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

name and his office (all dative singular) appear another two words, prupukid sverrunei,
both hapax legomena, which have been interpreted in a number of ways. Prupukid is in
the ablative singular, sverrunef in the dative singular. Most scholars have related these
two expressions to the office of quaestor. 635 They suggest a translation of prupukid
sverrunei as 'superintendent, supervisor by agreement'. La Regina instead suggests that
the words are two cognomina meaning 'from the house/clan of Sverrunus'. 636 But a
`clan' identity of this type would be unique, and if it was part of his name, we might
expect it to appear also on the boundary inscription from Abella. It is possible that the
`str' was not a papponym or cognomen, but it was linked with the office and thus the
prupukid sverrunei could be interpreted as `supervisor (of the sanctuary? ) by agreement
of str( ).
The name of the rneddix degetasius of Nola is clear, Maius Lucius son of Maius,
but before we come to his office we must examine the word, pukalatüi, which has also
caused dispute. It is another hapax legomenon, but several scholars have pointed out that
the stem of the word, puklo-, meaning filius or son, suggests that it is to do with family
relations. 637 Poccetti compared it to the Latin patratus, a 'person who has sons, but who
himself is still a son', but the Latin patratus does not form part of people's names.
638 La
635 Pisani (1953) 66. translates prupukid as 'ex praefinito', that is 'from or by appointment', 'prescription'.
Bottiglioni's (1954) 45 solution is quite similar to that of Pisani, pro pacto', that is 'according to an
agreement'. Franchi De Bellis (1988) 84-7, again similarly, translates it to Italian as 'in merito al patto',
'regarding the pact, agreement'. While Ve l suggests that we should understand sverrunei as designatus,
'designate', agreed with the office. Franchi De Bellis for sverrunei proposes the translation as
'superintendent', 'supervisor'. Untermann (2002) argues that the expressions prupukid and sverrunei should
be translated as 'the one who by pre-arrangment was to swear (the oath)'.
636 La Regina (2000) 217-8 The scholar suggests that the prupukid and sverruneI refers to personal quality
of some kind. On the one hand, he argues, if the word prupukid had any relation to the office, it would
follow it on the inscription; on the other hand, according to La Regina, the word is in the ablative case and
therefore it has no relation to the office. La Regina thus suggests the interpretation of the word prupukid as
in Latin natione/domo/tribu/signo. The word sverrunei would indicate the tribe, house or clan of
Suerronus (maybe an inherited cognomen), where the individual came from, agreed with both the name
and the office. Thus the name of the Abellan quaestor would be Maius Vestiricinus son of Maius Suerrus
Vandson Staius.
Vetter (1953) 10-1.
638
Poccetti (1986-9) 145-70.
180