IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

C.316. Building inscription for Spring of Kura

Description: Rock outer wall of a cave.
Text: Inscribed within a rectangular panel
Letters: Augustan: not easily measurable; line 3 widely spaced in order to fill the whole line-length.

Date: 18/17 BCE

Findspot: Cyrene: Spring of Kura/Cave of the Nymphs, beside the entrance: first recorded in 1714.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Spring of Kura/Cave of the Nymphs (2008).

Interpretive

(ἔτους) ιγ´ Διονύσιος Σωτᾶ
ἱερειτεύων τὰν κράναν
ἐπεσκεύασε

Diplomatic

L ΙΓΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΣΣΩΤΑ
ΙΕΡΕΙΤΕΥΩΝΤΑΝΚΡΑΝΑΝ
ΕΠΕΣΚΕΥΑΣΕ

English translation

Translation by: Charlotte Roueché

Year 13. Dionysios (scil. son) of Sotas, serving as priest, restored the spring.

Commentary

Line 1: Year 13, if the letter forms are correctly dated here and in GVCyr 24 this should be 13 of the Actian Era, so 18/17 BCE; there is no ground for accepting the date in the second century CE proposed in SEG.

Line 1: Dionysios: probably also in GVCyr 24, line 3 and no doubt ancestor of Σώτας Διονυσίου, priest of Apollo in CE 71-72, see C.49, line 11 and C.141, line 1

Bibliography: Lucas, 1712, 6, p.419; Della Cella, 1819, 143; Letronne, 1828, V, pp.263-4; Pacho, 1827, LXIII.2, and Letronne, at p.393; Beechey, 1828, 427; from all these CIG, Vol.III, 5134, whence SGDI, 4842; Cervelli, 1825 p.27 and pl. I; Smith-Porcher, 1864, 27; Oliverio, 1927a, 242 and pl 39, fig. 19, whence Boehringer, 1929 398, SEG 9.169, PHI 324020; mentioned Kenrick, 2013, 216.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Transcription (1827, Pacho, plate LXIII)

   Fig. 2. Transcription detail (1827, Pacho, plate LXIII.2)

   Fig. 3. Face (Department of Antiquities, E.616)

   Fig. 4. Face (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 5. Detail (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 6. Face (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 7. View (2008, H.Walda)