Towards the Interpretation of the Latin Inscription on a Fragment of a Roman Jug from the Territory of Ancient Nauportus Luka Repanšek* Recently, a yet unpublished inscribed fragment of a Roman ceramic jug recovered from the Ljubljanica river near the ancient Roman vicus of Nauportus (present-day Vrhnika) came under renewed attention of archaeologists and epigraphers.1 Due to its squat lower 1 The ceramic jug was found in the Ljubljanica river near Vrhnika (ancient Nauportus) in the late nineteen-eighties, at which point the drawing of the inscription and the sherd itself was made by Dragica Knific Lunder. I was approached by Asst. Dr. Tina Berden to inspect the inscription in November 2023. Unfortunately, the paleographic and linguistic analysis had to be per- formed with the help of the drawing alone since the jug is currently missing and could so far not be relocated among the inventory held by the National Museum of Slovenia. Since, for this reason, an autopsy was impossible, I am careful about making any assumptions about the second inscription applied to the bottom of the pot (seemingly ante cocturam as is typical of potters’ signatures), that one badly damaged. What can be established is that it uses the capitalis and that the last letter is t, so it almost undoubtedly represents a verb in the 3rd person singular. Based on the numerous parallels, the likeliest candidate is fecit, but judging from the drawing, the antepenultimate letter form can hardly represent a . What can be established with certainty is that the two inscriptions do not belong together and form two separate units. They were applied in two different chronological phases, two different techniques, and two different Roman scripts. Typologically, the co-occur- * University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana; luka.repansek@ff.uni-lj.si. The author acknowledges the financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P6-0218). doI: https://doi.org/10.4312/clotho.6.2.57-69 LUKA REPANŠEK58 body, the jug can be broadly dated to the period between the last third of the 2nd century BC and the first half of the 1st century AD: since the neck and mouth are missing, as is the handle, a more precise date is impossible to establish. No local varieties of such vessels are on record, so the jug almost undoubtedly represents an Italic import.2 The bottom of the jug bears a Latin graffito arranged in an al- most perfect semicircle (see Fig. 1). The inscription is exceptionally well preserved, with slight damage at the rightmost edge, where the upper part of the last letter has been broken off. Enough cha- racteristic traits of the damaged letter form are still intact, however, for it to be undoubtedly recognized as an . The inscription consists of three words separated by two mismatching word dividers (represented in the transcription as = and –, respectively) scratched post cocturam in Old Roman cursive (i.e., cursive majuscule) and can be roughly dated to the 1st century AD. This is supported by the shape of the letter , which is of the archaic, three-bar type with the medial articulus still attached to the right oblique hasta,3 the equally archaic- looking single-stroke with a nondetached upper curve (prevalent in inscriptions dating to the period between the 1st c. BC and 2nd c. AD), and further corroborated by the conservative four-stroke (1st c. BC–2nd c. AD), three-stroke (1st c.–2nd c. AD), two-stroke , all three with unattached strokes, the primitive bow-shaped , and non-slanted . These live side-by-side with the non-archaic lambda-like two-stroke , which was gaining rence of cursive or non-cursive inscriptions with potters’ signatures is not uncommon. 2 I wish to thank Boštjan Laharnar (National Museum of Slovenia), Tina Berden (Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Scien- ces and Arts), Jure Krajšek (Celje Regional Museum), Janka Istenič (National Museum of Slovenia), and Jana Horvat (Research Centre of the Slovenian Aca- demy of Sciences and Arts) for their invaluable insights into the archaeologi- cal context of the find, as well as Michael Weiss (University of Cornell) and Reinhold Wedenig (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) for valuable comments on the first draft. All opinions and errors remain entirely my respon- sibility. 