In Jona (today merged with Rapperswil), at the locality Wagen-Salet, the location of various buildings belonging to a villa was established through small trenches. A small building, measuring 9.80 x 7.55 m., was excavated in 1946. It consisted of a living room and a small cellar.
Plan of the site. Laur-Belart 1946, Abb. 33.The main interest of the building lies in the discovery of many fragments of wall paintings, one with a curious graffito. It is an unfinished hexameter: MASCLVS PERMISIT NATO TRAN. A metrically correct completion would be transcribere versum, translated: "Masclus has allowed the eldest son to transfer a verse". The graffito would then be related to teaching, with Masclus being the teacher of the pupil who wrote the graffito. The abrupt ending of the text has been explained by a strong slap in the face. It has also been suggested that Masclus was the father and that the son was allowed to swim across the lake (tranare).
The graffito written by the pupil of Masclus. W. 0.145, h. 0.19.
Kolb et al. 2022, nr. 416a; EDCS-10900317. Photo: Drack 1950, Taf. XL.
Literature
Laur-Belart 1946; Fellmann 1948; Drack 1950, 116-120; Nesselhauf-Lieb 1959, 154-155; Drack-Fellmann 1991, 140-141; Fuchs-Dubois 1997, 182; Rigert-Schindler 2002.
[19-Dec-2023]
