ISic002133: Fragmentary Latin inscription
No image available
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text after Gammella;
- 1: Gammella reads: M(arcus) · Peṭ-; although the M may be considered certain, the following three letters are very closely spaced and it seems impossible to be certain of the reading.
- 2: Gammella reads: [--]us fe-
Physical description
Support
- Description
- A fragment of a thin white marble plaque, seemingly broken on all sides, and worked flat (but not smooth) on the reverse.
- Object type
- plaque
- Object condition
- fragment
- Dimensions
- height: 7.5 cm, width: 7.8 cm, depth: 1.2 cm
Material
- Description
- marble
- Type > subtype
- stone.marble > unverified
Inscription
- Layout
- The remains of two lines of Latin letters visible, with vacats at the end of both lines
- Text condition
- incomplete
- Technique
- chiselled
- Pigment
- No data
- Lettering
Relatively tall and narrow letters, with serifs formed by simple extension of strokes, or by thin cross strokes on M and S. Both M and V appear relatively broad.
- Letter heights
- Lines 1-2: 25mm
- Interlinear heights
- Line 1-2: 15mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Agrigentum
- Provenance found
- Found during excavation of a trench (EK2) on the southern terrace of the ekklesiasterion at Poggio S. Nicola, in a layer of collapse (US2003), in a structure abandoned around the C4 CE, with final collapse between C4 and C6/7 CE
- Map
Current location
- Place
- Agrigento, Sicilia
- Repository
- Museo Regionale Archeologico Pietro Griffo
- Autopsy
- No autopsy
- Map
Date
later 2nd or earlier 3rd century CE (Gammella on palaeographic grounds) (AD 151 - AD 250)- Evidence
- lettering
Text type
commentary
Gammella interprets as probably a Severan period honorific, given the use of marble and the findspot in the vicinity of the principal public spaces of the city. This seems likely, although such a plaque could also be from a funerary text; but the findspot, albeit seemingly in secondary deposition, encourages the reading as a public text. For the archaeological context, see Rignanese, Giuseppe, and Federico Figura, ‘5. Agrigento. Lo scavo nella terrazza meridionale dell’ekklesiasterion (Saggio EK2)’, ANNALI SCUOLA NORMALE SUPERIORE - CLASSE DI LETTERE E FILOSOFIA, 30 December 2025, pp. 82–104, doi:10.2422/3035-3769.202502_s06. The reading of both lines would seem to be far from certain, with E and F not readily distinguishable, and the lower portions of E, F, T, L,. P and I all sharing considerable similarities in texts of this date. The absence of an interpunct in line 2, while hardly definitive, further complicates the reading with the vacat at the end, and other interpretations are possible (such as f(ilius) f(ecit) or v(otum) s(olvit) fe(liciter)).
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: -
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- Gammella (2025) at 134-145
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 5/4/2026