Description: Left side of a limestone stele, broken below
(w:
0.21 x h:
0.26 x d:
0.14). Presumably one of a group of inscribed
stones, otherwise lost: M.45, M.46, M.47,
M.48, and M.49.
Text: Graffiti on one face, the first line on a raised panel.
Letters: Very rough and difficult to read: lines 1-6, ave. 0.025, line 7, 0.015; lunate epsilon and sigma, cursive omega; strongly
marked guide-lines except for lines 1,7, which may, therefore, represent separate texts.
Date: First - third century CE
Findspot: South of Berenike:
Esc-Sheleidima; perhaps one of the fragments
found and photographed by members of an Italian army unit in 1927.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Cyrene Museum.
English translation
Translation by: Charlotte Roueché
. . . ] curato[r . . . ] cavaryman [of the] vex[illation . . . L]ongos
Commentary
Lines 3-4 show that the texts are likely to be the graffiti of soldiers.
For another curator see M.49.vii; this may be a curator turmae, although the vexillation of line 4 (if this is the correct interpretation) suggest a legionary detachment, and there are other military curatores.
Line 4: For another cavalry man at Sheleidima see M.48.
Bibliography:
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (1961-05-26, Joyce Reynolds III.56)