Fragmentary prayer for the safety of the Emperor
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: First century CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution UK 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/) All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

[...], 1

[...]in ea uerba quae infra scripta sunt Iupiter Optime Maxime si imperator [...] quem nos sentimus dicere uiuet domus que eius incolumis erit ante diem III nonas Ianuarias quae proximae Populo Romano Quiritibus reipublicae Populi Romani Quiritium erunt fuerint eum que diem eos que saluos seruaueris ex periculis si qua sunt erunt ue ante eum diem euentum que bonum ita uti nos sentimus dicere dederis eos que in eo statu quo nunc sunt aut eo meliore seruaueris astu ea ita faxis tunc [...] donum ? auri pondo ? argenti pondo [...]XV tibi datum iri uouemus Iuno Regina quae in uerba Ioui Optimo Maximo boue aurato uouimus esse futurum quod hodie uouimus astu ea ita faxis tunc tibi in eadem uerba boue aurato uouimus esse futurum Minerua quae in uerba Ioui Optimo Maximo boue aurato uouimus esse futurum astu ea ita faxis tunc tibi in eadem uerba boue aurata uouemus esse futurum quod hodie uouimus [...]

Apparatus

Translation

[Too fragmentary for a useful translation]

From a set of prayers formulated in terms similar to those used by Arval Brothers for uota pro salute principis and especially for the annual vota on third January, see W. Henzen, Acta fratrum Arvalium, 89f. (available at Hathi Trust); cf. also P.97, P.204, P.339 at Ptolemais.

By comparison with the Arval Formulae - see Henzen, loc.cit. 100f. (at Hathi Trust) the text can be reconstructed as suggested.

Line 1: the gap was filled by the name of the emperor for whom the vow was offered.

Line 5: there may have been a definition of the community making the vow, as in the Arval prayer at this point: nomine collegi Fratrum Arvalium.

Iupiter may have been promised a bos auratus, 'gilded ox', as well as a donum. In the Arval Acta Iupiter is always promised an ox; and on two occasions, in 27 and in 38, when donum is also recorded a separate prayer was made for each offering, the full formula accompanying the offer of the ox, which was made first, and a condensed formula such as is used for Iuno Regina etc. accompanying the offer of the donum. It is probable that Iupiter was offered an ox here too, but since the full formula accompanies the offer of the donum either this was repeated twice, or the ox and donum were offered at the same time.

Apart from the texts at Ptolemais cited above above, the nearest provincial parallel to the text is the reference to the annual vota pro salute principis on the third January in the feriale Duranum text, found in a papyrus from Dura Europus, P.Dura 54, available at Papyri.info; but that is in a purely military context where the use of Latin and characteristically Roman ceremonial is natural and in any case does not include a verbatim account of the proceedings. It may be that the Cyrenaican docuements should be connected with the small Latin-speaking communities, presumably of Italian immigrants attested in Cyrene and Ptolemais in the first cent BCE and I cent CE.