the final two letters of line 2, now no longer visible on the stone.
line.3: A trace is visible on the stone of the upper right of the initial M

Physical description

Support

Description: A limestone block, intact and finished on the front, left, right and rear faces. The upper surface is uneven, although there is a clear margin at the top edge, suggesting that another stone originally stood on top of this one. The stone is broken across the bottom.
Object type: stele
Material: limestone
Condition: No data
Dimensions: height: 31.2 cm, width: 36.3 cm, depth: 29 cm

Inscription

Layout

Three lines of Greek text engraved across the full width of the front face. The third line is slightly smaller than the first two. There is damage to the left margin of all three lines, and across the lower edge of the third line. The face is weathered and the letters are faint, especially at the end of the second line.

Text condition

No data

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: 35mm

Line 2: 35-37mm

Line 3: 30mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: 13-15mm

Interlineation line 2 to 3: 15mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Syracusae
Provenance found: Found in May 1915 by Orsi in the
Map

Current location

Place: Siracusa, Italy
Repository: Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 36613
Autopsy: basement corridor
Map

Date

3rd century BCE (letter forms) (300 BC – 200 BC)

Evidence: No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

The stone was lost at some point after 1929 when it was mentioned in Libertini's guide to the old museum. Manganaro was unable to find it in the early 1990s. The patronym Ἡφαιστοκλῆς is rare: LGPN records two instances from Athens, one from Kolophon in Ionia, one from Istros in Scythia, and four from Lycia (Myra and Olympos) ( http://clas-lgpn2.classics.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/lgpn_search.cgi?namenoaccents=ΗΦΑΙΣΤΟΚΛΗΣ). The name perhaps supports the observations of L. Robert regarding the presence of Ionian elements among Massaliote names, and especially the prevalence of theophoric compound names (Robert, L. 1968. Noms de personnes et civilisation grecque, I. Noms de personnes dans Marseille grecque. Journal des Savants, année 1968, 197-213 [DOI: 10.3406/jds.1968.1181] = Opera Minora Selecta ,VII (Amsterdam 1990), 141-57 = Choix d'écrits (ed. D. Rousset, Paris 2007), 131-44; cf. Mullen, A. 2013. Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean. Multilingualism and Multiple Identities in the Iron Age and Roman Periods (Cambridge), 137-143). The name Ξενόκριτος on the other hand is very common, but principally in Delphi and Thessaly, with only a single western instance attested, from Lokroi Epizephyrioi in the archaic period.

Xenokritos is not by any means the only Massaliote known at Syracuse or in Sicily. Orsi 1915 speculates on a merchant. Manganaro 1992 links this text to wide range of other material, both coinage and epigraphic attestations of Massaliotes, with further discussion in Manganaro, G. (1994). Massalia-Sardegna-Sicilia: la rotta commerciale in epoca ellenistica. Le ravitaillement en blé de Rome et des centres urbains des débuts de la République jusqu'au Haut Empire (Actes du colloque international de Naples 1991) (Naples-Rome), 261-265.

Bibliography

Digital editions

TM: 645582
EDR: -
EDH: -
EDCS: -
PHI: -

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor