ISic001788: Fragment of a Latin inscription

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 J. Prag 2015-01-16
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 J. Prag 2015-01-16
ID
ISic001788
Language
Latin
Status
edited
Text type
honorific
Object type
plaque

Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text based on autopsy;
  • 1: Trace of curve on the break at the start of the line must be from an O

Physical description

Support

Description
Two joining fragments of a fine pale grey marble plaque, previously glued together but now separated. The reverse is finished smooth, and shows marks around the edge which imply it was stuck to a wall at some previous point in this form (for display?). The right hand fragment preserves part of the upper margin, but otherwise the fragments are broken on all sides. (frag. a (left) is H. 17.6 x W 14.5 cm; frag. b (right) is H 20.3 x W 12.9 cm).
Object type
plaque
Object condition
fragments, contiguous
Dimensions
height: 20.3 cm, width: 26.7 cm, depth: 2.1 (left) to 1.9 (right) cm

Material

Description
marble
Type > subtype
stone.marble > unverified

Inscription

Layout
There is a large vacat (11.5 cm to the upper margin) above the single preserved line of letters, implying this is the first line of the text.
Text condition
incomplete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Large v-cut letters with standard serifs; P is slightly open, B has smaller upper loop (both closed). Deep triangular interpuncts.

Letter heights
Line 1: 69-72mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Syracusae
Provenance found
No record of discovery is preserved, but the right hand fragment is recorded in Orsi's first notebook (Sept. 1888) among fragments already in the museum.

Current location

Place
, Sicilia
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
Autopsy
Prag 2015-01-16, cassette 16, magazzino B, Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
Map

Date

Augustan / first half of the first century CE (21 BC - AD 50)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

honorific

commentary

This is presumably an honorific inscription for an individual, who was named in line 1 of the text and part of whose name is here preserved. The use of the dative (the partial trace of O at the start of the fragment) indicates the likely honorific form of the text, and the partial preservation of the upper edge and the vacat above the letters indicate that this is the first line of the text. The size of the letters speaks to a monumental public text. The Poblilia tribe is only attested once in Sicily, in a Severan period honorific from Lilybaeum (ISic000492), and in Syracusae itself only the Maecia and the Quirina (the most commonly attested tribe in Sicily) are attested (see Prag, J. R. W., ‘Sicilia Romana Tributim Discripta’, in Le Tribù Romane. Atti Della XVIe Rencontre Sur l’épigraphie (Bari 8-10 Ottobre 2009), ed. by M. Silvestrini (Edipuglia, 2010), pp. 305–11). The form of the letters suggests this text likely belongs to the Augustan / Julio-Claudian period. The text is previously unpublished, and although the right-hand fragment is recorded in Orsi's first notebook, indicating that it was present in the museum's collection prior to his arrival in 1888, there is no record of the left-hand fragment, nor of the provenance of either.

Bibliography

Digital editions
  • TM: -
  • EDR: -
  • EDH: -
  • EDCS: -
  • PHI: -
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
5/13/2026