BI·1

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	lukios / sipionios
Reading in original script:
Object:	BI·1 Cerrione (stela)
Position:	front
Orientation:	270°
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	6.5–12 cm2.559 in <br />4.724 in <br />
Number of letters:	15
Number of words:	2
Number of lines:	2
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Roman republican period [from object]
Date of inscription:	100–40 BC [from object]
Type:	funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'Lukios (son) of Sipiu'
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 40–42 no. 5

Images

Stela BI·1 Cerrione with inscription BI·1 from Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013

Commentary

First published in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011: 91 f.

Images in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011: 91, fig. 84 (photo = Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 41 [in colour]), Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 41 (drawing).

Inscribed in two dextroverse lines running downward in the upper part of the stela; well legible.

We agree with Solinas (p. 41) that the lines are likely supposed to be read in succession from left to right: lukios sipionios, which preserves the expected order of the onomastic elements: 'Lukios (son) of Sipiu' – cf. at the same find place BI·5, BI·6, BI·8, as well as NO·21.1 and maybe GR·1.

The grammar and form of the inscription, with o-stem individual name in -os and appositive in -ii̯-, are Celtic. The father's name may be etymologically Celtic, but the individual name lukios is Celticised Latin lucius; see the word pages for details.

The name of the father sipiu is attested as the individual name of the deceased in BI·8 at the same find place, dated somewhat earlier, and may well refer to the same person. Cf. also BI·5 )ionios, possibly another son.

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.