The Lapis Satricanus, or, "stone of Satricum", was a yellow stone found in the ruins of the ancient Satricum, near Borgo Montello (), a village of southern Lazio, dated late 6th century to early 5th century BC. It reads:

(?)IEI STETERAI POPLIOSIO VALESIOSIO SVODALES MAMARTEI

or, "The (?) dedicated this, as companions of Publius Valerius, to Mars."

The Popliosio Valesiosio is probably a reference to Publius Valerius Publicola, a republican senator of Rome.

The inscription is in archaic Latin or a closely related dialect. It is important for comparative Indo-European grammar as it is the only one to show the ending -osio for the genitive singular of the thematic noun declension in Latin. Later Latin has -î as the ending for this case but by comparison with Greek and other languages it becomes clear that -osio is more original.

References

• Beekes, R. S. P. (Robert Stephen Paul). taalwetenschap. English Comparative Indo-European linguistics : an introduction. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. 1995.

External links

• Il Lapis Satricanus (in Italian)
• Publius Valerius Publicola

Roman archaeology | Inscriptions