The case of ILBulg 248: A la recherche des noms perdus

Abstract

The author proposes a new reading of the Roman epitaph from Lǎdžane near Lovech, Bulgaria. Much of his interpretation of this heavily fragmented text is about various possibilities and relative probabilities of restitution of its lost parts. Beside battered phrases and trivialities the epitaph seems to relate a rather extraordinary case of death in the marital bed, not without connexion to the myth of Atalante as told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses. The author also suggests that the few palpable oddities of language and style may have had their motive in as many puns intended on the (now mostly lost) personal names of the deceased and her family members.

Keywords

• Roman Epigraphy
• Latin Verse Inscriptions
• Epitaphs
• The Language of Latin Poetry