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 the °onian'
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]), Brecciaroli Taborelli 2011: 395, tav. 14 (drawing = Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 35).

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 (Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 35) suspects that form and style were intentionally differentiated from the Latin variant (cf. BI·7).

We agree with Solinas (Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 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 the °onian' – 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 onomastic formula, 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 (Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 36) alternatively suggests uipionios, but the name underlying the patronym BI·6 uipios is an o-stem. As noted by Solinas (Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 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 in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 210), and could theoretically constitute its base. Historical evidence of members of the gens Farsulei predates the inscription, however (see Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011: 98 f.). With initial [f], the name could hardly be Celtic in any case; the trace of a letter before alpha could conceivably be or , possibly in a different form than the other two in the inscription, none of which could serve as a compromise spelling for a foreign [f] in a loan name; cf. tarsica, tarsunius, and names in cars- in Delamarre 2007: 58 f., 178. On [rs] in Gaulish see Stifter 2023: 11.

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.