English translation

Translation by: Charlotte Roueché

For the Emperor Caesar, son of deified Trajan, victor in Parthia, grandson of deified Nerva, Trajan Hadrian Augustus, acclaimed imperator for the second time, high priest (i.e. pontifex maximus), holding tribunician power for the twenty-second time, consul for the third time, father of the country, saviour and founder, and Emperor Titus Aelius Caesar Antoninus, son of Hadrian Augustus: the city of the Cyrenaeans (scil. made this) having been adorned by him, also with the statues

Commentary

The Temple of Zeus was built in the second century BCE, and reconstructed after the Jewish revolt. Ensoli, art. cit., suggests that this text came from the adjacent arch, and was later re-used in the Temple.

The reading is taken from the first photograph since some letters on the edge of the crack are now missing.

The date is CE 138 between 25th Feb., when Hadrian adopted Antoninus, and 10th July, when he died.

Line 7: for the phrase, cf. IG II² 457, line 15, κεκοσμημένην τὴν [πόλιν...] at Athens in 307/6 BCE (available at PHI 2675), or IG II² 1325, line 21, τόν τε νεὼ τοῦ θεοῦ κατεσκεύασεν καὶ ἐκόσμησεν πολλοῖς [καὶ καλοῖς ἀνα]θήμασιν at Piraeus in 185-4 BCE (available at PHI 3541) Most commentators have believed that the reference was to the statues on this base, suggesting a colossal Zeus Aegiochos perhaps, or possibly an Athena and Hera. Βagnani argued (loc.cit.) that the reference was to a restoration of cult statues throughout the city. Applebaum clearly took it in the same sense, since he regards the text as evidence that the Jewish rebels in CE 115 carried out a particularly extensive destruction of cult statues, also explaining the adjective ἀνόσιοι applied to them in the literary account of the revolt. The wording, however, points clearly to imperial benefactions throughout the city, to which the statues mentioned here aer a further addition, and it is unnecessary to regard all these as restoration of damage done in the Jewish revolt.

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