Epitaph for a boy Antoninus from Naissus

Monument InscSerbia10
Editor
Type of monument
slab
Material
marble
Findspot
Niš
Observed in
Origin
Naissus (Niš)
Dimensions
height 59 cm., width 42 cm., length 2.5 cm.
Institution and inventory
Hand description
Deeply incised letters. E lunar (lines 1, 3, 6), M cursive, A with curved horizontal bar, O with pointed top formed by crossing of the two sides.
Letter size
height 3.5–5 cm.
Layout description
Inscription field
height cm., width cm.
Decoration
Audio
Text
Category of inscription
funerary inscription - prose
Date
4th–6th century AD
Dating criteria
lettering
Images
copy_r_1 copy_r_2
txt

Рrose grc
((crux)) Fili meus dul-
cis Antonine qu-
em fata tulerunt cum
octavo carperet anno
5disrupit mors invida vi-
tae fecit vero terminum vite (!) m(ense) Se-
pt(embri) ind(ictione) nona ((crux))

FILIMEVSDVL
CISANTONINEQV
EMFATATVLERVNTCVM
OCTAVOCARPERETANNO
5DISRVPITMORSINVIDAVI
TAEFECITVEROTERMINVMVITEMSE
PTINDNONA
txt
O Antoninus, my sweet son who were taken away by fate as he (sic) was enjoying the eighth year (of his life), death, jealous of life, severed him. As for his date of death, it was the month of September of the ninth indiction
Fili meus dul cis Antonine qu em fata tulerunt cum octavo carperet anno disrupit mors invida vi tae fecit vero terminum vite ! mense Se ptembri indictione nona

tag: ab
⤦ n: 1

tag: lb

type: crux
tag: g
Fili

lemma: filius
tag: w
meus

lemma: meus
tag: w
dul cis

lemma: dulcis
tag: w
dul

tag: #text
⤦ n: 2

break: no
tag: lb
cis

tag: #text
Antonine

type: attested
nymRef: Antoninus
tag: persName
qu em

lemma: qui
tag: w
qu

tag: #text
⤦ n: 4

break: no
tag: lb
em

tag: #text
fata

lemma: fatum
tag: w
tulerunt

lemma: fero
tag: w
cum

tag: w
⤦ n: 4

tag: lb
octavo

value: 8
tag: num
carperet

lemma: carpo
tag: w
anno

lemma: annus
tag: w
⤦ n: 5

tag: lb
disrupit

lemma: dirumpo
tag: w
mors

lemma: mors
tag: w
invida

lemma: invidus
tag: w
vi tae

lemma: vita
tag: w
vi

tag: #text
⤦ n: 6

break: no
tag: lb
tae

tag: #text
fecit

lemma: facio
tag: w
vero

lemma: vero
tag: w
terminum

lemma: terminus
tag: w
vite

lemma: vita
tag: w
!

tag: note
mense

lemma: mensis
tag: w
Se ptembri

lemma: September
tag: w
Se

tag: #text
⤦ n: 7

break: no
tag: lb
ptembri

tag: expan
pt

tag: abbr
embri

tag: ex
indictione

lemma: indictio
tag: w
nona

lemma: nonus
tag: w

type: crux
tag: g
Apparatus
Letters in ligature: 2 NE, 3 NT, 5 OR, 6 AE, VM. Small letters: 3 E; 6 O and E. Small crosses at beginning and end.

1 )

Readings

1 )

Commentary

The stone appears to be a fragment of an earlier structure, reused as a funerary plate. The stone was found in the ruins of a church, and the inscription begins and ends with a cross. But the text of the epitaph contains nothing specifically Christian. Such ‘neutral’ epitaphs are not uncommon in Christian epigraphy.The text begins on a personal note, with a vocative: ‘O Antoninus, my sweet son’. It continues with three successive fragments of dactylic verse:- quem fata tulerunt, ‘who were taken away by fate’,- cum octauo carperet anno ‘as he (sic) was enjoying the eight year (of his life)’;- then, in what seems to be a new sentence, disrupit mors inuida uitae, ‘death, jealous of life, severed’; what was severed from what? we are never told. There follows a sudden shift to plain prose: fecit uero etc., ‘as for the his date of death, it was the month of September of the ninth indiction’. The earliest year of the ninth indiction is 320 AD (then 335, 350, an so on). The letter shapes point at a relatively later date. Traits of language include not only non-standard spellings (uite for uitae and perhaps octauo .. anno for octauum .. annum) but also vulgar morphology (meus for mi) and slips of syntax (carperet, 3Sg, for carperes, 2Sg; disrupit without an object). The language, too, suggests a late date.

Bibliography

N. Vulić, Spomenik 77, 1934, 48, n. 39, photo.

Inscriptions de la Mésie supérieure 4, 050, photo.

HD035852.

resources
current_version: 1 / 23.12.2025