3 Note that this is not necessarily conclusive, as can be suspected based on the individual specimens of the three-bar in later inscriptions reaching up to the beginning of the 3rd century AD (see Bakker and Galsterer-Kröll, Graffiti auf römischer Keramik, 13–14, and Wedenig, “Graffiti,” 554 (Fig. 117, No. 94)). LATIN INSCRIPTION ON A FRAGMENT OF A ROMAN JUG 59 ground in first-century Roman cursive inscriptions and became well-established by the 2nd century.4 The second, almost s-like that extends into a prominent leftward tail is paleographically rather remarkable. Given that the first word is unambiguously a genitive singular of a male personal name, however, the reading seems incontrovertible. Somewhat problematic is the last letter but two, which resembles the first characterized by a short horizontal headmark. The fact that here the horizontal stroke cuts through the vertical hasta could, however, speak in favor of a . The type of with a short intersecting vertical hasta is well-attested in ancient graffiti.5 However, in the case of the graffito from Ljubljanica, this would be the lectio difficilior, given that such a minimalistic representation of a stands in stark contrast to the sixth letter form, which is marked by a pronounced vertical line (as is generally typical of Roman Cursive) and undoubtedly represents a . The reading can be established as an owner’s mark formulated as the so-called “speaking object” inscription (“I am the x of y”): amianti = svm – cvrtoṣ Typologically similar graffiti can be found on the bottom of coarse ware from all around the Roman empire, e.g., Helueiti sum (CIL 1, 2376 = 15, 5925, Rome),6 Hyalissi sum (CIL 15, 5926, Rome), sum Marti(a)lis (CIL 15, 5927, Rome), Philerotis sum (CIL 15, 5928, Rome), Epaphroditi sum (CIL 10, 8055.14, Pompeii),7 Paris sum (EDR 177101, Aquileia), Romuli sum (AE 1968, 304 = EDCS-09701573 = 54600377, Lu- gudunum),8 Tiburtini sum (AE 1958, 53 = EDCS-13500186, Peyrestortes),9 4 Cf. the typology of Old Roman Cursive used in Pompeii (CIL 4, p. 273), the tabellae defixionum discussed by Bartoletti, “La scrittura Romana,” 43 (Fig. 1), Schiaparelli, La scrittura, 39–105, and the discussion of ORC used in the Roman writing tablets discovered in Vindolanda (Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda, 51–71). Cf. also Mallon, Paléographie romain, and De Robertis, “Old Roman Cursive.” For a periodization of the letter shapes typical of graffiti on Roman ceramic vessels, see Bakker and Galsterer-Kröll, Graffiti auf römischer Keramik, 13–28. 5 See Schiaparelli, La scrittura, 99, Fig. 1, No. 7. 6 The entire inscription reads Noli me tollere. Helueiti sum ‘Do not steal me. I belong to Helveitus.’ 7 Epaphroditi sum. Tangere me noli ‘I belong to Epaphroditus. Do not touch me!’ 8 Romuli sum. Kaue fur ‘I belong to Romulus. Beware, thief!’ 9 Tiburtini sum. Fur, caue malum ‘I belong to Tiburtinus. Be careful, thief!’ Fig. 1: The Latin inscription scratched on the bottom of the Roman potsherd from the Ljubljanica river. Drawing: Dragica Knific Lunder, © Narodni muzej Slovenije LATIN INSCRIPTION ON A FRAGMENT OF A ROMAN JUG 61 Maximini sum (EDCS-48800014, Matrica),10 Gaii sum peculiaris (RIB 2502.2, Londinium), Nat(alis) sum (RIB 2303.352, Bremetennacum), [---]i · sum [---] or [---a]e sum [---] (Wedenig 2000, No. 34, p. 56). In all of the enumerated cases, the object’s designation is elided – clearly because it would have been obvious and could be supplied at any moment. Owner’s marks of this type (i.e., consisting of a genitive of a personal name, usually the cognomen, and the verb sum ‘I am’) in which the speaking object explicitly names itself indeed seem to be an exception rather than the rule,11 and there are barely any that one could directly compare to the graffito attested on the potsherd from Ljubljanica. There is an example of a decorated drinking vessel from Ercavica (Hispania) that claims [---]n(a)e pan(n)a sum (EDCS- 03700466) ‘I am the panna of [---]na’,12 while the plate from Iuvavum (Wedenig, Geschirrgraffiti, 321, Fig. 3–4) is ambiguous and relevant to our case only if the reading is to be