ИСТИНА

A.E. Kuznetsov. A Metrical Epitaph of L. Calidius Eroticus. The paper deals with a possible metrical reading of the epitaph of L. Calidius Eroticus CIL IX 2689. As early as 1849 Garrucci tried to read the epitaph as iambic senarii. Though this interpretation was abandoned by subsequent scholars, some wrong readings proposed metri causa by Garrucci have been retained. Modern transcriptions of the CIL IX 2689 put duo asses (or assibus) for the price marked as A. II and octo asses for A.VIII. A correct reading, however, would be dupundium and octussis. These readings make the text very close to correct trochaic septenarii. Nevertheless, a continuous trochaic scansion remains impossible. The CIL IX 2689 shares metrical incoherence with a large group of inscriptions whose meter is confused and correct verses are exceptional, but the standard meters of epitaphs of the Imperial age are hexameter and elegiac. The trochaic meter of the CIL IX 2689 is not based upon an epigraphic tradition. It is typical for drama, and the content of the epitaph, as well as its dialogic form, also indicate some comic genre as a literary source. It does not imply that the CIL IX 2689 is a direct quotation from a literary drama. If we consider the literary features of the epitaph and the probable date of the monument (early A.D. 2nd cent.), we can surmise that Eroticus, who wished to put a comic dialogue on his grave stone, was professionally related to theater, and that he is likely to have been an actor of mimus.