02-22-2014, 11:32 PM
Quote: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.Like you, I have always been uncomfortable with the interpretation of that character as a centurial sign. Note that my colleague Lawrence Keppie, an epigrapher of the first order, has expanded the text to read "(primo) o(rdini) leg(ionis) XIIX" ("one of the primi ordines of Legion XVIII").
Domaszewski et al. (CIL Vol. XIII, 1907) didn't see a problem with reading the character as a centurial sign, and do not appear to have noticed the tiny horizontal line that you draw attention to:
[attachment=9115]CIL_XIII_8648.jpg[/attachment]
Similarly, Orelli (Inscriptionum Latinarum Selectarum Amplissima Collectio, Vol. 1, 1828, p. 158, no. 621) was principally concerned with interpreting the character as a centurial sign, and Henzen's revision (Inscriptionum Latinarum Selectarum Amplissima Collectio, Vol. 3, 1856, p. 58) only noted an attempt by the scholar Overbeck to read L(ega)TO (promoting Caelius to the position of legionary legate), which perhaps indicates that he had seen your horizontal line. When Dessau included it in his Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (no. 2244), he interpreted it as a centurial sign, while noting that, if those who claimed an "O" were correct, it might represent the numeral for 100.
I vaguely recall another argument disagreeing with the interpretation as "o(ptioni)", on the grounds that Caelius carries a centurion's vine stick. I can't remember where, but it shows that others have recognized that it's an O, not a centurial sign.
