Puzzle ID: 01-01/2012 'From vintage to mise en amphore?'
The problem:
A letter from Felice Maria Mastrilli, of Nola, to Anton Francesco Gori, of Florence, of 27 December 1745, includes the following information:
'Dalle parti di Taranto ho avuto un pataccio [a lump] di coperchio d'anfora per vino, con l'impronta de' nomi di Lucio Gellio e Lucio Sempronio ...' (S. Napolitano, L'antiquaria settecentesca tra Napoli e Firenze (Florence 2005), p. 77, n. 55)
Further information:
Amphorae dated by names of the two consuls of the year are of course common, and they are occasionally to be found dated by a single consul (see provisionally M. H. Crawford, CAH X (1996), p. 979). But there appears to be no year in which a Lucius Gellius and a Lucius Sempronius held the consulship together. On the other hand, a Lucius Gellius held the consulship in 36 BC, a Lucius Sempronius in 34 BC, a year from which at least two amphorae are known, CIL VIII, 22640.2, from Carthage, and CIL XV, 4606, a Dressel 1 amphora from Castro Pretorio.
Question:
Is it possible that with Mastrilli's amphora we have a vintage of 36 BC, 'bottled' in 34 BC? Or are there other ways of explaining the stamp?
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