IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

P.204. Fragmentary prayer for the safety of the Emperor

Description: Fragment of a marble panel (w: 0.08 x h: 0.18 x d: 0.025)
Text: Inscribed on one face.
Letters: Perhaps first century CE: 0.07 - 0.08.

Date: Perhaps first century CE

Findspot: Ptolemais: found in 1955 on the surface in the area between the building with the triconch and the Italian defence wall.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Tolmeita Museum

Interpretive

[Iupiter O(ptime) M(axime) te precamur quaesumusque ut tu imperatorem]
[ - - - - - - - - - - ]
[saluom incolumemque conserues et in reliquom malae ualetudinis]
[prim]o q[uoque tempore in urbem Romam sistas astu ea ita faxis tum tibi boue aurat(a) uouemus esse futurum]
[Iuno Regin]a quae [in uerba Ioui O(ptimo) M(aximo) boue aurato uouimus]
[esse] futurum [quod hodie uouimus astu ea ita faxis tum tibi in]
[eade]m uerba b[oue aurata uouemus esse futurum]
5[Minerua] quae in u[erba Ioui O(ptimo) M(aximo) boue aurato uouimus esse]
[fut]urum quo[d hodie uouimus astu ea ita faxis tum tibi in]
[eade]m uerba b[oue aurata uouemus esse futurum]
[Salus pu]blica populi [Romani quae in uerba Ioui O(ptimo) M(aximo)]
[--- Sal]us public[a ---]

Diplomatic

[..............................................]
[ - - - - - - - - - - ]
[.......................................................]
[....]OQ[..............................................................................]
[.........]AQUAE[..............................]
[....]FUTURUM[.......................................]
[....]MUERBAB[...........................]
5[.......]QUAEINU[...............................]
[...]URUMQUO[....................................]
[....]MUERBAB[...........................]
[.......]BLICAPOPULI[.......................]
[---...]USPUBLIC[.---]

Apparatus

The hypothetical restorations of this small fragment are taken from what we know of this kind of prayer: see further below.

English translation

Translation by: Editors

(Too fragmentary for a useful translation)

Commentary

Clearly from a series of prayers formulated in terms similar to those used by the Arval Brothers for vota pro salute principis, see W. Henzen, Acta fratrum Arvalium, 89f. (available at Hathi Trust) cf.P.97, P.339, and, at Cyrene, C.146. By comparison with the Arval formulae for the vota offered annually for the princeps on 3rd January, lines 2-8 can be reconstructed as shown.

Line 1 must be from the end of the prayer to Iupiter, but in the normal Arval formula for this, the letter-group OQ appears only in the phrase te precor quaesoque and Populo Romano Quiritibus which occur too far from the end to be appropriate here. Possibly a variant formula was used in Ptolemais; or the cutter may have made a mistake; or the occasion of the prayers may have been some special situation cf. the Vota extraordinaria, Henzen p. 122f. (at Hathi Trust), where the words primoque tempore occur towards the end of the end of the prayer to Iupiter.

Line 2 will have contained the name of the emperor concerned.

Line 9 should complete the prayer to Salus Publica in the same terms as those to Iuno and Minerva that precede it; instead the name Salus Publica reappears and the only obvious explanation of this is that the cutter repeated the line above - an error that is not perhaps so difficult to understand in such a monotonously repetitious text.

Bibliography: Reynolds, 1962a, 2.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Face (1961-05-26, Joyce Reynolds)

   Fig. 2. From left: P.165.a, P.204, P.54 (Joyce Reynolds)


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