ISic003581: Monumental fragment reading M·PA

Photo J. Prag courtesy Soprintendenza BBCCAA di Messina
ID
ISic003581
Language
Latin
Text type
building
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy

Physical description

Support

Description
Two joining fragments of an off-white marble, in differing states of preservation. Height 28.5-29 cm; width (max) 27.5 cm; depth 3.5 cm (top) to 4 cm (base). Fragment 1 (upper) preserves the upper margin of the stone, fragment 2 (lower) preserves the lower margin, although in both cases the edges are rough and weathered. Both fragments are broken to left and right.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 28.5-29 cm, width: 27.5 cm, depth: 3.5-4.0 cm

Inscription

Layout
A single line of monumental letters is preserved across the face
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 155mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: N/Amm

Provenance

Place of origin
Halaesa
Provenance found
Excavated in 1971, in room 7 of the west portico of the agora
Map

Current location

Place
Halaesa, Italy
Repository
Antiquarium e sito archeologico di Halaesa , 30590
Autopsy
On display in the lapidarium on site
Map

Date

1st — 2nd century CE (AD 1 – AD 200)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

building

commentary

The first visible stroke on the stone is a slanting one, which makes clear that the first letter is an M. Only a single serif is visible upper right for the final letter, but such a downward sloping serif, vertically overlapping with the right hasta of the A preceding, cannot realistically belong to anything other than the left end of the cross bar of a letter T. Pat[---] could be part of patronus, pater, or patria all of which are plausible in the context of a monumental (building) inscription. Without this trace it would be tempting to read Pa[ccius] and a reference to a member of the family mentioned in ISic003572 and (possibly) ISic003573 and the Augustan coinage (RPC I, no.630-631, 633).

Scibona proposed to treat this pair of fragments as part of the same text as ISic003580 (the basilica fragment). The type of stone is very similar and the letters are of almost identical height and broadly similar form. However, the form and depth of the upper terminations of the letters M and A, the overall depth of the letters, the presence of red paint, and the differing profile of the stone (slightly taller, and thicker in its lower half) all challenge a direct association, even if the broad context and epigraphic type looks very similar.

The text is likely to belong to the first or second century AD.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions
  • J.R.W. Prag e G. Tigano, Alesa Archonidea: il lapidarium, Introduzione all’archeologia di Halaesa 8 (Palermo: Regione Siciliana, Assessorato beni culturali e identità siciliana, Dipartimento beni culturali e identità siciliana, 2017), at no.10 Zotero FAIR

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
1/19/2021