ISic001693: Funerary urn for Chius

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo (c) Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali di Enna
I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo (c) Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali di Enna
ID
ISic001693
Language
Latin
Status
edited
Text type
funerary
Object type
urn

Edition

Jonathan Prag
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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from photograph

Physical description

Support

Description
A globular marble urn, with moulded foot and two shoulder handles partially in a 'twisted rope' style, with a plain domed lid. The urn is not otherwise decorated, besides the inscription on one face.
Object type
urn
Object condition
complete
Dimensions
height: c.45 cm, width: c.40 cm, depth: cm

Material

Description
marble
Type > subtype
ceramic > unverified

Inscription

Layout
Four lines, approximately centred on one side of the body of the urn
Text condition
complete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Elegant letters, of a regular size, tending to a slightly curving form, with M and A tending towards cursive forms. I in line 1 and Y in line 3 both extravagant and tall. Use of elegant hederae.

Letter heights
Line 1-4: 25mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Cuticchi
Provenance found
Found in archaeological excavation of a rural settlement and extensive necropolis in the area of contrada Cuticchi (in the context of railway construction work). The urn was found in situ in T.16, a fossa burial ,covered with terracotta slabs.

Current location

Place
Enna, Sicilia
Repository
Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali di Enna
Autopsy
None.

Date

The necropolis material dates C1 CE to mid-C2 CE; the lettering is more likely C2 CE (AD 51 - AD 151)
Evidence
archaeological-context, textual-context

Text type

funerary

commentary

A similar text, a funerary epitaph for Abdalas, magnus magister ovium (i.e. sheep) (ISic000628) was found some 16 km SE of this site. Abdalas was a slave of Domitia Longina, wife of the Emperor Domitian, and a similar context, of either imperial estates or another elite wealthy landowner is likely. Cicero, In Verrem 5.16-17 describes an accusation of Verres regarding a slave who held the role of magister pecoris, of a rich Panhormus citizen called Apollonius Geminus. Varro (Res Rustica 1.2.14), like Cicero, uses the term 'magister pecoris', and so we should understand the collective singular, pecus, rather than 'pec(orum)'. Whether 'pecus' should be understood to refer to sheep, or cattle, or both, is not clear, as the term can refer to either, and in Varro has the general meaning of head shepherd. On the role, which encompassed the full oversight and maintenance of the animals, see Varro, Res Rusticae 2.10. The name Chius is particularly attested in Rome, Spain and North Africa, usually in a slave, or freedman context (e.g. EDR072606, epitaph of a dispensator from Rome, or EDR136029, a slave in the imperial house, or EDR148068, a sevir Augustalis at Ostia. The name Hesychus is particularly attested at Rome, again primarily in a slave or freedman context; the name is attested in Sicily at Syracuse in several late Roman epitaphs.

Bibliography

Digital editions
  • TM: -
  • EDR: -
  • EDH: -
  • EDCS: -
  • PHI: -
Printed editions
  • Merendino et al. (2025) at 146-147, fig.10.24

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
12/17/2025