Description: Panel of limestone
(w:
1.23 x h:
0.59 x d:
0.26). Worn and chipped at the upper right and lower left corners.
Text: Inscribed on one face, within a tabella ansata
(w:
1.10 x h:
0.54).
Letters: Third century; line 1, 2, 0.065; lines 3-5, 0.06; lunate epsilon and sigma, cursive omega; ligatures in lines 2, 3, 5; ΟΥ
at the end of line 4 written small and cut on the margin; incised palm branches to the left of the text.
Date: CE 268-270
Findspot:
Cyrene:
Street of Battos, from 'the southwestern hill' (probably meaning the area between the Caesareum and the
Agora square); photographed in 1916.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Cyrene Museum
Apparatus
5: διατακτου (?) Αἰγύπ[του] Oliverio, 1916; διασημοτ(άτου) ἐπάρχ(ου) Αἰγύπ(του) Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936Italian translation
Translation source: Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936
L'Imperatore Cesare Marco Aurelio Claudio Augusto, con le armi dopo aver stroncato l'annosa dei Marmaridai (beduina) oltracotanza, Claudiopoli, sua eponima di nuovo (sana pianta) costrui, dirigendo le operazioni militari e provvedendo all costruzione dell'abitato Probo, l'illustrissimo Prefetto d'Egitto.
English translation
Translation by: Editors
Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Claudius Augustus, having removed, with arms, the longlasting savagery of the Marmaritae, founded Claudiopolis as new, called after himself; Probus, the excellent prefect of Egypt, conducted the war and undertook the foundation.
Commentary
Line 1: Claudius II Gothicus, emperor 268 - 270; PLRE I, Claudius 11
Line 3: This is the only certain evidence for third century raiding of Cyrenaica.
Line 4: This must refer to a refoundation and renaming of Cyrene itself. The new name was presumably very short-lived, but it is possible that it is this event that lies behind the description of Cyrene as a colony in the Peutinger Table: see online edition
Line 5: Tenagino Probus, praefectus Aegypti; PLRE I, Probus 8.
Bibliography: Oliverio, 1916, 1, fig 1, whence AE 1919.94; Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936, 68 (60), p. 102, pl. XVI, fig 23, whence AE 1934.257, SEG 9.9, Sammelbuch, III.6062; discussions: Damerau, 1906, 106, with discussion 55f.; discussed A. Stein, Klio 29 (1936) 237-42; P. Lambrechts, Ant. Class. 6, (1937), 129-34, whence Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1939.560; mentioned Kenrick, 2013, 149, 243.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (2008, H.Walda)
Fig. 2. Face (2008, H.Walda)