The Cippus Abellanus is a stone slab inscribed in the Oscan language.[1] It is one of the most important examples of the Oscan language along with the Tabula Bantina.[2]
The Cippus Abellanus is part of the collection of the in Nola, Italy.
The Cippus Abellanus was discovered on the site of the ancient town of Abella (now Avella) in 1745, being used as a base for a door.
The Cippus Abellanus is a limestone tablet 192 cm high (~ six feet) high by 55 cm wide and 27cm thick. The engraved letters are 3.5 cm high on average. The date likely some time in the 2nd century BCE, probably around 150. These inscriptions use the Etruscan alphabet.
Cippus Abellanus is an agreement marking the limits between the cities of Abella and Nola around a temple dedicated to Heracles.[3]
Side A (numbers indicate lines)
Side B
Side A (numbers indicate sections/paragraphs)
Side B
Note that Pulgrum sakaraklum as "sanctuary," that is the entire temple compound or sacred area, while fiisnu is the building of the temple itself.[4]
While most scholars take fufans in line 10 as a perfect of * fu < Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- "be" plus a perfective ending from the same root, also seen in Latin -ba perfects such as da-ba-m "I was giving,"[5] Pizani analyzes this form as from PIE *bhudh- "be aware, make aware" which in Western Indo-European developed meaning involving spoken agreements (or disagreements). So the meaning of the relevant phrase would be more like "the delegates from each side were provided with the power of attorney to negotiate."[6]
The word slaagí- can mean either a boundary or the territory defined by that boundary. Joseph (1982) connects it etymologically with Greek le:go: "leave off, cease," from a substantization of the zero-grade abstract -i stem Proto-Indo-European *slH1g-i- meaning "the place where the territory leaves off or ceases."[7]