IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

C.269. Honours for Asklapos, priest of Apollo

Description: Front face, broken below and chipped down the right side and the lower left corner of a marble base with sockets for the feet of a statue on top (w: 0.71 x h: 0.38 x d: 0.68); inscribed on 2 opposite faces with C.269 and C.270
Text: Inscribed on one face.
Letters: First century BCE: ave. 0.02-0.025.

Date: First century BCE

Findspot: Cyrene: First recorded in 1819, without findspot, and again in 1850 in the Temple of Apollo
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum.

Interpretive

Ἄσκλαπον Ἀσκλάπω ἱαριτεύον-
τα τῶ Ἀπόλλωνος ἀρετᾶς ἕ[νε-]
κα καὶ εὐνοίας ἅς ἔχων διατ̣[ε-]
λεῖ ἔς τε τὸς κοινὸς εὐεργ̣[έτας]
5Ῥωμαίος καὶ ἐς τὰν πόλιν κ̣α̣[ὶ ἐς]
τ̣ὸς ἱαρὲς καὶ τᾶς ποτὶ τὸ̣[ς θεὸς]
χάριν εὐσεβείας οἱ ἱα̣ρὲς τ[ῶ]
[Ἀπ]όλλωνος ( vac. 6) [---]

Diplomatic

ΑΣΚΛΑΠΟΝΑΣΚΛΑΠΩΙΑΡΙΤΕΥΟΝ
ΤΑΤΩΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΟΣΑΡΕΤΑΣΕ[..-]
ΚΑΚΑΙΕΥΝΟΙΑΣΑΣΕΧΩΝΔΙΑ.[.-]
ΛΕΙΕΣΤΕΤΟΣΚΟΙΝΟΣΕΥΕΡ.[....]
5ΡΩΜΑΙΟΣΚΑΙΕΣΤΑΝΠΟΛΙΝ..[...]
.ΟΣΙΑΡΕΣΚΑΙΤΑΣΠΟΤΙΤ.[.....]
ΧΑΡΙΝΕΥΣΕΒΕΙΑΣΟΙΙ.ΡΕΣΤ[.]
[..]ΟΛΛΩΝΟΣ            [---]

Apparatus

7: Pacifico recorded [...]ΑΡΙΝΕΥ at the beginning of this line, but these letters were no longer visible to Smith and Porcher; at the end Smith and Porcher still read ΙΑΡΕΣΤ[...].
8: Pacifico recorded [...]ΟΛΛΩΝΟΣΑΝΕΘ[...] in this line, whεnce all later editors have suggested Ἀ]πόλλωνος ἀνέθ[ηκαν. The left edge of the stone was presumably damaged subsequently and only the surviving ΟΣ was visible to Smith and Porcher; but after these letters the surface is intact and we do not believe that it was ever inscribed.

Italian translation

Translation source: Vitali, 1932

Una statua di Asclepio, figlio di Asclepio, sacerdote di Apollo, per la virtù e la benevolenza, che con costanza adopera verso i comuni benefattori romani, e verso la città e i sacerdoti, e per la sua pietà verso gli dei, i sacerdoti di Apollo posero.

English translation

Translation by: Charlotte Roueché

Asklapos (scil. son) of Asklapos, serving as priest of Apollo: because of his virtue and his goodwill which he maintained both to our common benefactors, the Romans and to the City and to the priests and because of his piety towards the Gods, the priests of Apollo (scil. set up his statue)

Commentary

Franz in CIG proposed to date between 96 BCE and the provincialisation of Cyrene; it seems unlikely that the description of Romans as "common benefactors" referred to the suppression of the pirates in 67 BCE, but it seems to occur earlier elsewhere: so in Lydia, 133-130 BCE SEG 34,1198 (PHI 277230); by the Amphyctyons at Delphi, 117-112 BCE, CID 4,120 (PHI 303315) l.27, and in a decree found in Attica, of c.166 BCE, IG II²,1224 (PHI 3439), l.9. . Another Cyrenean honoured locally (but probably not by the city) for his favourable attitude to Rome appears in C.688.

Bibliography: Letronne-Bourville, 1848, II, and Vattier de Bourville, 1850, 583, from these and from a copy made in 1819 by Fr. Pacifico da Monte Cassiano and passed to Pietro Negri, the Sardinian consul in Tripoli, CIG, Vol.III, 5131, p. 517, and addenda, p.1240; Smith-Porcher, 1864, 25, p. 116, and pl.84, whence SGDI, 4854, DGE, 236, IGRR, I.1028; Vitali, 1932, 63; SECir, 1961-1962, 25a, p. 237-238, fig 23 (from T.XI 67).
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Face (Department of Antiquities, F 444)