MI·2

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	atep
Reading in original script:
Object:	MI·2 Parabiago (cup)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	prob. North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
adapted to:	Latin script
Letter height:	0.6–1 cm0.236 in <br />0.394 in <br />
Number of letters:	4–5
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Augustan [from object]
Date of inscription:	late 1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 109 Morandi 2004: 132
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 611 no. 132

Images

Cup MI·2 Parabiago with inscription MI·2

Inscription MI·2

Drawing of MI·2 Parabiago and inscription MI·2 from Tizzoni 1984, reproduced by Solinas 1995

Commentary

First published in Tizzoni 1984: 72, no. 3. Examined for LexLep on 28^th April 2022.

Images in Tizzoni 1984: tav. XLIV e (drawing = Solinas 1995: 367, no. 109), Frontini 1985: tav. 16.12 (drawing).

Inscribed in a curve on the foot of the cup, with the upper parts of the letters pointing outward. Initial alpha is retrograde and has a shortened first hasta. Frontini's drawing shows non-retrograde alpha as the final letter; Tibiletti Bruno 1984: 123 also reads alpha (discounting the bar of tau and reading upsilon as second letter, followed by a single iota → auia in Latin script). However, the impression of a lower bar in the last letter is due to one of the concentric circles on the foot (and a combination of two entirely different forms of alpha would be unlikely anyway). Tizzoni's drawing correctly shows pi or, less likely, inverted lambda as the final letter; Morandi accordingly reads atiil or atiip, assuming an abbreviated personal name and comparing specifically atilonei. Double iota, however, is not otherwise attested in language-encoding Cisalpine Celtic inscriptions; since Latin or Latinised script is indicated by tau with a straight hasta and made plausible by the low dating, the two verticals are better read as cursive Latin epsilon . The letter forms of the inscription are very similar to those in the Latin alphabetarium at Carona (Casini & Fossati 2013b), which also include retrograde alpha with a shortened first hasta, cursive epsilon, tau with inclined bar (on top of the hasta) and Lepontic pi (cf. Salomon 2023: 23 f.).

atep is an abbreviation of a personal name like ateporix vel sim. (see the word page).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Casini & Fossati 2013b	Stefania Casini, Angelo E. Fossati, "L'alfabeto latino inciso sul masso Camisana 1 di Carona (Bergamo)", Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 21 (2013), 147–155.