ISic003574: Honours for Alfia
- ID
- ISic003574
- Language
- Latin
- Text type
- honorific
- Object type
- plaque
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text from autopsy
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Two joining fragments of a marble slab, cream-coloured with blue-grey veins. Part of the left margin is preserved, but the stone is broken the other three sides. The rear of both fragments is finished and smooth. The lower fragment (b) has surface accretions on the front face that are not present on fragment (a).
- Object type
- plaque
- Material
- marble
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 22.5 cm, width: 33 cm, depth: 2.9-3.3 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- The remains of two lines of Latin text are visible, neatly following guidelines to top and bottom in both cases. There is no trace of letters either above line 1 or below line 2, but in both cases a shorter line length and a centred text could account for this. The absence of a guide line above line 1 suggests that this may be the first line of the text; but there does seem to be the faint trace of a guide line visible below line 2, which would then be the upper guide line for a hypothetical line 3. The break at the beginning of line 2 makes it formally impossible to know if there were one or two additional letters at the start of line 2, but the nature of the surviving text makes this unlikely.
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
The letters are neatly and precisely cut, with elegant thin serifs. A has a light cross-bar and the letters are similar to those in and , as are the triangular interpuncts.
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 60mm
- Line 2: 43mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: not measured
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Halaesa
- Provenance found
- No data
Current location
- Place
- Halaesa, Italy
- Repository
- Antiquarium e sito archeologico di Halaesa , 30597
- Autopsy
- On display in new lapidarium
- Map
Date
1st century CE (AD 1 – AD 100)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
In line 2, the trace of a serif is clearly visible after the E and in context and given the spacing is very unlikely to be anything other than L. Given that it was found in the agora, the inscription is most probably an honorific text, for the Alfia in line 1 (although whether in the nominative or another case such as dative impossible to know); the individual named in line 2 (L. Ae(?lius?)) may therefore be a relative and/or the one responsible for erecting the text. The parallel offered by ISic003575 (Aviania, wife of P. Aelius, by decree of the decuriones), on similar stone, but carved by a different hand, suggests a hypothetical reconstruction along the lines of: Alfia[e --(name)--] | L. Aẹ[lii uxori] | [D(ecreto) D(ecurionum)]; which would translate as: “(set up for) Alfia (name), wife of Lucius Aelius, by decree of the town council.”
On this basis, L. and P. Aelius would be closely related (brothers, father and son, or similar) and eminent members of the Halaesa community whose wives were here being honoured (perhaps holding the position of priestess, as in the case of ISic003578).
The name Alfia/Alfius is not otherwise attested at Halaesa. Several instances are known elsewhere in Sicily from Termini (ISic000127 and ISic000169), Erice (CIL 10 no.8051.3), Syracuse (ISic003379) and Acrae (ISic001042, ISic000963). The name Aelius is common, and at Halaesa is now attested both in the fragmentary text similar to this one (ISic003575, P. Aelius) and in the Greek honorific text for the rhetor Aelius Asinius Petitus (ISic003591).
The text cannot be closely dated, but is probably first century AD.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 645645
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- system
- Simona Stoyanova
- Last revision
- 1/19/2021