Epitaph of the imperial freedman Severus by his son Severianus created by Fabio Spalla MAPPOLA Database This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. MPL02246 205235 https://db.mappola.eu/r/Inscription/show/2246 unknown altar limestone complete 48.0 101.0 43.0 Inscription within moulded frame. chiselled Prose + Verse + Prose Yes, by bigger lettering in prose Yes, by different layout Yes, by vacat No To separate verses - Hedera 2.5-6.0 Lambaesis 171-230 Lambaesis Two kilometres South of the Capitolium, 1939. 35.4897 6.25484 no

Encoded following EpiDoc guidelines 9.5

 Greek Greek-Latin Latin Multilingual Ancient Greek written in Latin script Latin written in Greek script funerary inscription

Severus Severianus

Dis Manibus sacrum. Severus, Augusti libertus, vixit annis LXXV. Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur his ipse sepultus nocte viam tututus carpe viator iter. Severianus Augusti libertus patri et matri carissimis posuit.

Text follows Arena. Picture checked by Spalla 2025. l. 7: his instead of hic for reasons of quantity, Leschi; Lassère; Arena. his meaning lapidibus, Courtney. his instead of is or hic, or referred to lapidum (l. 6), CLE. ll. 5-10: reference to Vergil, Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus / nocte die tutum carpe viator iter, from Suetonius' "Life of Vergil".

Severus, freedman of the emperor, lived secenty-five years. He himself, buried beneath this mount of stones, is covered by them. By night (and day), traveller, journey in safety. Severianus, freedman of the emperor, erected this to his dear father and mother.

Agli dèi Mani consacrato. Severus, liberto imperiale, settantacinque anni ha vissuto. Sotto questo cumulo di pietre sepolto, questi è da esse custodito. Nella notte sicuro della via, viandante, procedi. Severianus, liberto imperiale, al padre ed alla madre carissimi pose.

Dating proposed by Leschi.

CLEAfr 00128 CLE 02838 L. Leschi, Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. 12 mai 1941. Séance de la Commission de l'Afrique du Nord, Bull. Arch. Com. Trav. Hist. 1941-1942 (1941), 95-98, no. 1 (also on dating) - AE 1941 AE 1941, 00043 J. W. Zarker, Studies in the Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Princeton 1958, 213, no. 109. J.-M. Lassère, Sentiments et culture d'après les épitaphes latines d'Afrique, Bull. Ass. Budé 1965, 2 (1965), 223-224. J. W. Zarker, A possible Vergilian parody of the Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Helikon 8 (1968), 392-398 (with photo, 397) J. W. Zarker, A possible Vergilian parody of the Carmina Latina Epigraphica. In: Acta of the Fifth International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge 1967, Oxford 1971, 451-453. E. Courtney, Musa lapidaria. A selection of Latin verse inscriptions, Atlanta 1995, 80-81, 281-282, no. 62b (with English translation) D. Cherry, Frontier and society in Roman North Africa, Oxford 1998, 206, 223. P. Cugusi, Carmina Latina Epigraphica e novellismo. Cultura di centro e cultura di provincia: contenuti e metodologia di ricerca, Mat. Disc. An. testi Clas. 53 (2004), 152-153. P. Cugusi, Per un nuovo corpus dei Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Materiali e discussioni, Roma 2007, 150. M. E. Arena, Praeteritae carmina vitae. Pietre e parole di Numidia, Rome 2011, 222-225, no. N_38_L_20 (with Italian translation, photo and facsimile, 222) J. Velaza, In Ballistam. Entre la literatura y la epigrafía. In: J. A. Beltrán Cebollada (ed.), A. Encuentra Ortega (ed.) et al., Otium cum dignitate. Estudios en homenaje al profesor José Javier Iso Echegoyen, Zaragoza 2013, 777-781 - AE 2015 AE 2015, 00074 https://edcs.hist.uzh.ch/monument/15700076 | EDCS-15700076 https://edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/inschrift/HD021222 | HD021222 https://www.mqdq.it/textsce/CE|appe|0318 | MQDQ