IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

M.235. Christian funerary inscription for a bishop

Description: Rock-cut tomb, in the first of its three chambers.
Text: Inscribed on the internal wall facing the entrance.
Letters: Fifth-sixth centuries CE; well-cut and overpainted in red, 0.14; rectangular sigma.

Date: Fifth-sixth centuries CE

Findspot: Gebel Akhdar: East of Cyrene: Sidi Bu Breyek, c. 3km west of the modern Lamluda/Hilal road, and a little south of the top of the pass; first recorded in 1968, in the débris of the settlement.
Original location: Findspot
Last recorded location: Findspot.

Interpretive

Θεόδοτοϲ ἐπί(ϲ)κ(οποϲ) ((Chi-Rho)) ἐνθάδε κεῖται

Diplomatic

ΘΕΟΔΟΤΟϹΕΠΙΚ ΕΝΘΑΔΕΚΕΙΤΑΙ

English translation

Translation source: Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003

Theodotos the bishop lies here

Commentary

This is the only bishop's tomb that has so far been identified in Cyrenaica. Theodotos was presumably another of the rural bishops for which the provinces of Libya Superior and Libya Inferior are well-known; they are of course a natural development in an area where the number of cities was small and the rural territory large.

Bibliography: Mohamed-Reynolds, 2000, 2.b, whence SEG 50.1647; Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 345.2 and fig. 288, whence Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2004.437
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

None available (2020).