Journal | Axon
Journal issue | 7 | 2 | 2023
Research Article | Epitaph for Timokritos Who Fell in Battle Against the Aetolians
Epitaph for Timokritos Who Fell in Battle Against the Aetolians
Abstract
The metrical inscription celebrates the death of the soldier Timocritus, who was killed in a clash with the Aetolians. Previous editors have unanimously dated the text to the end of the third century BCE, believing the war event to be related to one of the assaults the Aetolians made against Acarnania during the social war of 220‑217 BCE. A re-examination of the text and a comparison with other metrical epigraphs found on site and with historical sources allows an alternative dating proposal to be made. According to Livy, the polis of Tyrrheus was attacked again in 192‑191 BCE by the Etholos-Syriac troops of Antiochus III. In the absence of an autopsy examination or images of the find, it therefore seems plausible to ascribe the inscription either to the end of the third century BCE, linked to the events of the social war of 220‑217 BCE, or to the beginning of the second century BCE, connected to the Aetolo-Syrian attack of 192‑191 BCE.
Submitted: Aug. 2, 2023 | Accepted: Nov. 28, 2023 | Published March 15, 2024 | Language: it
Keywords Soldier • Funerary epigram • Epigramma sepolcrale • Social war • Antioco III • Acarnania • Tirteo • Soldato • Antiochus III • Tyrtaeus • Damageto • Guerra sociale
Copyright © 2023 Marta Marucci. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Axon/2532-6848/2023/02/003
