49 CIL 2.1293

 This poem, inscribed on a funerary altar in Salpensa (Utrera) in the province of Baetica (near Seville), commemorates a young friend whose appropriate name suggests he was probably a slave. After a one-line introduction, the rest of the inscription is in elegiac couplets.

 

Text 

Pȳlādēs Anni / Novati patris (servus?) / h(      ) s(            ) e(            ). / 

subductum prīmae Pyladēn haec āra iuventae / 

indicat, exemplum nōn leve amīcitiae

nanq(ue) sodalicii sacravit turba futurum / 

nominis indicium nec minus officii. / 

dicite, qui legitis, solito de more sepulto: / 

pro meritis, Pylades, sit tibi terra levis.

Commentariolum

1 patris: “the elder”.

2 Pyladēn: Greek accusative.

prīmae…iuventae: “in the prime of youth”, dative of separation with subductum.

4 nanq(ue) = namque.

6 solito de more: “according to traditional practice.”

sepulto: dative, indirect object with dicite.

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