Titulus

A titulus (Latin word ) is an inscription affixed on any form of mediums during Antiquity.

The titulus of the ceremony of the Triumph

The titulus is the trust or posts hung at the end of a long stick carried by the Roman Légions at the time of the ceremony of the triumph to indicate to crowd, the name legions, the number of prisoners, the quantity of the spoils, the names of the cities and subjected countries. The information was approximately written there characters (OV. Trist. IV, 2,20).

The titulus of condemned

The titulus , was also a small sign which stated the crime of the victim during antiquity. Usually fixed to a stick, it was related in front of the procession of the future torture victim while leaving the prison, and later nailed on the cross, or the post of torment, above the head.

Jesus and the titulus

It would be at the origin of the error of representation of the Croix of the Christ. This support nailed with the top of the cross, on the Patibulum , would have given him a little the form characteristic of the Latin Croix whereas actually Christ would seem (according to the last scientific work) to be crucifié on a cross in T. According to Suétone and Tacite, Pontius Pilate would have made put on the titulus True Cross a Latin text in ( I esus NR azarenus R ex I udaeorum ), Hebrew and Greek:

“Jesus Nazaréen, king of the Jews” .

The large priests asked Roman Procurateur to add " This man said … I am the king of Juifs" . Pilate answered: " what I have writing is écrit" . Thereafter, the Christian representations transformed the text while being limited to initial I.N.R.I , (in Latin I and J are the same letter).

The commercial titulus

The titulus is also an inscription related to commercial (one specifies for example the origin of the product, the recipient, the contents, etc). It can be carried out on an object (amphoras for example) and are frequent on the containers of the Roman epoch. In the same way one found this practice on the houses. The titulus could be also, during the Antiquité, a poster or a sign which one hung to a house to indicate that it was to be rented or to sell (Plin. Ep. VII, 27,7); from where the expression mittere Lares sub titulum (OV. Rem. 303; cf Tibull. II, 4,54), which means “to post that a house is on sale”. It indicated following information: the price or details of the business concerning the hiring. The formula was composed of these two words: " IS LOCANDA " and is always of use in Rome at present.

Other definitions

In a general way, it is also about a epitaph where any other type of inscription on monuments, buildings, various vases, objects…

See too

Internal bonds

Tilde

External bonds

Photographs of titulus

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