Description: Mosaic floor containing three inscribed panels (i, ii, iii)
Text: Mosaic lettering, within (i) Tabella ansata (w:
0.825 x h:
0.45) in the east doorway;
(ii) Roundel (0.51) on the west side of the room;
(iii) Roundel (0.47) on the north side of the room.
Letters: Lunate epsilon, sigma, omega. i: 0.06; ii: line 1, 0.035; line 2, 0.055; lines 3,4,6, 0.06; lines 5,7, 0.04; iii: lines 1,4,6,
0.05; line 2, 0.055; lines 3,5, 0.06.
Date: 539 CE
Findspot: Gebel Akhdar: West of Cyrene:
Theodorias/Gasr Leibia, in the
East Church, in the room to the north of the nave; found in 1957.
Original location: Found in the room to the north of the nave of the church
Last recorded location:
Gasr Leibia Museum
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
(i): Lord of the hosts be (or, you are) with us, our succour, God of Jacob, mighty God, eternal God, be (or, you are) the shield of your servant Theodoros, the deacon
(ii): This good work also came into being in the time of Theodoros, the most holy new bishop, in indiction 3.
(iii): Your witnesses were trusted; that greatly adorns your house
Commentary
For a more precise date see M.134
i, lines 1-3: Septuagint, Psalm 45, verses 8 and 12; for the full citation in inscriptions see IGLS 1428, 1687, available at PHI, 243673, 243940; there are also many partial references.
i, line 6: Theodoros: probably also in M.137. If the abbreviation in this title is correctly resolved, he must have begun work in this room immediately after his appointment as deacon and finished it soon after his appointment as bishop, see ii.7.
ii, line 7: Clearly Theodoros succeeded the Makarios of M.134 as bishop, but the style of the mosaics sponsored by the two men is indistinguishable so that the third year of an indiction cited by both is probably the same year, i.e. CE 539.
iii:The text is from the Septuagint, Psalm 92,5: τὰ μαρτύριά σου ἐπιστώθησαν σφόδρα·τῷ οἴκῳ σου πρέπει ἁγίασμα, κύριε, εἰς μακρότητα ἡμερῶν; for an example of the second part of the text in another mosaic dedication see SEG 37, 1472, from Ashdod, at PHI 320220. It may be that the ἁγίασμα is understood, although there was no room for the word.
Bibliography: Goodchild, 1957, with illustration; Reynolds, 1960 no. 21.III, whence Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1961.835, SEG 18.768.m, n, o, whence PHI 324465; Reynolds, 1980, 146, C. whence SEG 30.1787.C, whence PHI 324535; Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 283.C; mentioned Kenrick, 2013, 133 and following.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Text a (Reynolds XIII.3)
Fig. 2. Text b, view (Reynolds XIII.2)
Fig. 3. Text b (Reynolds XIII.2)