TI·4
| Inscription | |
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| Reading in transliteration: | polibi spuris |
| Reading in original script: |          
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| Object: | TI·4 Giubiasco (plate) |
| Position: | outside, wall |
| Orientation: | 0° |
| Direction of writing: | dextroverse |
| Script: | Latin script |
| Letter height: | 1.1–1.8 cm0.433 in <br />0.709 in <br /> |
| Number of letters: | 12 |
| Number of words: | 2 |
| Number of lines: | 1 |
| Workmanship: | scratched after firing |
| Condition: | complete |
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| Archaeological culture: | Augustan [from object] |
| Date of inscription: | second half of 1st c. AD [from object] |
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| Type: | unknown |
| Language: | Latin |
| Meaning: | 'of Polibios Spuris' (?) |
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| Alternative sigla: | Morandi 2004: 5 |
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| Sources: | Morandi 2004: 522 |
Images
 Cup TI·4 Giubiasco with inscription TI·4 from Crivelli 1977
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 Plate TI·4 Giubiasco with inscription TI·4
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 First part of inscription TI·4
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 Second part of inscription TI·4
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Commentary
First published in Morandi 2004. Examined for LexLep on 18th August 2021.
Images in Ulrich 1914: Taf. LXXXVIa.6-6a (photos), Crivelli 1977: tav. 1 (drawing only of spuris = Morandi 1999: 165, fig. 5).
The two sequences (length 4.1 and 5 cm, respectively) are inscribed by the same hand in well legible letters at ca. 7 cm distance from each other below the rim. The scratches are traced with white paint. The alphabet is Latin, only lambda is deviant, having a form otherwise known from the archaic Greek alphabet of Argos (Morandi 2004) and the Venetic alphabet of the Cadore. The language of the inscription, accordingly, is also a mix of Greek and Latin. The Greek name πολυβιος (or Latinised polybius) appears with a Latin genitive ending; for the spelling cf. the Campanian fabricant Publius Cipius Polybius, whose cognomen is sometimes spelled POLIBI (gen.) on fabrication stamps (P·CIPI·POLIBI·F(ECIT), see Kunow 1985: 222–224). spuris is less clear; Morandi 1999: 164 f. considers it to be a personal name, "senza alcun dubbio un italico". It is certainly hardly Celtic, but reminiscent of the common Latin cognomen spurius and Etruscan names (ET I: 281). Assuming that spuris agrees with polibi, it must be inflected like a Latin consonant or i-stem spuris, though the motivation for the separate application of the two sequences is not evident. How exactly they relate to each other is unclear.
Bibliography
| Crivelli 1977 | Aldo Crivelli, "La necropoli di Giubiasco", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como 159 (1977), 5–98. |
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