Greek and Latin Inscriptions

The objective of this “Master’s thesis” is to study a painting by Alessandro Bonvicino, better known as Moretto da Brescia (c. 1498-1554): Portrait of Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco, c. 1542, also known as “NG 299” - according to its inventory number - now on view at the National Gallery of London. This study examines if the sitter really was Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco. However, the emphasis is on the Greek inscription on the badge sewn onto the brim of the sitter’s feather beret.

La recente, importante edizione della stele di Cornelio Gallo a Philae, oltre a raggiungere conclusioni pressoché definitive su questioni specifiche suscitate dal prezioso monumento, sgombrando il campo da radicati pregiudizi, rinnova il dibattito mai interrotto sulle ragioni della disgrazia e della morte di Gallo, escludendo che nella stele vi siano tracce di suoi reati. Anche il riesame delle fonti e la considerazione della cronologia dei fatti permettono di escludere qualsiasi presenza nella stele e nelle sue iscrizioni di colpe di Gallo contro Ottaviano.

The Beersheba church is remarkable in many respects. Its exceptional internal full cross-shaped plan introduced a new type of church into the repertoire of ecclesiastical architecture of Byzantine Palaestina. The inscriptions contain a unique architectural term and a rare formulaic quotation, cited in the liturgy performed at the consecration of churches. The reference to the partition of the church allows a glimpse into the spatial perception of the church by its visitors. In addition, the dimensions and architectural complexity of the Beersheba church highlight the importance of Beersheba and its prominent place among the settlements of southern Palaestina.

The early Roman cemetery of Mazarakia, Thesprotia, Greece, is  represented  the through the graves and burial monuments architecture aw well as burial offerings. Korhonen reconstructs and analyses two epitaphs where latin inscriptions recorded Greek names of the deceased and dedicators posing interesting questions about the social differences amongst these local people . In Mazarakia primary cremation persisted until the middle of the 2nd century CE.

“INRI” is an abbreviation for the Latin IESUS NAZARENUS
REX IUDAEORUM “Jesus of Nazareth, King
of the Jews.”
These four letters were sometimes referred
to as the sacred monogram, perhaps they
originated as a kind of vague parallel to the Tetragrammaton,
YHWH. The four words written out can be seen, for instance,
in Giotto’s Crucifixion of Rimini, from the beginning
of the 14th century.

Key-words: INRI. TITULUS. CRUCIFIXION. LATIN INSCRIPTION.

L. Robert suggested that the cycle of epigrams from Book VIII (176–256) of the Palatine An-thology was a lamentation on the destruction of the hierothesion of Nemrud Dağ. The execration epigrams of AP 8, 176–254 are not by Gregory of Nazianz. They belong to the Pagan tradition of the Greek epigrammatic poetry. The collection does not focus on one grave monument, but refers to different burial structures, different settings and in some cases to burial sites, what can be shown through the analysis of the ecphrastic verses in the collection. None of the execration epigrams points to a specified location, which may be suggestive of Kommagene, the Euphrates, and the Taurus Mountains. Some of them are suggestive of a magnificent sanctuary located high up in the mountains (177, 178, 209, 230, 236). There are formal and structural parallels between the execra-tion epigrams AP 8, 176–254 and the royal inscriptions of Kommagene.

A Latin votive stele from Moesia dedicated to six deities · This paper presents a new Latin inscription from the Antiquities market. The iconographical and textual study gives some clues to investigate its provenance. Due to the evidence, we propose a Balkan origin. It was probably made in the Roman province of Moesia. This inscription speaks about a dedication made by a magistratus of an unidentified town to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, Juno Regina, Hercules Invictus, Liber, Libera, and Ceres.

Revised and extended version of the paper "The Kind Look of the Muses, The Evil Eye of Ares. Encomiastic strategies in Callimachus and in Hellenistic inscriptional epitaphs." delivered at the International conference "Casting Off Shadows: Hellenistic Poetry Beyond Callimachean Aesthetics", Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University, UK, 1-3/09/16.
The paper has also been presented in part, and with significant variants,  at the Università degli Studi di Bologna (03/02/17) and at the Università La Sapienza, Roma (05/12/16).

Many Hellenistic epitaphs for youths fallen in battle point out that the deceased belonged to the civic élite of the hoi apo tou gymnasiou. The importance attached to the poetic and musical paideia in these epigrams is such that the excellence of the deceased in this field is mentioned even before the military valor (traditionally the focus of war epitaphs). The article examines in detail some case studies, analyzing how in these epitaphs the relationship between military kleos and intellectual prestige unfolds, and comparing them with some key-expressions of the poems of Callimachus.