ISic003582: Monumental fragment reading NSVM

Photo J. Prag courtesy Soprintendenza BBCCAA di Messina
ID
ISic003582
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 thin coarse yellow-white marble. Height 28-28.3 cm; width (max) 27 cm; depth 2cm (top) to 2.8 cm (base, excluding moulding). The upper and lower margins are intact on both fragments; both are broken to left and right. A simple raised moulding (damaged) survives along the lower edge of both fragments.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 28-28.3 cm, width: 27 cm, depth: 2-2.8 cm

Inscription

Layout
A single line of large Latin letters is preserved on the face
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 155-165mm
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 , 30592
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 break on the left follows the line of a slanting stroke, and the fact that the M later in the text has an initial sloping hasta demonstrates that this must be N, not M. The stroke visible just above the letter at the left margin is later damage and not a letter stroke. The final stroke of the M is lost. The most likely possibilities for this combination of letters in such a monumental text are consummare (common in describing completion of an undertaking or building) and consumere (common in describing a building damaged / destroyed and now replaced / rebuilt); mensum and censum might also be possible.

The text belongs to the first, second, or earlier third century AD.

The fragments have some similarity to ISic003580 and ISic003581, but they should be treated separately for a number of reasons: the letter forms are distinct in their style (narrower, shallower, with finer serifs, and rounded at the junction of two upright strokes, as in V and M, which is also off-vertical here but vertical in the other two), the type of stone is not identical, and the form of the stone is different in both thickness and the moulding at the lower edge.

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.12 Zotero FAIR

Citation and editorial status

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