Showing posts with label Greek Aspirates in Latin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek Aspirates in Latin. Show all posts

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Date of ILLRP 122/CIL I2.626

On pg. 59 n. 47 (where I refer to the inscription as
CIL I2.626), and pg. 482 (where I refer to the inscription as ILLRP 122) I use the forms ACHAIA and TRIVMPHANS from this famous inscription of Mummius supposedly dating from 145 BCE or shortly thereafter as evidence for the first attested spelling of a Greek aspirate with a stop plus h. (A picture of the inscription can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dandiffendale/2343690597/) In fact, there is reason to think that the text we have is a copy, perhaps from as late as the the 1st century CE—the date suggested by Kruschwitz 2002:140. If this is correct, then obviously we don't know if the letters H are from the original or the result of conscious or unconscious modernization. If we set aside the Mummius inscription, then the earliest examples of the stop-plus-h spelling are from the end of the 2nd century BCE, e.g. CORINTHIORVM (CIL I2.585 l. 96, 111 BCE) and DELPHIVS (ILLRP 337, 106 BCE, a bilingual inscription from Delphi).

Kruschwitz, Peter. 2002. Carmina saturnia epigraphica. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.