interpreted as Luciaes Q. uas sum (or, potentially, Luciae SQ. uas sum) ‘I am the dish of Lucia Q.’ rather than the equally probable Luciaes Quas. sum.13 Additional two cases of a structurally parallel formula seem to be Euces sum p[atera] (CIL 1, 3405b) and [---]cnnidi sum po[culum] (Agostiniani, Iscrizioni parlanti, No. 601, p. 244). The Roman cognomen Amiant(h)us,14 here attested in the possessive genitive Amianti ‘of Amiantus,’ is most widely attested in central Italy, particularly in Rome and at Pompeii, with sporadic occurrences in Venetia et Histria, Noricum, Dalmatia, Belgia, Germania, Hispania, and Africa proconsularis.15 The spelling Amianthus predominates and is about two times more commonly attested in Roman inscriptions than its varia lectio Amiantus.16 The geographical distribution of the 10 Maximini sum. Refer me. ‘I belong to Maximinus. Give me back!’ 11 But contrast this with the (equally rarely attested!) type panna Balbi, Donati urciolus, or Pacuui olola (see Vavassori, “La personalizzazione,” 94–99). 12 [---]n(a)e pan(n)a sum. Pone. ‘I am [---]’s panna. Put (me) down!’ vel sim. 13 The inscription panna Uerecundaes empta uiges from Flavia Solva (Noll, Sigillataschüssel, 149–52, cf. Wedenig, Geschirrgraffiti, 327) is irrelevant as a potential typological parallel, given that it is not in fact conceived as a “speak- ing object” inscription and rather refers to the price at which the vessel was bought. 14 The cognomen itself is based on a Greek personal name (see Pape, Wörterbuch, 73; Solin, Sklavennamen, 411; Solin, Die griechischen Personennamen, 785). 15 For the attestations see OPEL 1 s.v.; EDH s.v.; EDCS s.v.; Alföldy, Dalmatia, 147; Lochner von Hüttenbach, Steiermark, 15; Kakoschke, Germania, 98; Kakoschke, Noricum, 250). 16 For Latin see Leumann, Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre, 159–63. LUKA REPANŠEK62 spelling variants does not seem to form any significant patterns.17 However, the genitive singular Amianti is nearly always attested with a (eight out of eleven examples harvested by the EDCS read Amianti rather than Amianthi). Much less straightforward, and the real crux of this inscription is the word curtos that follows the copula sum. Given the typology of the inscription, the syntax here requires a nominative singular, but in an inscription datable to the 1st century AD, a nomi- native singular ending -os is entirely out of order in a word like curtos. In the Classical Latin period (1st c. BC to late 3rd c. AD), -os would only be expected and/or justifiable in a Latin transcription of a Greek word and in native words after consonantal u (i.e., the seruos, saluos type).18 One could potentially think of some embryonic Vulgar Latin development since a putative curtos < *curtus would be the expected outcome of the development of Latin (unaccented) u to Vulgar Latin ọ,19 but even so, curtos would be a unique example of such a spelling. There are only three examples of Latin (i.e., non-Greek) nominative singular -us (after consonants other than u /w/) being spelled <-os> on the wall graffiti from Pompeii (all male personal names), viz. Habitos (CIL 14, 6709),20 Uenustos21 (CIL 4, 3959), and Seueros22 (CIL 4, 8956),23 the majority of being again limited to cases like seruos (once even spelled seruo with final s-drop) for Classical Latin seruus.24 Nevertheless, even if the unexpected and, on the whole, an excepti- onally sparsely attested ending -os in curtos were explained along the 17 Note that none of the immediately adjacent attestations (both nominatives) has this variant; Waldstein, see CIL 3, 2362: Iulius Dii lib(ertus) Amianthus, and Aquileia, see Lettich, Aquileia, No. 120: Amianthus an(norum) V. 18 See Leumann, Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre, 49; 423. The territory of Emona itself has two examples of this phenomenon, viz. Flauos (CIL 3 10775 = Šašel Kos, Roman Inscriptions, No. 51 = Šašel Kos, Emona, No. 78), dated to the first third of the 1st c. AD, and Primitiuos (CIL 3, 3893 = Šašel Kos, Emona, No. 235), which is datable to the second century AD. 19 See Lausberg, Romanische Sprachwissenschaft, 204; Väänänen, Latin vulgaire, 36–37. 