I was not, I was, I am not, I do not care

[Greg Janes]

Hello,

I am confident that the correct translation of this phrase is "non fui, fui, non sum, non curo" based on by experience with latin and its widespread use. Confirmation would be appreciated anyway.
My questions concern punctuation and the alphabet. I want to know how this phrase would have appeared on Roman tombstones.
Would it be in all capital letters?
Would there be a dot in between words?
Would there be spaces in between words?
Would the letter U or V be used?
Is it written correctly in the picture?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Imber Ranae]

The picture you attached is correct.

 

[Greg Janes]

Thanks. I've seen the dot between every word in a lot of the examples I've looked up but here it seems to be used more like a comma. Is one way more correct?

 

[cinefactus]

No, it is being used as a space. There is one missing between non and curo.

 

[Pacifica]

No, it is being used as a space. There is one missing between non and curo.

I think it can also be sometimes used separating more like "semantic groups" than individual words. Otherwise there would be one missing between non and fui as well. Where does that image come from? If it's from an authentic inscription we can rest assured of the correctness.

 

[Greg Janes]

It's not an authentic inscription. It seems to be from a grave in Bavaria that dates to the 18th or 19th century.
http://home.fotocommunity.de/ursab/index.php?id=541289&d=15165808

 

[cinefactus]

I think it can also be sometimes used separating more like "semantic groups" than individual words. Otherwise there would be one missing between non and fui as well.

Mea culpa. I saw what I expected to see. I can't recall seeing the interpunct used as a comma, although I am not an expert at epigraphy.

 

[Pacifica]

I am not an expert at epigraphy.

I'm not either. I just said what I seemed to recall, but I may be wrong. Perhaps Imber Ranae had good reasons to say it was correct, though. Let's wait for what he has to say. Otherwise it will always be correct if you put a dot between all words.

 

[Imber Ranae]

I didn't notice the missing interpuncts in the picture, as it's somewhat low quality. Honestly, I don't know any better than Cinefactus whether that's something the ancient Romans would have done.

If you're aiming for absolute authenticity, I'd suggest using them between every word. There are a number of pictures of ancient Roman tombstone inscriptions that you can see online with a simple Google image search, so you can see for yourself what they look like.

 

[Pacifica]

Found something on some other uses of interpuncts here. I didn't completely dream what I seemed to remember. They don't seem to mention inscriptions though.

 

[Greg Janes]

Ok, so it seems like everyone agrees that the most correct way to write the phrase is: NON·FUI·FUI·NON·SUM·NON·CURO
Right?

 

[Pacifica]

In Roman style, all U's should be V's in caps.

NON·FVI·FVI·NON·SVM·NON·CVRO

 

[Greg Janes]

Not thinking. You're totally right. If it gets broken up into two lines, would it look like this with the interpunct at the end?
NON·FVI·FVI·
NON·SVM·NON·CVRO

 

[Imber Ranae]

I don't think you'd use an interpunct at the margin like that.

 

[Greg Janes]

Most of the inscriptions I've looked up omit the interpunct at the margins but a few do use it there. Can anyone else weigh in on this?

 

[Imber Ranae]

What is it exactly that you want them to weigh in on?

 

[Pacifica]

About whether to put an interpunct at the margin or not I guess. Well I think that no, but I'm no specialist.