ISic003501: Fragment of a Greek inscription

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 2015-01-15
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 2015-01-15
ID
ISic003501
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
funerary
Object type
plaque
Status
edited
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy;
  • 3: Omitted by Manganaro

Physical description

Support

Description
Fragment of grey-white marble with blue-grey veining. The right edge appears intact, broken on the other three sides. The rear of the piece preserves a double moulding along the lower edge, which is not perpendicular to the text on the obverse. The clear implication is that the stone is a piece of marble veneer that has been subsequently re-used for the inscription.
Object type
plaque
Object condition
fragment
Dimensions
height: 8.5 cm, width: 9.3 cm, depth: 1.5 cm

Material

Description
marble

Inscription

Layout
Traces of what are probably the ends of three lines of Greek letters, with irregular right margin relative to the edge of the stone.
Text condition
incomplete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Deep, simply v-cut letters, with pronounced terminal serifs.

Letter heights
Line 1-2: 19mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: 5-6mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Syracusae
Provenance found
No information on provenance is recorded, but can be assumed to be Syracusan

Current location

Place
Siracusa, Sicilia
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
Autopsy
Prag, 2015-01-15, Magazzino B, cass.14, MARPO
Map

Date

Imperial (2nd or 3rd cent CE?) (AD 100 - AD 300)
Evidence
material-context, lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

The space below the letter A in line 2 is at least 10mm, and so much more than the interlineation of lines 1-2. If the text, as seems likely, is funerary, then the single stroke visible lower right, given its relative position, could well be the tail of a concluding hedera. Manganaro publishes this on the basis of a photograph he had previously taken of the fragment in the museum stores. As such, he speculatively restores it as a reference to a victory in a contest of some sort, by someone, son of [--]σας. Given the clear evidence that the fragment is a piece of marble in later re-use, and given the number of names that end in [---]ÎœÎčÎșα, it seems far more likely that this is a fragment of a funerary inscription from the second century CE or later.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
2/18/2026