Funerary inscription

Description

Idno filename 22/01/0008
Type of inscription: Sepulcralis
Material Description: White marble tablet.
Conservation status: Broken on both sides and at the bottom.
Dimensions height/width/depth (cm): 11.2/10/3.5
Epigraphic field:
- Layout: Triangular interpunction with the vertex facing downwards in all cases.

Lyrics

Font:Capital con tendencia a libraria
Letter size:2-2,5 cm
Description of the letters:Lettering tending to book script, 2, except for the D of l. 1, which is 2.5.

Location

Place of discovery: Found in 1972 in Cabra (Córdoba) in the environs of a rustic villa called “La casa de Mitra”, at La Fuente de las Piedras.
Geolocation

Conservation location: Now in the Museo Arqueológico, Cabra.
Location with Modern Nomenclature España / Córdoba / Cabra
Location with Old Nomenclature Hispania / Baetica / Astigitanus / Igabrum

Chronology

Inscription's dating: Between year 270 and year 430
Dating explanation: In accordance with the dates when the rustic villa where it was found was still standing (end of the 3rd c. – end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th c.), it should not be dated before the end of the 3rd c.

Type of verse

Type of verse: Dactílico (ritmo)
Verse/line correspondence: Si
Prose/verse distinction: No

Epigraphic edition

D(is) [M(anibus) s(acrum)]

[co]ṇtinuan[tur ‑ ‑ ‑]

[ord]ine ▴ dispọ[sito ‑ ‑ ‑]

[-2-]+ ▴ precor ▴ [‑ ‑ ‑]

5 [‑ ‑ ‑]+4+[‑ ‑ ‑]

‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑

Text divided into verses and metric signs

[co]ntinuan[tur – – -] [l]kk|ll|[…]

[ord]ine dispo[sito – – -] [l]kk|l[kk|l…]

[t]e precor [- – -] [l]kx|[…]

Translation

“Consecrated (to the Manes). They occur..., in the order determined... I beseech...”.

Bibliography

Blanco – García – Bendala 1972, 318–319 cum im. phot. (AE 1972, 273) (inde Gorges 1979, 249 adn. CO 05; Segura 1988, 181, adn. XXVII); Stylow, II2/5, 331, cum im. phot. in micr.; Fernández Martínez – Carande, CLEB, CO17, cum im. phot.; Cugusi 2012, 48.

Apparatus

1 suppl. Stylow. – 2 […]tinuam Blanco – García – Bendala; [co]ntinuan[tur—] Stylow (suppl. Schmidt in colloquio); [des]ine DISP [—] Blanco – García – Bendala, [ord]ine suppl. Stylow. – 3 des[ine] DIP[—]Blanco – García – Bendala, supp. Schmidt in CIL. – 4 [si]t Stylow, + fortasse litt. A proposuit Schmidt.

Comentary

The remains of a funerary carmen epigraphicum, probably dactylic verse, dactylic hexameters straight through or else elegiac distichs; the carmen is preceded by the dedication to the Manes. In l. 2 there seems to be a reference to a series of deaths, which according to l. 3 are determined by fate (cf. Schmidt, mentioning Cic., ac. 1,29), but ordine disposito can also be interpreted contrary to Lucr. 1.801 ordine mutato (cf.CO1, l. 3: ordine turbato maior sepelire minorem); the idea could be related to that one expressed in CLE 1339.5 sic rerum natura iubet, sic temporis ordo; in this sense we cannot rule out –contrary to the hypothesis above mentioned of a series of deaths by order of age – some kind of criminatio against destiny, frequent topos in epigraphic poetry and which resulted in varied expressions (cf. Hernández 2001, § 35).