20 Questionable since marked as already invisible by CIL 4, though on record in EDCS (EDCS-27400100), EDR (EDR-180552), and AGP. 21 Note the coexistence of apparent -us > -ọs in the unaccented final position with the absence of simultaneous lowering of accented u > ọ, exactly like in curtọs < *curtus. 22 If not, in fact, Seuero s(alutem) as tentatively suggested by CIL. 23 Väänänen, Inscriptions pompéiennes, 28–29. 24 Väänänen, Inscriptions pompéiennes, 77–81. LATIN INSCRIPTION ON A FRAGMENT OF A ROMAN JUG 63 lines of incipient Vulgar Latin pronunciation of the type observable in Pompeian Uenustos, the central problem remains that Latin curtus does not seem to be attested in substantival use in any of the extant sources. The TLL 4.7 (s.v. curtus) gives the meanings ʻtruncated, cut (off), short, low; mutilated, shattered, brokenʼ (“truncus, lacer, frac- tus”), all of which derive from the basic meaning ̒ cut, shortenedʼ and are chiefly used to describe broken or damaged vessels (“praecipue de uasis”). In the eight attested examples, however, curtus is always used adjectivally: (1) Juvenal, Satires 3.270/71: rimosa et curta uasa ʻcracked and broken potsʼ (2) Lucilius, Satires 13.467: Samio curto catino ʻon a broken Samian plateʼ (3) Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 4.1026: dolia curta ʻchamber- potsʼ < ʻlow potsʼ (4) Martial, Epigrams 1.92.6: curtus calix ʻa broken cupʼ (5) Martial, Epigrams 3.82.3: curta testa ̒ from a broken/cracked jarʼ (6) Martial, Epigrams 12.32.13: matella curto rupta latere meiebat ʻa broken chamberpot (matella curta) was leaking through its shattered side (curto latere)ʼ (7) Propertius, Elegies 4.75 curto uetus amphora collo ʻan old amphora with broken neckʼ (8) Ovidius, Fasti 2.645 curto testu ʻon a potsherdʼ < ʻ(piece of) broken earthenwareʼ Since the jug is broken off right after curtos, the inscription might have been originally longer, terminating in a substantive, to which curtos would be the attributive adjective (e.g., curtus uasus vel sim.). If, however, the apparent nearly perfect semicircular organization of the inscription is premeditated, one would then have to reckon with something like a substantivized (via ellipsis) curtus to designate a specific type of short vessel, for which there does not seem to be any substantial proof in the attestations (except for dolium curtum ʻchamberpotʼ). Another option, then, is to think along the lines of curtus being used metonymically for ̒ potʼ (cf. Old Church Slavonic črěpъ ̒ earthen- ware, pot; shardʼ or Slovene črep and črepinja ʻidem ,̓ which go back etymologically to ʻ(pot)sherdʼ).25 However, based on the available 25 See Bezlaj, Etimološki slovar, 87–88 s.v. črep, Snoj, Slovenski etimološki slovar, s.v. črep. LUKA REPANŠEK64 evidence, such a possibility, even though theoretically still within the realm of plausibility, remains unsubstantiated for Latin, and neither does it seem to be supported by the linguistic data from Romance languages.26 Be that as it may, the fact is that in our inscription, the object possessed by Amiant(h)us explicitly names itself. In contrast, typo- logical parallels on Arretine pottery show that this was not usually the case but that the obviousness of what was owned rather obviated the need to express it. This would support the idea that is not, in fact, the obvious or indeed, the common designation of the object at hand. Since -os in post-second-century inscriptions can be most straight forwardly explained along the lines of a Latinate tran- scription of an Ancient Greek word, as already pointed out above, an additional possibility presents itself, namely that stands for Greek κύρτος ʻweel, fish trapʼ (cf. κύρτη).27 Greek upsilon (υ) was regularly transcribed as in Latin borrowings up to the Augustan era, which finally saw the introduction of (along- side ), but the use of simple for <υ> was still commonly used well into the 1st c. AD,28 so that for should not be too surprising.29 One can imagine ceramic pots being (re-) used as fish or, more specifically, eel traps. However, what seems to be inferable from the archaeological finds, combined with the depictions of fishing gear on Roman mosaics and supported by modern-day practices in the Mediterranean, is that fishing pots were used predominantly to catch octopus and cuttlefish.30 Since an ordinary clay jar used as a fishing pot would not be specifically marked as such (none of the preserved pots bear any comparable inscriptions), a repurposed ceramic jug might be unconventional enough to have merited the designation. The main problem with this is that the shape and size of such pots do not match the find from the Ljubljanica river. Based on the low and squat, somewhat 26 See Meyer-Lübke, Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 225, for the attesta- tions across Romance. 