Lapis Satricanus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lapis Satricanus, or, "stone of Satricum", was a yellow stone found in the ruins of the ancient Satricum, near Borgo Montello (), a village of southern Lazio, dated late 6th century to early 5th century BC. It reads:
(?)IEI STETERAI POPLIOSIO VALESIOSIO SVODALES MAMARTEI
or, "The (?) dedicated this, as companions of Publius Valerius, to Mars."
The Popliosio Valesiosio is probably a reference to Publius Valerius Publicola, a republican senator of Rome.
The inscription is in archaic Latin or a closely related dialect. It is important for comparative Indo-European grammar as it is the only one to show the ending -osio for the genitive singular of the thematic noun declension in Latin. Later Latin has -î as the ending for this case but by comparison with Greek and other languages it becomes clear that -osio is more original.
[edit] References
- Beekes, R. S. P. (Robert Stephen Paul). [Vergelijkende taalwetenschap. English] Comparative Indo-European linguistics : an introduction. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. 1995.
