ISic003589: Honours for a Iulius

Photo J.Prag courtesy Soprintendenza BBCCAA di Messina
ID
ISic003589
Language
Latin
Text type
honorific
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy and study for edition of 2017

Physical description

Support

Description
Two joining fragments of off-white marble with faint blue-grey veining; height (max) 35.5 cm, width (max) 38 cm, depth 2.7 cm (top edge) reducing to 2 cm (lower edge). The upper margin is intact; the left side has a regular straight cut, but this does not appear to be the original edge to the inscription; the stone is broken to the right and below. One lump of plaster is still attached to the upper part of the front surface. The stone is also engraved on the reverse, with the remains of three lines of Latin letters (see ), belonging to the mid-third century AD. It appears that the right margin of the later inscription on the reverse is intact, which suggests that the stone was cut down for reuse for the inscription on the reverse; the lump of plaster perhaps belongs to this phase of re-use, when this original face was fixed to a wall or monument.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 35.5 cm, width: 38 cm, depth: 2.0-2.7 cm

Inscription

Layout
Two lines of Latin text are preserved across the lower part of the front face, with a substantial vacat above, which suggests that this is part of the first two lines of the text.
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 73-75mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation: not measured

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 , 30600A
Autopsy
On display in the lapidarium on site
Map

Date

Julio-Claudian (AD 14 – AD 68)
Evidence
No data

Text type

honorific

commentary

The last letter of line 1 could be a D, P, or R (no sign of a joining element is visible mid-way down the vertical, but the P or R could be open, which would remove this argument for D). Whether one reads D, P, or R it is difficult to resolve this particular combination as a member of the Julio-Claudian family. It is therefore simpler to assume that the first, larger line contains the name of an honorand in the dative, with the nomen Iulius (either therefore a freedman or a new citizen), and the second line with Divi A[ugusti] perhaps contains a reference, e.g. to flamen divi Augusti, a position attested in Halaesa, both on coinage (RPC I.630-631) and in the epigraphy (cf. ISic003571), and elsewhere in Sicily. It is likely therefore that there is only a single letter missing from the start of line 1 (i.e. the abbreviated praenomen), but if one assumes that the name was centred, and that the second line, which appears slightly more condensed than the first, extended further to the left, then there would be room for "flamini" prior to "divi". The rest of the text might contain further references to the individual’s career, and a record of the honouring body, such as "D(ecreto) D(ecurionum)".

The reference to divus Augustus gives a terminus post quem of AD 14. The inscription cannot be closely dated, but is probably Julio-Claudian.

The later inscription ISic003588 is on the reverse of this stone.

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.25 Zotero FAIR

Citation and editorial status

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