IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

C.9. Building inscription recording repairs to the Caesareum

Description: Limestone architrave block, moulded above, from a Doric entablature.
Text: Inscribed on one face.
Letters: First century CE: a stop after the name in the form of a small jug.

Date: First century CE

Findspot: Cyrene: Caesareum: external face of the South porch. Found between 1935 and 1941.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Caesareum: replaced in its original position on the external face of the South porch, where it is not accessible to close examination.

Interpretive

M(arcus) Sufenas Proculus ((jug)) ref(iciendum) cur(auit)

Diplomatic

MSUFENASPROCULUS jug REFCUR

English translation

Translation by: Charlotte Roueché

Marcus Sufenas Proculus was responsible for the rebuilding.

Commentary

For the stop, cf. the jug used in C.3 and the ampulla in C.418, suggesting that the same workman, or the same workshop, was employed in all three cases; Arch. Anz. 1941, col. 702, confuses this text with C.225.

For M. Sufenas Proculus, PIR2, S 965, see Demougin, art. cit., tracing his Italian family. He appears also in C.118, C.225 and C.226, all cut between CE 4 and 14, and possibly C.436, undated; they confirm a chronological connection with the inscriptions recording repairs to the Caesareum by C. Rubellius Blandus, which must be a little earlier than CE 18, see C.4. In C.118, line 4, Proculus is described as praefectus cohortis Lusitanorum, which may for a time have garrisoned Cyrene, but otherwise gives no title to indicate the authority with which he acted. He may perhaps have been the garrison commander acting for an absent proconsul, or in a period in which no proconsul was appointed, cf. J. Desanges, Un drame africain. His concern with buildings devoted to the imperial cult is notable and in general terms might be official; but his special interest in the cult of Tiberius as Augustus' heir (C.118, C.225 and C.226) may point to a personal view more suitable to a private benefactor. For his nomen see Demougin, art. cit.; it does recur in Cyrenaica, probably at Teucheira (T.308) and certainly at Ptolemais (P.240).

Bibliography: Mentioned Arch.Anz. 1941, 702, E. Sjoqvist Opuscula Romana, I (1954) 99; published Reynolds, 1958, II.b, p. 168f, whence AE 1960.267, whence EDH 019030; Gasperini, 1971, C.1, and figs. 3-6, whence Demougin, 1978, 620, Luni, 1992, I,a; mentioned Kenrick, 2013, 154.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. View of monument (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 2. View (1961, Joyce Reynolds, IV.77)

   Fig. 3. View (joyce Reynolds III.77.1)

   Fig. 4. Text (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 5. Text, left end (2008, H.Walda)

   Fig. 6. Text, right end (2008, H.Walda)