02-22-2014, 05:14 PM
Would I be going wildly off-piste if I raised the question of the title of Marcus Caelius, the centurion of leg XIIX who perished in the Varian disaster? This is Mike Bishop's excellent photograph of his inscription (CIL 13. 8648):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thearmatura...hotostream
The symbol for Caelius' title appears on the second line, before the reference to his legion. CIL assumes this to be a centurial sign in the form of a reversed C and, presumably by the same reasoning, EDCS expands it to '(centurioni)'. However, the form of the symbol seems to me to be too rounded, when compared with other Cs in the inscription, and I therefore take it to be an O, possibly standing for ordinario. Others also read it as an O but some assume a number or letter to have preceded it in the part of the inscription that is broken off. Thus, one sometimes finds it expanded to '[ I ] o(rdinis)' and Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg has '[t(riario)] o(rdini)'. If it is not damage to the stone, what appears to be a short horizontal line can be seen just to the left of Caelius' vitis, which could be the bar of a T or a line over a numeral. However, it does not seem to correspond exactly with the bars of other Ts in the inscription and, if it is a line over a numeral, the numeral would be very close to the O.
What do other members think and is there any literature justifying any of these interpretations?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thearmatura...hotostream
The symbol for Caelius' title appears on the second line, before the reference to his legion. CIL assumes this to be a centurial sign in the form of a reversed C and, presumably by the same reasoning, EDCS expands it to '(centurioni)'. However, the form of the symbol seems to me to be too rounded, when compared with other Cs in the inscription, and I therefore take it to be an O, possibly standing for ordinario. Others also read it as an O but some assume a number or letter to have preceded it in the part of the inscription that is broken off. Thus, one sometimes finds it expanded to '[ I ] o(rdinis)' and Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg has '[t(riario)] o(rdini)'. If it is not damage to the stone, what appears to be a short horizontal line can be seen just to the left of Caelius' vitis, which could be the bar of a T or a line over a numeral. However, it does not seem to correspond exactly with the bars of other Ts in the inscription and, if it is a line over a numeral, the numeral would be very close to the O.
What do other members think and is there any literature justifying any of these interpretations?
Michael King Macdona
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
