ancient latin translation

January 1, 2010 1:49 PM

I have a lead medallion (about 150mm dia) which has the following inscription : side #1 ESAVO MC SM [] SORDCMPUAESE {picture of a pikeman} SV side#2 PCM POMEVSAVSEBVCIM * 1309 * {picture of a king} ED The A/R abd U/V are a bit interchangable and the last M has three loops. If anyone could translate or tell me more about it I would be very grateful, cheers
posted by Dren to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Can you post quality pictures of the item?
posted by sbutler at 2:12 PM on January 1, 2010

I think images are going to be necessary; that doesn't sound like any Latin I've ever seen, but letters might be variable and strange.
posted by koeselitz at 6:38 PM on January 1, 2010

Thirding that seeing a photo is necessary. Perhaps this is a Cyrillic alphabet being misread as Latin?
posted by ellenaim at 7:14 PM on January 1, 2010

The only thing I can think of/find online regarding that date is that in 1309 the Knights Hospitaller, a.k.a. the Knights of Malta, conquered the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean.
posted by Kattullus at 12:19 AM on January 2, 2010

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I didn't know that anyone had responded I was expecting an email when a comment was posted - duh. Thanks for taking the time I will try to get a decent photo later today, then all I need to do is find out how to post it :)

I know a little Russian and it doesn't look anything like Cyrillic script. I would guess it was made by someone that couldn't really read or write, so they were just copying the letters.

I thought that SORD might mean vile ?

While looking online for examples, I found that two letters (like MC) were usually abrev of a common word, but I couldn't find out anymore.
posted by Dren at 1:41 AM on January 15, 2010

I have (eventually) uploaded some scans of the medal, but as it's been so long I will ask as a new question. Please have a look and let me know if you have any ideas Thanks
posted by Dren at 9:27 PM on February 21, 2010