IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

M.244. Dedication to Constantine and sons, perhaps a milestone

Description: Rectangular block of sandstone, trimmed down on all four edges and broken away at the upper right corner (w: 0.325 x h: 0.49 x d: 0.165).
Text: Inscribed on one face which is worn and pitted and in some places covered by a hard deposit.
Letters: Fourth century CE; lines 1,2, 0.04-0.045; lines 3,4, 0.035-0.04.

Date: 333-337 CE

Findspot: Gebel Akhdar: East of Cyrene: Ras al-Hilal, Church, in the debris, apparently reused; excavated in 1961
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Apollonia Museum

Interpretive

[D(ominis) N(ostris quattuor) ?]
[Fl(auio) Va]l(erio) Constantino [P(io) F(elici)?]
[in]uic(to) tr(iumphatori) ṃ[a]x(imo) Aug(usto) e[t]
[Fl(auio)] Cl(audio) Constantino [et]
5[Fl(auio) Iu]l(io) Constantio [et]
⟦[Fl(auio)] Iul(io) Constanti⟧
[nob(ilissimis)? Caes(aribus)? tribus?]
------

Diplomatic

[.........]
[.....]LCONSTANTINO[..]
[..]UICTR.[.]XAUGE[.]
[...]CLCONSTANTINO[..]
5[.....]LCONSTANTIO[..]
⟦[...]IULCONSTANTI⟧
[...............]
------

Apparatus

6: Line erased.

English translation

Translation by: Editors

For our masters, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, pious, fortunate, undefeated, triumphant, greatest Augustus, (and) Flavius Claudius Consantinus (and) Flavius Julius Constantius [(and) Flavius Julius Constans, most noble Caesars]

Commentary

For the church see Ward-Perkins, loc.cit..

It is difficult to see why an inscription in Latin was erected in this remote place unless in connection with road-building, and for a rectangular milestone of Constantinian date cf. A.70 near Apollonia; but the point cannot be proved. No milestones have in fact been found along the coast east of Apollonia, but undoubtedly a coastal track must have existed as far as Hilal, although it may not have continued east of Hilal, where the Gebel comes very close to the sea most of the way to Derna.

The date of erection, which must be between 25 December 333, see below and 27 May 337 when Constantine died: Constantine II was Caesar from 1 March 317, Constantius II,from 8 October 323, and Constans, Caesar from 25 December 333; his name will have been erased after his death in 350 during the ascendancy of Magnentius, who is known to have been recognised in Cyrenaica (Socrates II. 25.8); for this erasure in other African inscriptions, cf. CIL VIII, 7012, 7013.

Bibliography: Reynolds, 1964, D and pl. XII c; mentioned Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 337.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Face (E.Alföldi-Rosenbaum: Reynolds IX.36)

   Fig. 2. Monument