ISic004418: Epitaph for [-?-], child of Gerontios
- ID
- ISic004418
- 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: [-----]; a horizontal is visible above the final ου of line 2, which in context is surely the remains of a final sigma (the stone shows no traces of further letters to the right).
- line.2: Sofia 2018: [Γ]εροντιου; the foot of a vertical stroke is clearly visible before the epsilon, and the spacing is most compatible with Γ.
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 upper portion missing and the left corner heavily damaged; only the lower portion of the text-bearing face is preserved. The plinth is the right 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: 29 cm, width: 49 cm, depth: 63.5 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- Most of the lower line of Greek text is preserved, centred on the front face of the plinth; traces of a preceding line are visible.
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1-2: 59mm
- 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, 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 ISic004417. On that second plinth, the genitive [---]εροντιου is legible in the second line. 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) - and the restoration of a gamma at the start of line 2 of the text presented here is the obvious resolution of the traces visible on the stone. 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 in line 2 of both ISic004417 and this text, and that these two plinths also record siblings. In a few cases, including ISic004415/ISic004416 and ISic001208, the first name is presented in the nominative: the traces of a horizontal at the end of line 1 visible on this stone strongly suggest a final sigma, which is most likely a nominative termination (although genitive forms are also possible).
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
- 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.8 and fig.9
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