Caption for a mosaic
created: Photograph (transcribed by Reynolds).
source date: Second to third centuries CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he

Bibliography

[...] Frontispiece and 10 (illustration and notes on discovery only); republished [...], 15, whence [...] 28.1549; [...], 362-4 and Plate IV, whence [...], 1990.842; see also [...], 496.

Τῷ ε[...] κιννα[...] εὐτυχ[...] λεον [...]

To the . . . good fortune . . .

Commentary

The lost mosaic is probably from the dining room of a house known conventionally, but without adequate grounds, as the Casa di Leone (see below). The photographs have been thoroughly studied by Michaelides who has argued that, in so far as one can judge from them, it should be dated in the early third century AD, not the fifth, and interpreted as presenting a standard Dionysiac scene, not one of Iolaos and Hebe as proposed by Stucchi. The date may be early third century.

Line 1 starts with the definite article, providing some kind of dedication

Line 3 suggests εὐτυχῶς or some part of the verb εὐτυχέω.

In line 4 of the text the vacat is filled by the arm of the probable Dionysus. Comparison with other texts on mosaics suggests that these letters are unlikely to be from the house-owner’s name (as proposed by Stucchi).