Not exactly a numismatic thread but numismatics kind of led me to this. Around the time I got my coin of him, being the history nerd I am, I was looking up stuff on Ostrogothic king Athalaric, the grandson of the famed king Theodoric. I found online an inscription from his reign found on the amphitheater in Pavia or Milan (can't remember exactly which), and (not surprising) my self-taught, rudimentary Latin skills and knowledge have not helped me to 100% translate it. I even tried online translators but, as I had thought, they didn't help much. Text of the inscription: D.N. ATALARICVS REX GLORIOSISSIMVS HAS SEDIS SPECTACVLI ANNO REGNI SVI TERTIO FIERI FELICITER PRECEPET For starters, I know the first part is "Our lord, Athalaricus, most glorious king" or similar, but I'm having trouble with the rest. I know also though that SPECTACVLI means "show' or "spectacle", ANNO REGNI meaning "regnal year" or "year of [his] reign", and "TERTIO" being "third", so from all of this I'm guessing that the inscription is saying that Athalaric saw a spectacle in that amphitheater in the third year of his reign (529 AD). As I said earlier, my skills at proficiently reading Latin aren't very good (regrettably for me I never took a single class of it), so I wouldn't be surprised if my guess was wrong. Interestingly I found during my original online research that the inscription means that he dedicated the seats of the amphitheater in his third year as king, but I haven' been able to locate again the webpage that stated this. If anyone is able to help me with this Latin inscription, I'd be very grateful. I was able to find a photo of the actual inscription as well: Also, to keep this at least somewhat coin-related, here is my only coin of the boy-king Athalaric: Athalaric, Ostrogothic King of Italy (ruled 526-534 AD) AE Decanummium Obv: INVIC-TA ROMA, Roma helmeted, facing right Rev: DN ATHAL-ARICVS, Athalaric, in military outfit, standing, holding spear and shield, S-C across fields, X in left field Mint: Rome, struck 526-534 AD Ref: BMC Vandals 69, COI 85b, Very Rare
My Latin is (or has become ) rudimentary, but yes, "sedis spectaculi" - seat/place of the spectacle - refers to the (amphi)theater that Athalaric had built in Pavia. That inscription is pretty much the only remnant of the theater ... So my guess is that the text praises Athalaric as the one who had the place built. What I find interesting, by the way, is that the mason apparently made, or almost made, a spelling error - this page (in German) says that the last word should be "precepit", not "precepet". The writer started incising an E, then noticed the mistake, so that the character looks like a rectangular C. But the two photos look quite different in that regard ... Christian
Thanks for your input and for the link. I don't see the hasty correction either. I think the misspelling has to do with either the Latin proficiency of the engraver, or the gradual changing of the language itself during this time (if this was happening during this time, that is - I don't know for sure). This supposed misspelling of words can be seen also on post-Roman Germanic coinage as well. For instance, instead of REX ("king"), some coins will have it spelled as RIX. Also, INVICTA ("unconquerable" or "invincible") is sometimes written as IMVICTA on coins. I guess with the less emphasis placed on learning and regulating Latin around this time, changes were already beginning to show. That's my theory anyway. I think I also read somewhere that people were more apt around this time period to write words the way they heard them spoken and pronounced. Maybe our good buddy here heard "precepit" spoken as "precepet" and he remembered this and assumed that that latter was the correct way? We may never know.
