Epitaph for Oursoulos Jonathan Prag Jonathan Prag John Fell OUP Research Fund ERC Advanced Grant no.885040 Jonathan Prag original data collection and editing Marta Fogagnolo editing, translation and commentary James Cummings conversion to EpiDoc James Chartrand site construction and encoding Valeria Vitale editing of geo data Michael Metcalfe museum data collection Alex Antoniou EpiDoc editing and English translation Simona Stoyanova standardisation of template and tidying up encoding system automated or batch processes I.Sicily ISic001363 492977 39101743 140868 316282 http://sicily.classics.ox.ac.uk/inscription/ISic001363 10.5281/zenodo.4353551 Licensed under a Creative Commons-Attribution 4.0 licence. Italy Sicily Catania Museo Civico di Catania 288 Ancient Greek

Marble plaque damaged on the upper right corner and lower left corner, set in plaster in modern times.

marble plaque 21 22 0.5-5 chiselled

Irregular letters: angular Ε, lunate Σ, cursive Ω. A with a slanted bar (except at l. 1 where the bar is straight), Υ with the form of the Latin V. Interpuncts divide numerals from words.

Lines 1-6 20-35 Interlineation line 1 to 2 Catina Catania 37.49223, 15.07041 4th — 5th century CE Found “in area extra Stesichori portam” (Amico). Observed by Amico and Castelli in Museo Biscari, later by Korhonen in magazzino del cortile, Collezione Biscari (formerly sala VI 96). None

Encoded following the latest EpiDoc guidelines

Taxonomies for ISicily controlled values

ISicily glyphs authority list

Julian Calendar

 English Italian Ancient Greek Latin Hebrew Phoenician Punic Oscan Elymian Sikel Sikan funerary James Cummings autogenerated EpiDoc output from database Alex Antoniou Epidoc editing and English translation Simona Stoyanova normalised Unicode Simona Stoyanova updated list of languages Simona Stoyanova added EDCS numbers Simona Stoyanova restructured bibliography Updated Zenodo DOI renumbered files, uris and references Marta Fogagnolo revised the text encoding, added dimensions, translations and commentary I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana
Ἐνθάδε κεῖται Οὔρσουλος ζή σας ἔτη · κη μῆ νας ς · ἡμέρ ας η · τελ ευτᾷ καλ ανδαῖς Αὐγ ούσταις
Text based on photograph Kirchhoff: Οὐρσοῦλος; Kaibel, Wessel, Korhonen: Οὔρ|σουλος Amico, Kirchhoff, Kaibel, Wessel: κε; Torremuzza, Ferrara, Korhonen: κη Ferrara: τελ[εύτατος] (sic); Kirchhoff: τελ[ευτᾷ---]; Kaibel: τελ(ευτήσας); Korhonen: τελ|[ευτᾷ] Kirchhoff: καλ(ανδ---) Αὐγ[ούστ---]; Kaibel: [τῇ πρὸ ---] καλ(ανδῶν) Αὐγ(ούστων); Wessel: [πρὸ ---] καλ. Αὐγ.; Korhonen: καλ(ανδαῖς) Αὐγ(ούσταις). [τῇ πρ(ὸ) ---] καλ(ανδῶν) Αὐγ(ούστων) seems less probable because of the space left, considering that the verb τελευτάω is never abbreviated in inscriptions from Catania

Here lies Oursoulos, having lived for 28 years, 6 months and 8 days. He died on the Kalends of August.

Qui giace Oursoulos, che ha vissuto per 28 anni, 6 mesi e 8 giorni. È morto nelle Calende di agosto.

This inscription presents the traditional structure of the Christian funerary inscriptions from Catania, with the formula ἐνθάδε κεῖται ὁ δεῖνα, the age of the deceased with the participle of ζάω and a second sentence introduced by τελευτᾷ (which never appears in the participle form: for this reason, the restoration of Kaibel, τελευτήσας, has to be rejected) with the date of death, dies natalis for the Christians. The name of the deceased, Οὔρσουλος, recurs in other inscriptions from the imperial age (IGB 3.1772).

Amico 1741 272 no.18 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10002186 Castelli 1769 188 no.134 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10002084 Castelli 1784 199 no.156 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10002083 Ferrara 1829 354 no.2 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10002005 14.0544 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10001072 202 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10000028 4.9483 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10001252 1374 https://biblio.inscriptiones.org/epig10000394