Description: Sandstone blocks, probably from an architrave, with a projecting moulding above the inscribed face;
a: two blocks, together, w:
4.24 x h:
0.63 x d:
0.45.
b: Right end of a sandstone block, w:
1.60 x h:
0.63 x d:
0.45.
Perhaps the same text as P.136.
Text: Inscribed on one side of the blocks.
Letters: ? Fifth century CE; 0.29; sharply cut, with triangular trenches and strong seriphs.
Date: Fourth-fifth century CE
Findspot:
Ptolemais:
Street of the Monuments, north side, but probably fallen from a building on the south side; found in 1935
Original location: Perhaps from the façade of the Late Baths
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
English translation
Translation by: Editors
a: [Under/of] my lord Flavius Didymos the [ . . .
b: . . . ] and of the [ . . .
Commentary
Didymus: PLRE I, Didymus 3; he was probably the governor. The script here perhaps suggests a fifth century date. For the phrasing 'my lord', used of public officials, the examples are most commonly found in the eastern provinces: so in 440 at Gerasa, in 440: ἐπὶ τοῦ κυρίου μου Φλ(αουίου) Ἀνατολίου τοῦ μεγαλοπ(ρεπεστάτου) στρατηλάτου καὶ ὑπάτου, Gerasa 273 available at PHI 305201 and for the same man at Bosra, ἐκ κελεύσεως τοῦ κυρίου μου τοῦ μεγαλοπρεπεστάτου στρατηλάτου ὑπάτου Ἀνατολίου, IGLS 13.1, 9118, available at PHI 245679; earlier examples are from Arabia, 365/6: ἐκ καιλεύσεος τοῦ κυρίου μου Μαξιμίνου, SEG 7.1164, available at PHI 321296 or in Egypt, at Athribis, in 374: ἐπὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ κυρίου μου λαμπροτάτου ἐπάρχου τῆς Αἰγύπτου, SEG 24.1194, available at PHI 223395..
Bibliography:
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. a: Face (Joyce Reynolds, I, 39)