French translation

Translation by: Hugues Berthelot

. . .] ayant manifesté cette sollicitude qui fut précisément digne de ses ancêtres et de sa patrie, ayant exercé à deux reprises la prêtrise du divin César avec empressement et zèle ; et envoyé en ambassade durant la guerre marmarique en plein hiver, s’étant livré lui-même aux dangers et ayant mené à bien une alliance très favorable et propre à assurer le salut de la cité ; et ayant reçu la couronne (i.e. du culte) d’Apollon, fondateur de notre cité, il accomplit ce qui concerne les dieux avec empressement et piété et ce qui concerne les hommes avec magnanimité et largesse au-delà de sa capacité.

Qu’il plaise:

Qu’outre ses honneurs antérieurs, la cité lui décerne l’éloge à titre public et l’invite [ . . . ]. Qu’on érige des portraits peints dans le lieu, public ou sacré, qu’il voudra et, dans le sanctuaire d’Apollon, une statue de marbre ainsi qu’un bouclier plaqué or portant l’inscription "les Cyrénéens (scil. ont érigé une statue de)> Phaos fils de Kléarchos, lui-même fils de Philopatris (ou de Kléarchos le Patriote), en raison de son mérite et de son dévouement envers la cité".

Commentary

The man honoured, Phaos son of Klearchos the lover of his country, is also named in C.48.

a. line 5: presumably, priest of Augustus, althought the title is not recorded in the same terms as in other Cyrenaican texts. Dittenberg suggested that he was priest of Julius Caesar but for this office there is no other evidence.

a. line 8: presumably the Marmaric war in which Sulpicius Quirinus was involved. It is clear from this text and from C.737 which also refers to this war, that for the defence against the Marmaric raiders, Cyrene depended more than might have been expected on local initiative.

a. line 11: must refer to a provincial unit, hardly a Cyrenaean militia, since its collection involved Phaos in a dangerous embassy, but possibly a Cyrenaican one involving him in visit to the other cities of the province, or a cohort or ala on garrison duty elsewgere in the province.

a. line 14: This is the earliest recorded use of the title κτίστης for Apollo at Cyrene.

a. line 15: for στέφανος refering to a priesthood, cf. at Istros Sylloge 3.708. 21 τὸν ἐπώνυμον τῆς πόλεω[ς] Ἀπόλλωνος ἀναδεξά[μενος] στέφανον (at PHI 172720).

a. line 22: previous editors have proposed παρ(α)καλέ[σαι ἐς τὰν κοινάν ἑστιαν, as restored in C.276, line 2; but this is not the formula following παρακαλέσαι in the closely parallel C.737, lines 38/9, which is the only instance in a Cyrenaican decree in which the succeeding words survive.

b. line 1: No satisfactory proposal has et been offered for the restoration of these lines. We suggest that the wording ran something like ...ἀναγράψαι μὲν τόδε τὸ ψάφισμα ἐς στάλαν λιθίναν τὸν...? ἄρ]χοντα.

b. line 3: the wording we have proposed in ll 1-3 gives better sense than that of Fränkel: ἀνθεμἑ[ν τῶ ἄνδρος ὅπω]ς κα δηλ[ῶ]ται δαμ[οσιαι αὐτῷ ὁ τύ]πος and keeps closer to the recorded reading than that of Dittenberg: ἀνθέμε[ν εἰκόνας ἐς] ὅς κα δήληται δαμ[όσιος ἢ ἰέρος τό]πος παραστᾶσαι.

The reference to Cyrene in b. line 9, together with the fact that one text in the group, C.276, survives in the Sanctuary at Cyrene puts the place of origin beyond doubt; there is a strong possibility that this text too was seen in the Sanctuary. This is very probably the final line.

See J. Desanges, Un drame africain (1968), whence BullEp 1969.617.

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