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A sicilicus was an old Latin diacritical mark, , like a reversed C (Ɔ)Cf. John Edwin Sandys, A Companion to Latin Studies , Cambridge University Press 1910, §1099, p. 743, where specific instances are provided: C.I.L. v 1361, x 3743, xii 414. placed above a letter and evidently deriving its name from its shape like a little sickle (which is in Latin). The ancient sources sayCf. Isidore Etymologiae 1.27.29 (ubi litterae consonantes geminabantur, sicilicum superponebant, ut 'cella', 'serra', 'asseres': ueteres enim non duplicabant litteras, sed supra sicilicos adponebant; qua nota admonebatur lector geminandam esse litteram); Nisos fr. 5 Mazzarino in Velius Longus de Orthographia Keil 7.80; Gaius Marius Victorinus Ars Grammatica 4.2 Mariotti. that during the time of the Roman Republic it was placed above a geminate consonant to indicate that the consonant counted twice, although there is hardly any epigraphic or Palaeography evidence available from such an early time. When such geminate consonants began to be represented during classical times by writing the letter twice, the sicilicus naturally fell into disuse in this function, but continued to be used to indicate the doubling of vowels as an indication of length, in the developed form of the apex. Apex and Sicilicus , Revilo P. Oliver, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 87, No. 2. (Apr., 1966), pp. 156-58. For a counter-view see Michael Fontaine, Sicilicissitat (Plautus, Menaechmi 12) and Early Geminate Writing in Latin (with an Appendix on Men. 13). Mnemosyne , Volume 59, Number 1 (2006) pp. 104-5. Fontaine suggests that Plautus alludes to the sicilicus in the prologue to Menaechmi .Michael Fontaine, Sicilicissitat (Plautus, Menaechmi 12) and Early Geminate Writing in Latin (with an Appendix on Men. 13). Mnemosyne'', Volume 59, Number 1 (2006) pp. 95-110.
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