IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

C.21. Building inscription from the Basilica

Description: Fragments of six limestone architrave blocks, moulded above, from a Doric entablature (each originally w: 2.05 x h: 0.47 x d: 0.70).
Text: Inscribed in one line on the face over the erasure of C.20.
Letters: 0.24; a bar above the figure.

Date: CE 119-138

Findspot: Cyrene, Caesareum: Basilica, fallen in front of the nortern internal colonnade. Found in 1935.
Original location: Caesareum: Basilica, on the entablature of the northern internal colonnade
Last recorded location: Findspot

Interpretive

[Imp(erator) Caes(ar) diui Traiani Parthici fil(ius) diui Nerv] | ae nep | [os] Traiạ[n] | us H[adrianus] | Augu[stus pont(ifex) max(imus) tribuni] | c̣(ia) p[ot](estate)[... co(n)s(ul) I] | II basilic | [am ---]

Diplomatic

[........................................] | AENEP | [..]TRAI.[.] | USH[........] | AUGU[....................] | .P[..···.....] | IIBASILIC | [..---]

Apparatus

1: . . . divi N]er[v]ae ne[pos . . . Applebaum, 1950
2: . . . Trai[an]us Applebaum, 1950 ; Smallwood follows Applebaum.
3: TP I[I COS] II Applebaum, 1950

English translation

Translation source: Berthelot, 2018

Imperator Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of the deified Trajan Parthicus, grandson of the deified Nerva, pontifex maximus, with tribunician power for the (?) time, in his third consulship, ordered the basilica, [destroyed in the Jewish riot, to be restored for the community of Cyrene.].

Commentary

For a full discussion see Judaism and Rome on AE 1974, 672.

Line 3: See Smallwood, loc. cit. The superscript bar above the number continues to the left of the first surviving upright and almost certainly covered at least one figure cut on the preceding stone; since the number must refer to the last item in the list of Hadrian's offices, i.e. his consulate, it can only have been III, which dates the inscription in or after 119. He presumably repaired damage done during the Jewish Revolt (see C.7), but this may not have been as extensive as suggested by Applebaum (loc. cit.) since part at least of the architrave of the internal colonnade must have remained in position.

Bibliography: Applebaum, 1950, D.1; Smallwood, 1952, 37 and pl. VIII; Reynolds, 1958 162, IV.b; Gasperini, 1971, B.4 with fig. 17, whence AE 1974.672, whence EDH 011679; from these Lüderitz-Reynolds, 1983, 19, whence C. Barron in Berthelot, 2018 Judaism and Rome; discussed, Boatwright, 2000, 180.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Whole group (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 2. Blocks 2 and 1 (BSR 49. XXVIII. 5)

   Fig. 3. Block 2 (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 4. Block 1 (BSR 49. XXVIII. 4)

   Fig. 5. Block 1, fragments (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 6. Blocks 3 and 4 (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 7. Central group, blocks 4 and 5 (BSR 49. XXVIII. 6)

   Fig. 8. Block 4 (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 9. Block 5 (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 10. Right end, block 6 (BSR 49. XXVIII. 7)

   Fig. 11. Block 6 (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 12. Block 6 (2008, H.Walda)