27 I owe the suggestion to Michael Weiss, University of Cornell (E-mail correspon- dence, 12/12/2023). 28 Väänänen, Inscriptions pompéiennes, 32–33. 29 For typological reasons at least, it is significantly less likely that this could be a Latinate spelling of the Greek adverb κυρίως ʻlegitimately, properlyʼ (with as the lectio facilior, for which see above). 30 See Montebelli, Halieutica, § Ollette fittili, and cf. Bernal-Casasola, “Fishing Tackle in Hispania,” 124–26. LATIN INSCRIPTION ON A FRAGMENT OF A ROMAN JUG 65 globular body and a broad ring base, the vessel was probably a Roman single-handled jug similar to a lagynos, which would typically terminate in a longish vertical neck and rounded mouth. The only remaining solution would be to assume that the graffito does not terminate after and abandon the lectio diffici- lior in favor of . This opens the possibility of reading the inscription as a bi-partite sequence and restoring curios[e] ʻwith care, carefully ,̓ which was probably followed by an imperative, cf. the inscription poni curiose ʻPut me back/down with careʼ from Gaul (CAG 2, 492, EDCS-42000208), and – for a less striking typological parallel – Pone me. Domnae sum ‘Restore me / Put me down! I belong to Domna’ (AE 2003, 1145 = EDCS-68300116, Latara). If our inscription is interpreted to stand for something like Amianti sum. Curios[e pone] ‘I belong to Amiantus. Put me back with care’ vel sim., this would neatly obviate the problem presented by the apparent substantive use of curtos, its dubious lexical meaning, the issues around the unexpected ending -os, and the fact that there are very few convincing parallels in the typologically comparable inscriptions to support the syntactic structure ʻI am the x of z.ʼ BIBLIOGRAPHY AGP = The Ancient Graffiti Project: A Digital Resource for Studying the Graffiti of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Available online. AE = L A̓nnée épigraphique, Paris, 1888–. CAG 2 = Carte archéologique de la Gaule. Vol. 2, L’Aisne. Paris: Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 2003. CIL = Mommsen, Theodor et al., eds. Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1862–. EDCS = Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby. Available online. EDH = Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg – Epigraphic database Heidelberg. Available online. EDR = Epigraphic Database Roma. Available online. OPEL 1 = Lörincz, Barnabás, ed. Onomasticon Provinciarum Europae Latinarum. New ed. Vol. 1, ABA–BYSANVS. Budapest: Martin Opitz Kiadó, 2005. RIB = Collingwood, R. George, and Richard P. Wright. Roman In- scriptions of Britain. Stroud: Sutton, 1990–95. TLL 4.7 = Thesaurus linguae Latinae. Vol. 4, bk. 7, cur–cyulus. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1991. LUKA REPANŠEK66 Agostiniani, Luciano. Le “iscrizioni parlanti” dell I̓talia antica. Flo- rence: Leo S. Olschki editore, 1982. Alföldy, Géza. Die Personennamen in der römischen Provinz Dalmatia. Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, 1969. Bakker, Lothar, and Brigitte Galsterer-Kröll. Graffiti auf römischer Keramik im rheinischen Landesmuseum Bonn. Cologne: Rhein- land-Verlag GMBH, 1975. Bartoletti, Guglielmo. “La scrittura romana nelle tabellae defixionum (secc. I a.C.–IV d.C.): Note paleografiche.” Scrittura e civiltà 14 (1990): 7–47. Bernal-Casasola, Darío. “Fishing Tackle in Hispania: Reflections, Proposals and First Results.” In Ancient Nets and Fishing Gear: Proceedings of the International Workshop on ‘Nets and Fishing Gear in Classical Antiquity: A first approach,’ Cádiz, November 15–17, 2007, edited by Darío Bernal Casasola and Tønnes Bek- ker-Nielsen, 83–137. Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz and Aarhus University Press, 2010. Bezlaj, France. Etimološki slovar slovenskega jezika 1: A–J. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1976. Bowman, Alan K., and John David Thomas. Vindolanda: The Latin Writing Tablets. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1983. De Robertis, Teresa. “Old Roman Cursive.” In The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography, edited by Frank T. Coulson and Robert G. Babcock, 39–59. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Kakoschke, Andreas. Die Personennamen in den römischen Provin- zen Germania inferior und Germania superior. 2nd ed. Vol. 2, bk. 1, Cognomina ABAIUS-LYCHNIS. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021. Kakoschke, Andreas. Die Personennamen in der römischen Provinz Noricum. Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann, 2012. Lausberg, Heinrich. Romanische Sprachwissenschaft. 3rd ed. Vol. 1, Einleitung und Vokalismus. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1969. Lettich, Giovanni. Itinerari epigrafici Aquileiesi: Guida alle iscrizioni esposte nel Museo archeologico nazionale di Aquileia. Trieste: Editreg srl, 2003. Leumann, Manu. Lateinische Grammatik. New ed. Vol. 1, Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre. Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuch- handlung, 1977. Lochner von Hüttenbach, Fritz. Die römerzeitlichen Personennamen der Steiermark: Herkunft und Auswertung. Graz: Leykam, 1989. LATIN INSCRIPTION ON A FRAGMENT OF A ROMAN JUG 67 Mallon, Jean. Paléographie romaine. Madrid: Consejo superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Antonio de Nebrija de Filología, 1952. Montebelli, Christina Ravara. Halieutica: Pescatori nel mondo antico. Pesaro: Museo della Marineria Washington Patrignani Pesaro, 2009. Noll, Rudolf. “Eine Sigillataschüssel mit Eigentumsvermerk und Preisangabe.” Germania 50 (1972): 148–52. Pape, Wilhelm, and Gustav Eduard Benseler. Wörterbuch der griechi- schen Eigennamen. 3rd ed. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg, 1884. Schiaparelli, Luigi. La scrittura latina nell e̓tà romana. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1979. First published 1921 by Ostinelli (Como). Snoj, Marko. Slovenski etimološki slovar. 3rd ed. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2016. Solin, Heikki. Die griechischen Personennamen in Röm: Ein Namenbuch. 2nd ed. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2003. ———. Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen: Ein Namenbuch. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1996. Šašel Kos, Marjeta. Emona. Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, 2024. ———. The Roman Inscriptions in the National Museum of Slovenia / Lapidarij Narodnega muzeja Slovenije. Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, 1997. Vavassori, Marina. “La personalizzazione della ceramica domestica.” Sylloge Epigraphica Barcinonensis 10 (2012): 81–99. Väänänen, Veikko. Introduction au Latin vulgaire. 3rd ed. Paris: Klincksieck, 1981. ———. Le Latin vulgaire dans les inscriptions pompéiennes. 3rd ed. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1966. Wedenig, Reinhold. “Graffiti aus den Grabungen 1997–1999 im vicus Ost von Mautern a.d. Donau.” In Forschungen im vicus Ost von Mauthern-Favianis: Die Grabungen der Jahre 1997–1999, edited by Stefan Groh and Helga Sedlmayer, 541–65. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006. ———. “Geschirrgraffiti mit Frauennamen aus Noricum.” In Instru- menta inscripta Latina II: Akten des 2. internationalen Kolloquiums Klagenfurt, 5.