Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Epitaph of a Trumpeter
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum III 4483 = Carmina Latina Epigraphica 1082 (from Carnuntum in Pannonia, my translation):
Theodor Mommsen, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Vol. III, Pars I: Inscriptiones Aegyptii et Asiae, Inscriptiones Provinciarum Europae Graecarum, Inscriptiones Illyrici (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1873), p. 558:
Franz Buecheler, Carmina Latina Epigraphica (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1895), p. 496, number 1082:
Newer› ‹Older
Gaius Valerius, son of Gaius, of the Sergian tribe, from Heraclea (?), trumpeter,For vivite felices quibus est cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.493; for ad superos, cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.481. The stone:
soldier of Apollo's 15th Legion, with 16 years of service,
36 years old, lies here.
Live happy, you to whom a longer time has been given.
I lived pleasantly, as long as I was allowed, among men above.
If I deserved it, say: May the earth be light upon you.
C(aius) Valerius C(ai) f(ilius) Ser(gia) Her(?) tub(icen)
mil(es) leg(ionis) XV Apoll(inaris) stip(endiorum) XVI
ann(orum) XXXVI h(ic) s(itus) e(st).
vivite felices quibus est data longior (h)ora.
vixi ego dum licuit dulciter ad superos.
dicite, si merui, sit tibi ter(r)a levis.
Her(aclea) dubitanter Peter Kruschwitz, "Poetische Grenzerfahrungen: Gedanken zu den römischen Versinschriften von Carnuntum," p. 1
Her(donia): Otto Seeck, "Die Zusammensetzung der Kaiserlegionen," Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 48 (1893) 602-621 (at 610)
