Fibule de Préneste

The Fibule of Préneste is presented like carrying the oldest Latin writing in found in the Latium, seventh century BC It is preserved at the prehistoric Museum Pigorini with Rome.

Origin of the fibule

This fibule was presented for the first time in 1887 by the German archeologist Wolfgang Helbig (1839-1915). This one said to have bought it with a friend in 1876, and gave as origin the Tombe Bernardini, discovered in 1851 and excavated as from 1871 close to the Latin antique quoted of Préneste (current Palestrina). The object was registered with the inventory of the Bernardini tomb until 1919, date on which it was withdrawn from it, because of the absence of archaeological certainty on its exact source.

Let us note that a fibule similar, out of gold and engraved, was found in Étrurie in Clusium (current Chiusi) ( Recherches on the gold fibule registered of Chiusi: oldest epigraphic mention of the name of the Etruscans of Jacques Heurgon, Rome, 1971). Others fibules of the same type were found in Étrurie, in Latium and in Campania, and were dated between the ‑ VIIIe and ‑ Life centuries.

Description

The fibule, long, 11,7 cm is a gold jewel. Of type known as fibula has drago (fibule with dragon), it presents profile in the form of a round loop prolonged by a needle and its sleeve. The sleeve of the fibule carries an inscription written from right to left. Transcribed in modern characters, it is read as follows: MANIOS MED FHE FHAKED NUMASIOI

Who gives in traditional Latin, MANIUS ME FECIT NUMARIO, translated by “Manius made me for Numarius (Numérius)”

The arguments in favor of the seniority of the inscription are the following:

the drafting from right to left;
the antiquated transcription of the aspired Latin consonant F by fh ;
antiquated grammar with personal in - bone , a dative in - oi , the personal pronoun with the accusative med , the perfect one of the verb facere with redoubling of the initial syllable;
the antiquated shape of the letters, comparable with the letters of the Greek inscriptions found with Cumes;
the text is former to the " rhotacisme" : one thus calls the fact that in traditional Latin, the " s" placed between vowels (numaSioi) evolved/moved in " r". For example, infinitive piles up becomes amare , whereas " esse" remain in the state.

Discussions on the authenticity

Doubts were emitted on the authenticity of the inscription at the beginning of the XXe century, considering the dubious circumstances of its discovery. The fibule nevertheless is mentioned in dedicated works in ancient Rome (like the very traditional ancient Roman Guide of 1952), and it was presented in 1977 to the exposure to the Petit Palais (Paris) on the birth of Rome. The catalog of the exposure into present two photographs, among the objects of the Bernardini tomb. However, it is noted that these stereotypes, in sights of top and back face, omit to show the inscription, nevertheless evoked in the talks in preamble to the catalog.

The Italian epigraphist Margherita Guarducci (1902-1999) emitted in 1979 the opinion that this fibule would be a forgery, fruit of collaboration between Wolfgang Helbig and the antique dealer Francesco Martinetti. Its position did not achieve the unanimity and the debate is currently not closed, though several sites on Internet present the fibule like a falsification. Powerful means such as the electron microscope could be used for the examination of the engraving of the suspecté text, but the use of such methods is not announced in the articles evoking this fibule.

Sources

G. Hacquard, ancient Romain Guide , traditional Hatchet, 1952
Massimo Pallotino and Giovanni Colonna, Birth of Rome , catalogs exposure to the Petit Palais in Paris, 1977

See too

Préneste

Biography of Wolfgang Helbig on the

External bonds

Photo ''' of the fibule ''' in '' Fibula Prænestina '' (Bibliotheca Augustana, University of Augsburg)

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