ISic003473: Funerary monument of (?)Simylos

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 2018-07-05

ID: ISic003473
Status: edited
Language: Ancient Greek
Object type: funerary monument
Text type: funerary

Edition

Apparatus criticus

1: Manganaro: [Σ?]ιμ̣ύλου
2: Manganaro: [Κ]αλλιπίδα

Physical description

Support

Description: A quadrangular base, with a moulding around the lower edge, and the socket for a cylindrical column in the upper surface. The block is damaged on all sides, but parts of each face are preserved, showing that the moulding ran round all four sides, and only the front face was engraved. The block is most likely not a column capital, as suggested by Manganaro, but the base of an epitymbia style funerary monument. The inscribed face is preserved to a maximum width of 47cm. Dimensons recorded include the moulding, which projects c.5cm on each face. The stone appears to be the local breccia.
Object type: funerary monument
Object condition: damaged
Dimensions: height: 25 cm, width: 70 cm, depth: 68 cm

Material

Description: stone
Type > subtype: stone.unspecified > unspecified

Inscription

Layout: Two lines of large Greek letters across the face above the moulding, of which the beginnings and ends are lost.
Text condition: incomplete
Technique: chiselled
Pigment: No data
Lettering: Plain square letters of regular size without serifs. Mu has vertical first and last, midstrokes descending almost to the line; Alpha appears to have straight bar. Pi has equal length hastae, with overlapping top bar.
Letter heights: Line 1-2: 50mm
Interlinear heights: Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Haluntium
Provenance found: Record as a casual find on via Colombo, which traverses the upper part of the hill on which the modern town stands, not far below the summit.. Now on display in the town museum.
Map

Current location

Place: S. Marco d'Alunzio, Sicilia
Repository: Museo della cultura e delle Arti Figurative Bizantine e Normanne; 2
Autopsy: Prag, April 2006
Map

Date

later hellenistic (200 BCE - 1 BCE)

Evidence: lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

The name Simylos is attested at Tauromenion and Akrai in the Hellenistic period, making it the most likely restoration of the name in line 1 (although one might note that both Κωμύλος (Catania) and Μύλος (Monte Saraceno) are also attested on the island). The piece appears to be part of an epitymbion funerary monument, of a type common in Hellenistic Sicily, including along the north coast of the island (e.g. at Cefalu).

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

SEG at (1999), 49.1272
Giacomo Manganaro, Sikelika: studi di antichità e di epigrafia della Sicilia greca, Biblioteca di QUCC 8 (Pisa, Roma: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici internazionali, 1999), at 42 no.22 fig.97

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

Last revision

12/8/2025