What does the new Latin inscription really say? – “P.M.A.X.”

UPDATE:

This was suggested by a reader…

The letters “P. M. A. X” are not a – ridiculous – maltreatment of ‘P. MAX.’, but should be read as ‘P.M. A.X’, i.e. ‘Pontifex Maximus, anno decimo’. The work was done *in the tenth year* of this pontificate. The ‘X’ is a numeral, not a letter.

Hmmmm. Perhaps. However, there are standard ways of expressing that.

When you write something that you desire others to understand down the years, perhaps even down the centuries, it is probably a good idea to stick with clarity and to eschew the obscure.  So it is even today with living Latin.

I read a piece at Messa in Latino which jumped up and down on a new inscription in Latin on a new cathedra in Santa Maria Maggiore – more glorious than anything Caesar dreamed to park himself on.  The MIL piece says:

“Sul secondo gradino è inciso invece, in latino, il nome del papa, seguito da quattro lettere inframezzate da punti, un’assoluta novità epigrafica: «Franciscus P.M.A.X.»“.

On the second step is engraved in Latin the name of the Pope followed by four letters broken up by periods, an absolutely new abbreviation: “Franciscus P.M.A.X.”

This abbreviation causes wonder.

The usual version is “PONT MAX” or “PM” for Pontifex Maximus (Supreme Pontiff).

The MIL piece has blistering comments by Giovanni Maria Vian, former editor of L’Osservatore Romano.

The error in the epigraph of the new artefacts installed in Santa Maria Maggiore for the jubilee is only the point of arrival in the long decline of sacred art. … The grotesque accident of the acronym P.M.A.X. it adds to the jarring placement of the ambo, candelabra and throne – more suited to a film set in the Middle Ages – on both sides of the canopy, supported by four wonderful porphyry columns, which surmounts the main altar. That is, in an area where the important eighteenth and nineteenth century interventions had demonstrated their ability to compare with the previous structure of the thousand-year-old basilica, confirming that the ancient can harmoniously coexist with the modern.
The new additions therefore appear completely incongruous in Santa Maria Maggiore, of a level certainly not up to the level of the surrounding scenery. But both the acronym – more surreal than macaronic – and the negligence or distraction of the clients, truly unforgivable, leave us astonished. Are those who were supposed to supervise also so ignorant of a minimum of Latin and history that they have not yet noticed the background?

I agree with Vian that this is a sign of lack of competence.

Nope.  They seem out of place.

“On the other hand,” quoth I, “there is bound to be a precedent for “PMAX”, which sounds like the name of the shop where you can buy pontifical vestments he will never wear.

Sure enough.  There is precedent for “PMAX.”   In a couple thousand of years of Latin there was bound to be.

I am not suggesting that the fellow who chose “P.M.A.X.” [sic] for this inscription was so brilliant that he knew that. Then, being a smarticus pantsicus (or S PANT) he used it to make people go “Hey, wait a minute!”

No. The easiest answer is the right one: he made a mistake that has a semi-precedent he didn’t know.

He and broken clocks…

Online I found a site about Roman coins.  HERE

It says:

P. MAX., or PON MAX., or PONT., or PONTIF MAX., and sometimes with the words at full length PONTIFEX MAXIMVS., is very frequently read on imperial coins from Augusts to the time of Gallienus, and, indeed, is found almost always to take priority before the other imperial titles.  And this we may readily suppose to have been done, in order that by such a union of the priestly and imperial functions in their own single persons, the Emperors might make it known to the world that the Senate and people of Rome invested them with the supreme administration as well of sacred and religious affairs, as of the civil and military business of the state.

P. MAX. Parthicus Maximus – Caracalla is thus denominated.

As you know, the Emperors were awarded the office of Pontifex Maximus.

NB: Caracalla and his title from having beaten some Parthians… .   Caracalla went with his father Septimius Severus, but wasn’t the general in the war.   So, his being P MAX… well… perhaps he beat some Parthians in a game of Pinocle.  Or… P. NOCLE.

I’m not sure I would like to be associated with him via a Latin inscription of dubious style.

Also, on a milestone in Algeria, there is a Latin inscription:

PART MAX BRIT MAX P MAX TR POT

Which is:

Parthici maximi Britannici maximi pontificis maximi tribunicia potestate

You see the title PMAX just before indicating that he was also Tribune of the Plebs.

Another:

NER ABNEP PART MAX BR GER MAX P MAX TRIB POT

Nervae abnepoti Parthico maximo Britannico Gerermanico maximo pontifici maximo tribunicia potestate

In Umbria at Gubbio

AUG P MAX TR P

Augustus pontifex maximus tribunicia potestate

And in Austria, Vienna

P F AUG P MAX TRIB POT COS

Pius Felix Augustus pontifex maximus tribunicia potestate consul

There are others for AUG P MAX. I won’t bore you with them.

P MAX – yup – it’s there.

The new “P.M.A.X.”… nope.

So, another dopey thing that some day a few guys with crowbars will be able to haul away for recycling in another project.