La stele urbana del frumentarius M. Coelius Homullus (CIL, V, 3362) e il problema della provenienza delle iscrizioni romane

The urban stele of the frumentarius M. Coelius Homullus (CIL, V, 3362) and the problem of the provenance of the Roman inscriptions Not knowing with certainty the origin of a Latin inscription is one of the main difficulties that the epigraphist encounters in his research. This can lead to serious scientific errors, with the creation of “ghost persons” or the incorrect attribution of an inscription to a place or persons. So we pre-sent here as a case study an inscription of a frumentarius, an elite soldier with intelligence duties, who all scholars have always believed to come from Verona. In reality, the analysis of the lithotype (Proconnesian marble), never used in Roman Verona for sepulchral monuments in the early Im-perial age, and the comparison with other very similar steles from Rome and characteristic not only of the Praetoriani and Vigiles, but also of the Frumentarii, has brought very interesting re-sults. This inscription is not from Verona but comes from Rome and entered Scipione Maffei’s col-lection through some collecting transfers that are difficult to reconstruct, at least for the moment.