–8. Mai 2005, edited by Manfred Hainzmann and Reinhold Wedenig, 317–27. Klagenfurt: Verlag des Geschichts- vereines für Kärnten, 2008. ———. “Ritzinschriften auf Gefäßkeramik aus der römischen Siedlung von Gleisdorf.” In Gerhild Jeschek, Die grautonige Keramik aus dem römischen Vicus von Gleisdorf, edited by Thuri Lorenz, 35–76. Vienna: Phoibos-Verlag, 2000. LUKA REPANŠEK68 ABSTRACT A Latin possessor inscription was discovered scratched on the bottom of a Roman potsherd (datable to the period between the Late Republic and the Julio-Claudian dynasty) recovered from the Ljubljanica river near Vrhnika. The inscription reads amianti sum curtos in Old Roman cursive. Based on paleographical characteristics, the inscription can be tentatively dated to the 1st c. AD. Several good typological parallels of possessor inscriptions consisting of a genitive of a personal name and the verb sum are found on ceramic vessels across the Roman empire. However, the type in which the object explicitly names itself is rare. The Roman cognomen Amiant(h)us is well attested, especially in Italy, so the only problematic part of the inscription is curtos. Given that the pot is damaged, it is possible that the inscription was originally longer and that curtos stood in attributive position to a word like calix/uasus/ urceus et sim. If this is not the case, however, it can only be understood as a substantivization, potentially signifying something like a ʻ(pot) sherdʼ > ʻpotʼ. In support of this, however, Latin epigraphical and literary sources are silent. An additional problem is raised by the final -os, which in the Classical period would only be justifiable after u. The attested form curtos for expected curtus could potentially be explained as a reflex of Vulgar Latin development of us to -ọs, which is sporadi- cally attested in Pompeian graffiti, or assumed to be a letter-for-letter Latin transcription of the Ancient Greek word κύρτος ̒ (fish)trapʼ. The latter solution runs into the problem of the pot from Ljubljanica not matching what we know of ceramic pots used for fishing in terms of shape and dimensions. Given its shape, the vessel was probably a sin- gle-handled Roman lagynos. Allowing for the fact that the inscription does not terminate after and that the should be read as an , which indeed seems to be the lectio facilior, another possibility is to restore curios[e] ̒ with care, carefullyʼ and assume a bipartite text such as Amianti sum. Curios[e pone] vel simile. keywoRdS: Latin epigraphy, possessor inscriptions, paleography, Old Roman cursive LATIN INSCRIPTION ON A FRAGMENT OF A ROMAN JUG 69 K interpretaciji latinskega napisa na odlomku rimskega vrča z območja antičnega Navporta IZVLEČEK Na dnu rimskega keramičnega vrča, datiranega med poznorepu- blikansko in klavdijsko obdobje, ki je bil odkrit v reki Ljubljanici v bližini Vrhnike, je vpraskan dobro ohranjen latinski napis v starejši rimski kurzivi amianti sum curtos, ki se ga da na podlagi paleograf- skih značilnosti datirati v 1. stol. po Kr. Napis ima številne tipološke paralele na rimski keramiki, vendar v lastninskih napisih tega tipa, torej takih, ki vsebujejo osebno ime v rodilniku in glagol sum, predmet, ki je v posesti, samega sebe praviloma ne omenja eksplicitno. Rimski kognomen Amiant(h)us sicer prednjači v Italiji, a je dobro izpričan po celotnem imperiju, tako da kot izrazito problematična ostaja le beseda curtos. Ker je dno vrča poškodovano, je teoretično mogoče, da je curtos prvotno stal v atributivni poziciji, npr. curtos (calix/uasus/urceus …), sicer pa bi ga bilo treba razumeti v posamostaljeni funkciji (eventualno ʻčrepinjaʼ > ̒ posodaʼ), a za to v latinskih epigrafskih ali literarnih virih ni vzporednice. Poleg tega ostaja odprto vprašanje končnice -os, ki bi jo v klasičnem obdobju dejansko pričakovali zgolj v položaju za u. Obliko curtos za pričakovano curtus bi bilo sicer mogoče razložiti kot odraz vulgarnolatinske glasovne spremembe us > -ọs, kakršna je že v 1. stol. po Kr. izpričana na pompejanskih grafitih, ali pa sklepati, da gre v resnici za latinsko transkripcijo starogrške besede κύρτος ʻpast (za ribe)ʼ. Ob taki rešitvi sicer nastopi težava, da vrč iz Ljubljanice tipološko ne ustreza vrčem, ki so bili v rimskem obdobju v uporabi za lov na hobotnice in sipe, saj gre najverjetneje za enoročajni rimski vrč tipa lagynos. Če sprejmemo možnost, da je napis poškodovan, ter zadnjo ohranjeno besedo interpretiramo kot curios[e] ʻprevidnoʼ (ob upoštevanju dejstva, da po paleografskih značilnostih v odnosu do branja dejansko predstavlja lectio difficilior), bi ga bilo mogoče razumeti tudi kot dvodelno besedilo, npr. Amianti sum. Curios[e pone] ali podobno. ključne BeSede: latinska epigrafika, lastninski napisi, paleografija, starejša rimska kurziva