Un sacello rupestre di Silvano a Pescopagano (Potenza)

Valeria Frino, Alfredo Buonopane,

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Abstract

In the territory of Roman Compsa (regio II Italiae), today Conza della Campania (Avellino), in a dense thicket there is a sacellum of Silvanus, carved in a rock. It is a recess, where it was a small statue of the god, in the shape of a niche with two pillars supporting a tympanum,. At the bottom and along the right side there are two little hollows where the devotes put their votive offerings or their ex voto. Below there is a tabula ansata with an inscription known from the first years of the ninetheen century, but considered a fake by Theodor Mommsen. In fact, he was not able to find the sacellum and suspected the good faith of the first editor, Michele Arcangelo Lupoli. The autopsy ensures that it is an authentic inscription, a very important document because it is a rare example of a rock inscription. Here two men, father and son with the same name, C(aius) Baebius Lupulus, fulfill their vow to the god Silvanus. The text elements suggest a dating to the second century AD.

Keywords

• Iscrizione
• Inscription
• Epigrafia
• Basilicata
• Alfredo Buonopane