Epitaph of Britto

Epitaph of Britto

Description

Idno filename 22/01/0005
Type of inscription: Sepulcralis
Material Description: Slate chip.
Conservation status: Irregular shape, concave on both sides (ll. 3-4), damaged in the upper part (before l. 1 was written).
Epigraphic field:
- Layout: All the words were separated by interpenetration marks. The lapidary has tried to get around the imperfections of the support: on l.1 he has slightly separated the O in 'BRITTO' from the rest of the word; on l.4 he seems to have adjusted the letter to the dimensions of the slab.
- Epigraphic field execution: In the drawing, guide lines can be seen on l.1 and on l. 4.

Lyrics

Font:Capital rústica
Description of the letters:Letters with E's drawn as two vertical lines.

Location

Place of discovery: It was found in the municipality of Trigueros (Huelva), and there, in their hometown, BELMONTE and CLEMENTE declare to have seen it, with no further information about its discovery or its place of conservation.
Geolocation

Location with Modern Nomenclature España / Huelva / Trigueros
Location with Old Nomenclature Hispania / Baetica / Hispalensis

Chronology

Inscription's dating: Between year 70 and year 130
Dating explanation: HÜBNER dated it in the 2nd c. The letter E in italics can be found in Hispania from the late 1st c., and there are also many verses with the formula sit tibi terra levis in southern Hispania from this same period (cf. CA3, MU8, J17, BA14, o BA5, where it also appears praeteries). This somewhat earlier dating is also justified by the absence of the consecration to the Manes.

Type of verse

Verse/line correspondence: No
Prose/verse distinction: Si

Epigraphic edition

Britto ▴ an(norum) ▴

XXX⁽XV⁾ (vac.)

siquis ▴ es ▴

praeterie(n)s ▴ lege

5 sit ▴tibi ▴ ter(r)a ▴ levis

Text divided into verses and metric signs

Siquis es praeteriens lege: ‘sit tibi terra levis’. lkl|lkk|l/kk||lkk|lkk|~

Translation

(Español) Britto, de 45 años. Seas quien seas, al pasar por aquí, lee: que te sea la tierra ligera.

Bibliography

Belmonte y Clemente im. del. apud Delgado y Hernández saec. XIX, p. 405; inde Hübner, II 952, cf. suppl. p. 833 (ex eo Cholodniak 1904, 1203; Vives, ILER, 3784, minus recte; Luzón 1975, 301; Rubio-Bejarano 1955, 396; González Fernández, CILA I, 71; Cugusi 2012, 7); Delgado y Hernández 1871-1876, I, 143. – Cf. Hernández Pérez 2001a, 248.

Apparatus

3. SI.QVIS DELGADO — 4-5. PRAETERIIIS DELGADO, PRAETIIR· IIIS HÜBNER; praeterie(n)s atque ter(r)a HÜBNER emendavit; praeteriens sed tera Vives.

Comentary

Britto, cognomen of gentile origin, “from Britannia” (cf. Kajanto 1982, 201), well attested in the Iberian Peninsula, which appears once in the Baetica (cf. Abascal 1994b, 304-305).

Praeteries instead of praeteriens (l. 4), due to a loss of a sibilant before a fricative (cf. Väänänen 1975, §121). Tera instead of terra after a graphic reduction of the geminate, probably because of an error by the cutter.

Hernández Pérez thought that the inscription was not metric. Cugusi suggested that in ll. 3-5 a pentameter lege (l. 4) had been removed. It is a commaticum verse (ll. 3-5), as classified by Cholodniak: from si quis to lege there are three dactylic feet with caesura penthemimeres (after praeteries), although with a brevis in longo in the third seat of the first foot; it is followed by the formula sit tibe terra levis, a hemiepes.

As for the sad interpellation to the passer-by and the invitation to read his epitaph, cf. Hernández Pérez 2001a, 217-226.

Link to DB

Author

Author:A. Bolaños Herrera, C. Fernández Martínez
Last Update2023-12-04 17:11:53

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