BI·5

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]arsu / ]ionios
Reading in original script:	] ]
Object:	BI·5 Cerrione (stela)
Position:	front
Orientation:	270°
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	8.5–14 cm3.346 in <br />5.512 in <br />
Number of letters:	11
Number of words:	2
Number of lines:	2
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	incomplete
Archaeological culture:	Roman republican period [from object]
Date of inscription:	70–40 BC [from object]
Type:	funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'°arsu (son) of °iu'
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 34–36 no. 3

Images

Stela BI·5 Cerrione with inscription BI·5 from Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013

Stela BI·5 Cerrione with inscription BI·5 from Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013

Commentary

First published in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011: 92.

Images in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011: 92, fig. 86 (photo = Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 35 [in colour]), Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 35 (drawing).

Inscribed in two dextroverse lines running downward. The initial parts of both lines are lost due to the breaking of the stela; of the letter before alpha in line 1, an oblique stroke in the lower area is left. Four-stroke sigma is both times executed in a curved manner, as in BI·2; Solinas (p. 35) suspects that form and style were intentionally differentiated from the Latin variant.

We agree with Solinas (p. 36) that the lines are likely supposed to be read in succession from left to right: )arsu )ionios, which preserves the expected order of the onomastic elements: '°arsu (son) of °iu' – cf. at the same find place BI·1, BI·6, BI·8, as well as NO·21.1 and maybe GR·1.

The grammar and form of the inscription, with on-stem individual name in -ū and appositive in -ii̯-, are Celtic. For the patronym, the comparison with BI·1 sipionios suggests itself, but must remain speculative; Solinas (p. 36) alternatively suggests uipionios, but BI·6 uipios is an o-stem. As noted by Solinas (p. 36), what is left of the individual name )arsu is reminiscent of the family name of the Farsulei, who feature prominently in the alphabetically Latin inscriptions at the necropolis (see the family tree on p. 210), and could constitute its base. With initial [f], however, the name could hardly be Celtic; the trace of a letter before alpha could conceivably be or , possibly in a different form than the other two in the inscription; cf. tarsica, tarsunius, and names in cars- in Delamarre 2007: X.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Brecciaroli Taborelli 2011	Luisa Brecciaroli Taborelli (ed.), Oro, pane e scrittura. Memorie di una comunità "inter Vercellas et Eporediam" [= Studi e ricerche sulla Gallia Cisalpina 24], Roma: Edizioni Quasar 2011.
Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011	Giovannella Cresci Marrone, Patrizia Solinas, "Il messaggio epigrafico: Riconoscimento del sepolcro e strategia della memoria", in: Luisa Brecciaroli Taborelli (ed.), Oro, pane e scrittura. Memorie di una comunità "inter Vercellas et Eporediam" [= Studi e ricerche sulla Gallia Cisalpina 24], Roma: Edizioni Quasar 2011, 89–106.
Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013	Giovannella Cresci Marrone, Patrizia Solinas, Microstorie di romanizzazione. Le iscrizioni del sepolcreto rurale di Cerrione, Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari 2013.
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.