IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

M.68. Boundary marker

Description: Brown limestone stele broken above and in poor condition all over (w: 0.55 x h: 1.30 x d: 0.35).
Text: Inscribed probably only on one face, which was already rough and damaged; the vacant space at line 5 masks a hole in the stone avoided by the mason. In line 7 a hole was cut later. There are no visible traces of letters on the two other surviving faces, but they are too worn for certainty.
Letters: ave. 0.03; freehand and variable.

Date: CE 71

Findspot: South of Berenike: Minţaqat al Khuwaybīyah ("El Khweibia, south of Guarshia, near Benghazi"), reused as a water trough in the garden of Ali Ben Arus; first transcribed in 1959 by Dr Fawzi Gadullah.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location: Findspot (1992).

Interpretive

------
[.. ? ..] δ[η]μ̣[αρχι]κ̣ῆς ἐ̣ξ̣[ουσί-
ας] τὸ γ´ Αὐτοκράτωρ τ̣ὸ̣ η´
π̣α̣τὴρ π̣ατρίδος ὕ̣π̣ατ[ος]
[τὸ γ´ ] ἀπο̣δ̣ε̣δ̣ε̣[ιγ]μέν[ος τ]ὸ [δ´ ]
5 [δι]ὰ Κ(οΐντου) Π̣ακωνί[ου] ( vac. )
( vac. )
[Ἀ]γριππίνου ἰδίο[υ πρ]εσ[βευ-]
[τ]οῦ Δ[ήμῳ] Ῥ(ωμαίων) ἀγρὸν δη̣[μόσι]ον
[ἀ]π̣οκ̣ατέστ̣[η]σ[εν]

Diplomatic

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[.. ? ..]Δ[.].[....].ΗΣ..[......]ΤΟΓΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ..Η
..ΤΗΡ.ΑΤΡΙΔΟΣ..ΑΤ[..]
[...]ΑΠ.....[..]ΜΕΝ[...]Ο[.]
5[..]ΑΚ.ΑΚΩΝΙ[..]      
     vacat
[.]ΓΡΙΠΠΙΝΟΥΙΔΙΟ[...]ΕΣ[...-]
[.]ΟΥΔ[...]ΡΑΓΡΟΝΔ.[....]ΟΝ
[.].Ο.ΑΤΕΣ.[.]Σ[..]

English translation

Translation by: Editors

[Vespasian . . . ] holding tribunician power for the third time, imperator for the eighth time, father of the country, consul[for the third time], designated for the fourth time, by the action of Quintus Paconius Agrippinus, his personal envoy restored public land to the Roman [People].

Commentary

Erected in the reign of Vespasian as part of a programme to reclaim land belonging to the Roman People which had been illegally occupied. The text is the translation of a Latin original, which probably occupied the front; if a third face was inscribed, it may have contained the text of L. Acilius Strabo (as on the boundary stone M.238) or a lease of the land to a private person (as in A.51). For fuller discussion see Reynolds art cit.

Line 5: Q. Paconius Agrippinus, for whom see PIR2 P 0027, was active in Cyrenaica under Vespasian, 71-74 CE: see C.147, C.428, C.429, C.430, C.438, C.747, M.68, M.165, M.229, M.230, M.232, M.238, M.239, P.397.

Line 7: Probably δη[μόσ]ιον], a translation of agrum publicum in the lost Latin version; this is the first evidence for ager publicus extending as far to the west as Berenike.

Bibliography: Reynolds, 2000a, 1, whence Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2001.565, AE 2000.1590, SEG 50.1630; discussed Struffolino, 2014, 363.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Front view