ISic004417: Epitaph for [-?-], child of Gerontios
- ID
- ISic004417
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- plinth
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- text based upon photographs;
- line.1: Sofia 2018: [---]ωι[---]; the final vertical could either be iota or the first stroke of a nu; it is uncertain if any letters may have been lost beyond this.
- line.2: Sofia 2018: [---].ροντιου
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Plinth (support for a stele) with mouldings top and bottom, of the local sandstone; the upper part of the plinth is heavily damaged, with all of the left corner missing and the upper right. The plinth is the left one of a pair mounted on a single base, classified as an epitymbion of type C.
- Object type
- plinth
- Material
- sandstone
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 30 cm, width: 48 cm, depth: 63 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- Remains of two lines of Greek letters, apparently centred on the face of the plinth; the second line sits directly above the lower moulding
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1-2: 30mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Abacaenum
- Provenance found
- Tomb 80 of the necropolis in contrada Cardusa, where it remains in situ
- Map
Current location
- Place
- Tripi, Italy
- Repository
- Necropoli di Abakainon ,
- Autopsy
- Metcalfe 2016 visited site
- Map
Date
The tomb has not been excavated fully, but the cemetery went out of use around the end of the 3rd century BCE or early 2nd century, offering a terminus ante quem (350 BC – 200 BC)- Evidence
- archaeological-context
Text type
commentary
Interpretation of this fragmentary text is context dependent. The text/plinth forms a pair with the adjoining plinth ISic004418. On that second plinth, the genitive .εροντιου is legible in the second line, and the trace of a vertical stroke is visible before the first epsilon, at some distance. The only attested Greek name compatible with this is Γερόντιος, which is known in later Roman times at Catania (ISic003199) and Syracuse (Orsi 1896: 31 no.318). Comparison with other examples of paired monuments in this necropolis, particularly ISic004415/ISic004416, shows that these monuments can record siblings. It is therefore all but certain that we can restore the name Γερόντιος here in line 2, and that these two plinths also record siblings. In a few cases, including ISic004415/ISic004416, the first name is presented in the nominative, and therefore it is unsafe to assume that what may well be the final letter of line 1 is an iota; a nu, giving a nominative ending in -ων would be entirely possible and compatible with the state of the stone (compare ISic004416).
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: -
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- G.M. Bacci e P. Coppolino, La Necropoli di Abakainon: primi dati (Messina: Regione Siciliana, 2009), at 113 and 166 tav.XXXIVa-b
- Girolamo Sofia, Abakainon. Nella dimora di Ade. La necropoli in contrada Cardusa a Tripi (Terme Vigliatore (ME): Giambra editore, 2015), at 113 fig.115
- Girolamo Sofia, «Nuove iscrizioni funerarie dalla necropoli di Abakainon», Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 206 (2018): 103–12, at 107 no.7 and fig.8
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- system
- Simona Stoyanova
- Last revision
- 1/19/2021