Epitaph of Tiberios Petronios Kapiton
created: Transcription from editor.
source date: Probably 198/9 AD
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All citation, reuse or distribution of this work must contain a link back to DOI: https://doi.org/10.60760/unibo/igcyrgvcyr2 and the filename (IGCyr000000 or GVCyr000), as well as the year of consultation. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

[...], pp. 388-392 (Letronne), pl. LXII (also [...], pp. 183-188) and [...], n. 50, whence [...], 5172; [...], n. 418; [...], n. 1522; [...] 016.

ἔτους σκθ Τιβέριος Πετρώνιος Καπίτων ἐτῶν δκ.

Βαιόν σοι τὸ μεταξὺ βίου θανάτοιό τ' ἔθηκε ∴
καὶ τύμβου, Καπίτων, καὶ θαλάμοιο Τύχη ·
νύκτα μίαν ψεῦστιν καὶ ἀνηλέα, τὴν ἄνις αὐλῶν ·
τὴν δίχα σοι παστῶν, τὴν ἄτερ εἰλαπίνης ·
αἲ αἲ τὴν ἐπὶ πέπλα καὶ εἰς ἀμύριστα πεσοῦσαν ⨯
στέμματα καὶ βίβλους σεῖο, πρόμοιρε, τέφρην·
οἲ θρήνοισι βοητὸν Ὑμήναον· οἲ προκελεύθους ⦢
λάμπαδας ὑστατίου καὶ κενεοῖο λέχους ∴

σκθ[^1][^a1] δκ[^2][^a2] πεσοῦσαν ⨯[^a3] τέφρην[^3]

[^a1: σκθ | κθ | Καταχθονίοις θεοῖς]

[^a2: δκ | ἐτῶν κ]

[^a3: πεσοῦσαν ⨯ | πεσοῦσαν]

[^1: Chamoux' suggestion, see commentary]

[^2: Letronne's reading]

[^3: either omitted by Pacho or by the stone-cutter]

L'an 229, Tiberios Petrônios Kapitôn, mort à l'âge de 24 ans.

La Fortune a mis pour toi un espace bref

entre la vie et la mort et entre le tombeau et la chambre nuptiale, Kapitôn,

elle a mis une seule nuit, mensongère et impitoyable, une nuit sans flûtes,

une nuit pour toi privée de voiles nuptiaux, une nuit dépourvue de festin ;

hélas, ta cendre tombant sur tes vêtements, sur tes couronnes

non encore parfumées, sur tes livres, mort que tu es avant l'heure !

Ah, Hyménée célébré par des thrènes ! Ah, les flambeaux

qui t'ont escorté vers cette couche ultime et vide !

Year 229, Tiberios Petronios Kapiton, died aged 24 years.

Fortune set for you a short space

between life and death and between the tomb and the bridal-room, Kapiton,

she set one night, deceptive and pitiless, a night without flutes,

a night deprived for you of wedding curtains, a night lacking banquet;

alas, your ashes falling down onto your dress, onto your wreaths

not yet flavoured, onto your books, you dead before your time!

Ah Hymenaos celebrated with laments! Ah torches

leading you to this ultimate and empty couch!

Anno 229, Tiberios Petronios Kapiton, di 24 anni.

La Sorte ha posto per te un intervallo breve

tra la vita e la morte, tra la tomba, Kapiton, e la stanza nuziale,

una sola notte, menzognera e impietosa, senza flauti,

lontana per te dalle cortine del talamo, senza banchetto;

ahimé cadono sulle tue vesti, sulle tue corone

non ancora profumate, sui tuoi libri le ceneri, tu morto anzitempo!

Oh Imeneo celebrato con lamenti! Oh, torce

che ti hanno scortato verso questo letto, estremo e vuoto!

In Pacho's volume of plates, the copy of this inscription, along with IGCyr006800, is given as from Cyrene. In the volume of text, Letronne's notes also give Cyrene as provenance, whereas the same [...] mentioned Ptolemais, probably erroneously.

The beginning of line 1 was restored in various ways, implying no gap or a gap of only one letter. We follow here a restoration suggested by Chamoux (doctoral seminar 1980): as the copy shows a lacuna of two characters, the most plausible restoration leads to a date expressed through the siglum for 'year' followed by a number consisting of three characters, of which the first was lost: if it was a ρ the year would be 129 (of Actian era i.e. 98/9 AD), if σ it would be 229 (i.e. 198/9 AD). The latter seems preferable on behalf of the lettering, which might be compared with that of IRCyr2020 C.152.

Kapiton died one day before his wedding; the poem thus highlights all the details of a wedding celebration transformed into a mourning celebration. The poet proves to be a good artist, playing with variety inside repetition and using sometimes rare words: although clear in meaning and formation, the feminine ψεῦστις and the simple βοητός are hapax legomena. Luca Ruggeri (per litteras) points out that the phrase τὴν ἄνις αὐλῶν might be a reminiscence of Callimachus' Aitia, fragment 3.

Metrical analysis: after two lines mentioning the deceased, four regular elegiac couplets.