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This article treats two anonymous epigrams (APl 62-3) preserved in the so-called Anthologia Planudea which, according to the lemma, were both inscribed on the same equestrian statue of the emperor Justinian I placed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Scholars have identified this statue with the one dedicated after a Persian victory and still surviving in the 8th century CE. The paper argues that not only do the two poems concern two different and separate objects, but also that just APl 63 could refer to a statue (and not necessarily the famous one accepted by most scholars), whereas APl 62 seems to allude to a smaller object belonging to the category of imperial luxury gifts.

A group of 103 sicilian patients with hereditary and familiar breast and/or ovarian cancer were screened for Breast Cancer 1 gene (BRCA1) mutations by direct sequencing PCR products spanning the coding region and partial intronic regions of the BRCA1 gene. In this study, we report a new germline mutation in BRCA1 gene, not previously reported in the BIC database, in a woman with ovarian cancer at 46 years old. Mother's proband has been diagnosed the same histotype of ovarian cancer at 42 age. The mutational analyses that shown a 4843delC frameshift mutation in exon 16 of BRCA1 gene was extended to other family members including the proband's brother and her two sons. Direct automatic sequencing of DNA extracted from the lymphocytes showed exactly the same 4843delC frameshift mutation only in the brother. In conclusion, the characterization of this mutation could help in the identification of a founder mutation of sicilian area and this may provide significant advantages for genetic counselling.