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On page 33 of Companion Animals & Us, there is a line:

I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home in my own hands fifteen years ago.

It cites Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 10.659.1-2 as its source.

I looked at entry 659 in Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum X and found an inscription that did not match the one one cited in Companion Animals & Us, namely:

ioui optumo maximo | pro salute m. aurelI antonini aug | s. populusq. aquinas

I would like to find the inscription referenced in Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. What have I misunderstood?

Here are links to the other books.

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1 Answer 1

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I haven't completely figured out the book's layout, but it appears that it contains both volumes IX and X. In any case, the numbering starts over at index #160 (pg. 4), and the entry you're looking for is at index #230 (pg. 74):

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Portavi lacrimis madidus te nostra catella,
quod feci lustris laetior ante tribus.
Ergo mihi, Patrice, iam non dabis oscula mille
nec poteris collo grata cubare meo.
Tristis marmorea posui te sede merentem
et iunxi semper manib(us) ipse meis,
morib(us) argutis hominem simulare paratam;
perdidimus quales, hei mihi, delicias.
Tu dulcis, Patrice, nostras attingere mensas
consueras, gremio poscere blanda cibos.
Lambere tu calicem lingua rapiente solebas
quem tibi saepe meae sustinuere manus,
accipere et lassum cauda gaudente frequenter
(final line missing)

I came across the following translation:

Bedewed with tears I have carried you, our little dog, as in happier circumstances I did fifteen years ago. So now, Patrice, you will no longer give me a thousand kisses, nor will you be able to lie affectionately round my neck. You were a good dog, and in sorrow I have placed you in a marble tomb, and I have united you forever to myself when I die. You readily matched a human with your clever ways; alas, what a pet we have lost! You, sweet Patrice, were in the habit of joining us at table and fawningly asking for food in our lap, you were accustomed to lick with your gready tongue the cup which my hands often held for you and regularly to welcome your tired master with wagging tail . . . . . . (E. Courtney (1995))

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  • spot on!.......
    – luchonacho
    Dec 12, 2018 at 14:32

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