Tuesday, September 12, 2023

The Rapino Bronze (3rd c. BC): Text in Marrucinian-Oscan but composed in the Latin Alphabet

The Rapino Bronze is a third-century BC Marrucinian–Oscan dialect inscription but composed using the Latin alphabet. It was discovered in the early 19th century in a cemetery about a mile southeast of Rapino.

 

In his doctoral thesis, “The Sabellian Languages,” Rex E. Wallace provided the

 

The Bronze of Rapino

 

This inscription was found about a mile southeast of Rapino, approximately ten miles south of Teate, in what was apparently a graveyard of an ancient town (Conway 1897:253). The inscription was rather carelessly engraved in an early Latin alphabet. Coins which were found in neighboring graves point to a date somewhere in the vicinity of 250 B.C.

 

(Vetter 218):

 

aisos pacris total

maroucai lixs

asignas ferenter

auiatas toutai

maroucai ioues

patres ocres tarin

cris iouias agine

iafc esuc agine asum

babu apoleenis feret

regen[ai] peai cerie iouia

pacris.eituam amaten

s uenalinam.ni ta[.]a nipis.pedi suam

 

'(May) the gods (be) propitious. (A) regulation(s) for the Marrucinian community. The sacrificial flesh, judged propitious for the Marrucinian community by the oracle of Jove the father and of the Tarincrine mount, is brought forth. Babu (apoleenis) accepts the flesh from this oracle in order to burn (?) it for pia cerie iouia regina. May it be propitious. They have collected (?) the money received from the sale (of portions unused in sacrifice ?). Let no one touch any but his own.' (Rex E. Wallace, "The Sabellian Languages" [PhD dissertation; The Ohio State University, 1984], 101)

 

Such is an interesting parallel to texts such as Papyrus Amherst 63 (4th c. BC) that was written in Hieratic but the underlying language was Aramaic.