IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

C.209. Fragmentary dedication

Description: Marble stele with dowel hole on top (w: 0.49 x h: 0.60 x d: 0.46).
Text: Inscribed on one face which is chipped at the left side and broken away for about half its width at the right. The inscription clearly began on a lost feature, presumably a capital attached to the top.
Letters: Second-third century: line 1 0.045; lines 2,4, 0.04; lines 3,8, 0.03; lines 5-7, 0.035; lunate epsilon, cursive sigma.

Date: Second to third centuries

Findspot: Cyrene: Found in 1955 between the Market theatre and the Severan Propylaeum.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location: Findspot.

Interpretive

[c. 10]
τ̣οῦ Δή̣[μου ( vac. 4)]
((leaf)) τ[ῆς ( vac. 4)?]
λαμπ[ροτάτης]
Κυρή[νης τῆς?]
5 μητρ[οπόλεως]
τὸ ναί[διον]
ἐκ τῶ[ν ἰδίων]
Τ(ίτος) Φλ(άβιος) Μα[---]

Diplomatic

[··········]
.ΟΥΔ.[.......]
Τ[......]
ΛΑΜΠ[.......]
ΚΥΡΗ[......]
5ΜΗΤΡ[.......]
ΤΟΝΑΙ[....]
ΕΚΤΩ[......]
ΤΦΛΜΑ[---]

6:

English translation

Translation by: Charlotte Roueché

T(itos) Phlabios (i.e. T(itus) Flavius) M[- . . . ] (scil. dedicated) the little temple of the People of the most splendid Κyrene, the metropolis, from his own resources.

Commentary

The dowel hole at top served possibly as attachment of a crowning feature or of another block, but it is off-centre and may simply have held a cramp to fasten the stele to a wall.

Line 1: There may have been another title above so that the reference was to the Tyche of the city.

Line 4: An alternative, Κυρη[ναίων, would require an article for which there seems to be not enough space.

Line 6: ναΐ[σκον is also possible.

Bibliography: Reynolds, 1976-1977, 3, whence Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1988.1024, SEG 35.1723
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. C.209 (C. Dobias-Lalou, 1979: MFA 79/IX/7)