Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

inscriptions ST Cp 27,29, and 30, and medikkiai tüvtikai in ST Cp 28 439 Buck
suggests that the locative of the office should be translated as `in the meddixship',
which was used to date the inscriptions 440 Thus the three inscriptions, ST Cp 27,29
and 30, would record celebrations while Decius Virrius and Lucius Pettius were the
meddices and ST Cp 28 a feast while Minius Annius was the meddix tuticus. An
alternative view, put forward by Franchi de Bellis that it should be translated as `in
the presence of, is not convincing 441
Sartori and Campanile have argued that if both the title meddix and meddix
tuticus were eponymous it would follow that the two were identical 442 The fact that
in every case the name of only one office-holder appears seems to confirm this
argument. Admittedly, the inscription ST Cp 34 says that `in the presence of the
meddix tuticus Cainpanus feast tables must be offered, which are (prepared) on the
day after the vehianae, when Minius Nivellius was the meddix', which seems to
distinguish the title of the meddix tuticus Campanus form that of the simple
meddiz. 443 However, the simple meddiz probably stands for the office of meddix
tuticus, but the qualifying adjective of the title is omitted. Epigraphic and literary
evidence therefore agree that the office of the meddix tuticus was single, annual and
eponymous.
438 The arguments of Franchi de Bellis (1981) 67-74 are convincing.
439 In inscription ST Cp 34 the office appearing at the end of the inscription is emended to
medik(kiai), in ST Cp 24 to m(eddikkiai). t(üvtikai).
440
Buck (1974) 200.
441
Franchi de-Bellis (1981) 194.
442 See Sartori (1959) 20-1. Campanile-Letta (1979) 20.
443 Before Vetter it was thought that the office of meddix was followed by one word, minive,
interpreted as an adjective, minor, linked to the office, which implied that the meddix tuticus had a
colleague of lower rank. However Vetter pointed out minive is in fact two words: mi nive, which
probably stand for the name of the meddix, Minius Nivellius. The interpretation of Franchi de Bellis
(1981) 145 does not seem convincing. She accepts the previous reading of minive, but translates the
word as `limitatamente', suggesting that the meddix tuticus Campanus assisted the whole banquet
(adpüd filet = as long as they last, reference taken from the other side of the stone, ST Cp 33), while
the presence of the meddix was `limited' only to the sacrifice with cereals.
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