Epitaph of Cermatius

Description

Idno filename 22/01/0003
Type of inscription: Sepulcralis
Material Description: Whitish marble plate with ochre veining.
Conservation status: It has lost all its right side, affecting especially the two last lines of text. The borders of the piece, except the outside, are beveled. The bottom left angle is fractured diagonally without affecting the text.
Dimensions height/width/depth (cm): 42.5/44/2.8
Epigraphic field:
- Layout: The second line is a bit indented. Interline spaces: between 0.5 and 1.2. Scriptio continua in ll. 1, 2, 5 and 6, perhaps causing false cuts of words. Triangular interpunction signs in ll. 3, 4 and 7, and not in all the expected places. The text from l. 3, the first one with interpunction signs, has got metric problems, caused by having included the deceased’s age.
- Epigraphic field execution: Roughed on its epigraphic field, although it shows many lumpy concretions. It preserves a well visible guideline, 4 cm from the upper border, over the first line.
- Decoration: I
Preserved

Lyrics

Font:Libraria
Letter size:Lines1-6: 3,5-4 cm; l.7: 4,5-5 cm
Description of the letters:The letter type seems to be book script, regular, elegant in its execution, with good horizontal endings, especially on the lower part of the letters. The second line is a bit indented. Paleographically, I with a prolonged horizontal ending at the bottom, similar to that of L (cf. I of VIII in l. 3 with L of plenus in l. 5), and an upper ending which makes them similar to T (possible confusion iussi / tussim in l. 1). In l. 1 there is a little scratch in the stone observed in the middle of the last two letters, causing that the second I in Iussi seems to be a bit separated from an E. In l. 2 the cutter began to draw an I in the spot intended for the second S of iussit, what made him redesign later the second S (the strokes of the ordinatio can still be perceived) and finally finishing it with a strange curvature, keeping the beginning of an unfinished I, which he performed completely after that. C has got the characteristic curvature from the last third of the 2nd c. G like C with a very small appendix that goes up vertically in l. 4, more prolonged and undulating in l. 6. Q with short tails and unequal to each other (cf. ll. 2, 3 and 4). A is always observed without crossbar and with half-mast vertexes, M as the union of two A. Both V of luxuriae in l. 5 are smaller than the rest (3 cm). There are letters whose endings join in the lower or upper part, as it is the case of l. 2 (MIN in dominus), l. 4 (ENV in genus), l. 5 (ANT in tantum and NV in plenus) and l. 6 (TVM in natum), a characteristic feature of this type of book script, although it is not possible to confirm the existence of proper links.

Location

Place of discovery: It was found in the Northeastern necropolis of Córdoba (la Ronda del Marrubial in the corner between c / Poeta Solís and c/ Sagunto), taken from its original placement, reused, next to the side of a newborn child’s grave.
Geolocation

Conservation location: It is preserved in the reserve area of the Museo Arqueológico y Etnográfico in Córdoba, placed in the old Silo de Córdoba (inv. no. RMLE 1a 07, PS1 and PS2), where it was deposited on October 20, 2009. There we saw it on November 15, 2014. Exemplum constituimus JHC et CFM.
Inventory number: RMLE 1a 07, PS1 y PS2
Location with Modern Nomenclature España / Córdoba
Location with Old Nomenclature Hispania / Baetica / Cordubensis

Chronology

Inscription's dating: Between year 170 and year 230
Dating explanation: The dating of the epigraph, based on the paleographic features, may be placed in the last third of the 2nd c. or in the beginning of the 3rd.

Type of verse

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

Epigraphic edition

Cermati vitam iussi m[—]

quem dominus iussit nasç[—]

qui ▴ vixit ▴ annis VIII duo et [—]

o ▴ felice ▴ genus qui ▴ per ▴ ṭ[—]

5 luxuriae tantum plenus [—]

natum gaudentem +++[—]

in quem ▴ nos ▴ sp[eramus ?—]

Text divided into verses and metric signs

Cermati vitam iussi m [—] ll|l/l|l/l|l/[n|ln|lx]

quem dominus iussit nasc[—] lkk|l/l|l/l|l/[n|ln|lx]

qui vixit annis octo duo et [—] ll|k/l|l/l|l/kkH|l[n|lx] *

o felice genus qui per · ṭ[—] ll|lkk|l/l|l/[n|ln|lx]

5 luxuriae tantum plenus [—] lkk|l/l|l/l|l/[n|ln|lx]

natum gaudentem +++[—] ll|ll|l/[n|ln|ln|lx]

in quem nos sp[eramus ?—] ll|l/l|[ln|ln|ln|lx]

Bibliography

CERRATO 2014 pp. 105-120; DEL HOYO-FERNÁNDEZ-CERRATO 2015.

Apparatus

1. Ius sem[per?—] Cerrato. 2. Iussit nasc[i?—] Cerrato. 4. Genus · qui · per · t[—] Cerrato.

Comentary

According to the metric for the m[—] we might think in expressions such as m[emorabilem], m[emorem] or m[emorandam], agreeing with vitam (cf. CLE 1146,3: memorabilis aetas; or 1268,8: multos memorata per annos); they also support sequences like m[emorare sepulcro] or m[emorare per annos].

In l. 2 nasc[i] or nasc[entem], with epigraphic parallels (CLE 420,10). To complete l. 4 we could propose the sequence per t[itulum], with an interesting parallel from Air-en-Provence, also dated at the end of the 2nd c.: CLE 465A,2: ut mea per titulum noris sic invida fata. Felice for felix probably for the wish to complete the hexameter succesfully.

The cognomen Cermati (genitive of Cermatius), hitherto unknown in Hispania (there is only one more attested example in the preconsular Africa, in Sicca Veneria (CIL VIII 16212), nowadays El Kef (Túnez), probably from the 2nd c. as well.

Cerrato 2014 interprets it as Christian, based mainly on the word dominus (l. 2), which could refer to the god of the Christians.

We do not agree with such interpretation due to the absence of iconography, the lack of typically Christian formulae (in pace, requiescit, requievit, etc.) or the date of death.

Dominus in l. 2 could refer to his master, who probably arranged that the young boy was born in specific circumstances or with specific qualities. After indicating the age, l. 4 begins with the praise of the deceased, referring to his lasting qualities over time, according to the proposed reconstructions above, or to his damned genealogy due to his master (cf., also in the beginning of the hexameter, CLE 454,9: o felice patrem, qui non vidit tale dolorem); and continuing with messages of pleasure and joy (luxuriae, gaudentem), neither exempt of parallels (CLE 512,6: luxuria semper fruitus cum caris amicis); concluding with some message of hope, frustrated by the early death, or related to his memory.

As for the sintagma dominus iussit we should point out that iubere is the verb used to the manumission of a slave (thus in Plautus and Terence). Perhaps the early death of an alumnus freed by his dominus is commemorated here; or maybe even the dominus has freed a slave, mother of Cermatius, before he was born, in which case he would be ingenuus according to the new status of his mother.

Images

Photo author: A. Ventura

Link to DB

Author

Author:C. Fernández Martínez, J. Del Hoyo Calleja
Last Update2024-02-25 17:11:41
Autopsy date:2014

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