Epitaph formulate fragmentary

Type of verse

• Type of verse: Commaticum
• Verse/line correspondence: No
• Prose/verse distinction: Si

Epigraphic edition

Text divided into verses and metric signs

[‑ ‑ ‑ tu qu]i istas et releges titu[lum monum]enti mei, ll lww lww l/ww ll wu

qu(a)e XVIII (duodevicessimo) anno [‑ ‑ ‑]                  lww ll lw ll                       

dulcissimae matris meae                                               ll wl ll wl

[-7?- e]xcidi animo.                                                      lwwwl

5       et noli do[lere, mate]r: moriendum fuit.                       {l}ll|wl|w/l|lww|ll|wu

sic[ut sunt pom]a, sic et corpora nostra                       llllw|ll|lww|lu

[aut matu]ra cadunt aut nimis [acerba r]uunt.             lllwwl||lwwwlwwu

Translation

"Dedicated (to the Manes)…, of 19 years, lies buried here; may the earth rest lightly on you... You who stand there and read the inscription on my memorial, I who, at the end of my eighteenth year,… to my beloved mother, I was deprived of life. Do not suffer, (mother), I had to die: like…, so our bodies too: at times they fall ripe, at others not yet ripened."

Bibliography

Santos Gener 1952/53, 37–38 (Vives, ILER 5802); [inde HAE 6–7, 1955–56, 19 n. 1001; Krummrey 1961, 58; Thigpen 1995, 328, quae in linguam Anglicam vertit; appendix 3, nº 16]; Stylow, II2/7, 567, cum im. phot. in micr.; Fernández Martínez – Carande, CLEB, CO8, cum im. phot, quae in linguam Hispanicam verterunt; Cugusi 2012, 25. – Cf. Cugusi 1980-81b, 13; Hernández Pérez 2001a, 84. 86–88. 228, adn. 353. 354. 361. 1061 (HEp 2001, 258).

Apparatus

1-2 sic supp. Stylow. – 3 [p(ia) · i(n ) ·s(uis) · h(ic)?] supplevimus; s(ita) suppl. Thigpen. – 4 [—]+ istas Stylow; fortasse etiam [doleas (aut dole) tu qu]i, aut vocativus ut hospes, lector aut viator. – 5 supplevimus; [ ]enit meique Santos, [lum me]renti meique Stylow, mei que Thigpen. – 6 supplevimus. – 7 supplevimus; [ ]acidi HAE, pl]acidi Thigpen, [ e]xcedi Stylow. – 8 [lere mate?]r suppl. Krummrey, Stylow. – 9 supplevimus; [ut? ? pom]a Krummrey, Stylow. – 10 … a cadvvunt HAE, [aut matu]ra Krummrey, Stylow. – 11 [acerba r]uunt Krummrey, Stylow.

Comentary

Remains of a funerary carmen epigraphicum, preceded by a praescriptum with information on the deceased (in this case a woman) in ll. 1-3. Composed in different metres adapting stereotypical formulae, the carmen can be compared to CLE 1539 and 1542, although the loss of most of the text makes it difficult to establish a colometry (cf. infra).  In l. 4, the first complete letter is an <I>, possibly from the sequence [tu qu]i stas. Since it is necessary, according to the usual formulas above mentioned, to add to the poem a request for lament, there are only two possible readings to complete the verse: either a vocative such as lector, hospes or viator, since these six letters and those three and a half from [tu q] would complete enough space; or an imperative in any jussive tense like vi? (e. g. dole/doleas). It is advisable that we suggest for loci similes the examples from CLE 213,6: dole meator, quisquis hoc legis carmen and 779,1 discite qui legitis, in which the petition read at the beginning of the verse is similar.

In l. 5, the form que is probably for the relative qu(a)e, which would show that the deceased is a woman; for the monophthongisation, cf. Carnoy 1971, 70 and Martínez Ortega, 203. In l. 6 it might be read finito con anno: XVIII anno [finito](that is, the girl already died in her nineteenth year, being 19 – as it can be read in the praescriptum); cf. CLE 724,8: hic vite curso anno finito; 473,9: finito lumine vitae; 624,3: anno pene finito. It is even possible to read iamfinito (with 9 letters, being probably this the best reading, according to the measure of the inscription) or on the contrary p(a)ene finito o  vitae finito (with 10 or 11 letters).

We must also take into account some female nominative such as functa or even frunita or gaudens; cf. CLE 2298,2: tegor tempore functa meo; 702,10: bis septem lustris octavo functus et anno; 1277,1: functus honorato senio plenusque dierum; 1839,2: dum luce est frunitus; 1607,2: filius breviter frunitus anima; 526,8: quod nondum frunitus (sedecim) annos deperit; 1578,6: qui te talem carui ecce modo frunitus sedecim annis castitate et amore; 1392,2: iamque novem lustris gaudens dum vita maneret. In l. 7, the syntagma [e]xcidi animo can be compared to Prop., 3,7,7 and Sen. epist., 71,11,4. From l. 8 to the end, simile between the fall of the fruits of a tree and the arrival of death, cf. Lier 1903, 583 ff., Amante 1972, 41-52 and funerary carmina with dactylic rhythm, cf.  CLE 1490; 1542,8-9, etc.

Gaudium or gaudia (or delicium, spes, cura, etc.) might take dulcissimae matris meae; cf. CLE 403,3: deliciumque fuit domini, spes grata parentum; 752,3: gaudia larga parentum; 1311,1: lux alma parentum; 1401,7: quae gaudia matris.

Images

Photo author: M. Fuentes Aguilar.

Link to DB

Author

• Author:R. Carande Herrero, C. Fernández Martínez
• Last Update2024-01-31 16:50:39
• Autopsy date:2001