Description: Fragment of a marble stele (w:
0.11 x h:
0.13 x d:
0.07)
Text: Inscribed on the surviving face, which is in very poor condition.
Letters: First century BCE : 0.01; very rough.
Date: First century BCE
Findspot:
Cyrene:
photographed in 1930; findspot unrecorded.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Cyrene Museum.
English translation
Translation by: Editors
. . . ] Gnaeus Pompeius [Magnus . . . ] ?assigned[ . . . ] by the gods of water[ . . . ] 4000 denarii and [ . . . ] the waters [ . . . ] which is 1500(+) denarii [ . . . ] is[ . . .
Commentary
Line 2: presumably Pompey, and if so the most probable occasion for his intervention in Libya is in connection with the Pirate War of 67 BCE; but a date during the civil war of 49 BCE is also possible. See further Reynolds, art.cit.
Line 3 can only be part of signare (to coin), designare (to designate) or assignare (to assign), the last being the most probable.
Line 7: 1500 denarii but some figures may be lost.
It is clear that the text concerned an aqueduct or irrigation work to which, probably, contributions were being made; the first contributors, and the only ones whose names survive, are the gods mentioned in line 4. Pompey had perhaps assigned responsibility for the payment to be made.
Bibliography: Reynolds, 1962, 5.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
None available (2020).