This is the famous cippus of the Lapis Niger, an archaic tu…
By Anonymous · published 29 Oct 2026
Interpretation
AI interpretation, unverified
SUMMARY
This is the famous cippus of the Lapis Niger, an archaic tufa stele found beneath the black marble paving of the Roman Forum and one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions.
WRITING SYSTEM
Archaic Latin alphabet (derived from Euboean Greek via Etruscan), inscribed vertically in boustrophedon (alternating direction)
LANGUAGE
Old Latin (Archaic Latin)
TEXT
𐌒𐌖𐌏𐌉𐌇𐌏[... / ...]𐌀𐌊𐌓𐌏𐌔:𐌄𐌔/𐌄𐌃:𐌔𐌏𐌓[... / ...]𐌉𐌀:𐌉𐌀𐌔:𐌓𐌄𐌂𐌄𐌉:𐌉[... / ...]𐌖𐌀𐌌:𐌒𐌖𐌏𐌔:𐌓[... / ...]𐌌:𐌊𐌀𐌋𐌀𐌕𐌏/𐌓𐌄𐌌:𐌇𐌀[... / ...]𐌕𐌏𐌃:𐌉𐌏𐌖𐌙𐌌𐌄𐌽/𐌕𐌀:𐌊𐌀𐌐𐌉𐌀:𐌃:𐌏[...
TRANSLITERATION
quoi ho[i... / ... s]akros es/ed: sor[... / ...recei: i[... / ...m: kalato/rem: ha[... / ...tod: iouxmen/ta: kapia: d: tau[...
TRANSLATION
Whosoever [defiles this spot?], let him be accursed (sacred to the gods below)... to the king... herald (calator)... let him seize the draught animals / beasts of burden...
CONTEXT
Discovered in 1899 by Giacomo Boni beneath the 'Lapis Niger' (Black Stone) in the Comitium of the Roman Forum, near the Curia. The truncated four-sided cippus dates to the mid-6th century BC (c. 570–550 BC), during Rome's Regal period. It records a sacred law (lex sacra) regulating the sacred precinct and threatening violators with dedication to the underworld gods (sacros esed = sacer esto), and famously mentions the 'king' (recei = regi).
CONFIDENCE
High
CAVEATS
• Location basis: the phone's position at analysis time, not necessarily where the photo was taken. • Device coordinates indicate Finland, which does not match the artifact; the object is an iconic Roman artifact currently housed in Rome (or photographed from a traveling exhibition/cast). • The stele was truncated and deliberately broken in antiquity (likely during the Gallic sack of 390 BC or subsequent Forum rebuilds), leaving every line incomplete. • Boustrophedon direction alternates continuously around the faces, with three-dot interpuncts separating archaic word boundaries.
LOCATION
Espoo, Finland
Exact position: 60.235462, 24.603284
Position of the phone when the photo was analysed
Open in OpenStreetMap