Description: Sandstone
blocks, too high to measure, in the North Tower of the West Gate,
inscribed, while in their present positions, on the North wall: P.1, P.2,
P.3, P.4, P.5,
P.6,
P.7.
Text: Graffito on the raised central area of two adjacent blocks
to the right of P.2; i to the left of ii
Letters: No description. ΣΤΚ monogram for συγκοίτοι.
Date: First century BCE to first century CE
Findspot:
Ptolemais:
West Gate, North tower, north wall.
Original location: Findspot.
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
Apparatus
i.1: Omitted by OliverioItalian translation
Translation source: Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936
Comano
English translation
Translation by: Editors
(i): . . . ] bed-fellow/s, Komanos. (ii): Bed-fellow/s
Arabic translation
Translation by: Muna Abdelhamed
(i) : . . . ] شريك/ شركاء الفراش ، كومانوس. (ii): شريك/ شركاء الفراش.
Commentary
For this group of texts see commentary on P.1
i: For the name cf. P.13. Oliverio identified this person with the minister of Ptolemy Neoterus (Polyb. XXVIII. 19.2, 20.1) but this seems most improbable - the text is clearly informal and the letter-forms, though perhaps early in the sequence, very uncertainly dated.
i and ii: This monogram was ignored by previous editors, although Franz suggested, on P.9 (CIG 5203), that it might be Christian (from its alleged similarity to a Coptic cross) which is certainly wrong. It is usually found linking a pair of names; in this case, therefore, the partner may therefore have been intended for line 2 of ii. It should be resolved as the term σύγκοιτος/οι; see also P.3, P.9, P.12, P.38, P.39, P.43, P.127, P.133, and perhaps P.400, all ephebic texts. It is not always clear whether it should be resolved in the singular - so x the bedfellow of y - or in the plural: the plural usually makes better sense. The word is more frequently found in the context of heterosexual relationships; it appears to have a distinct sense from the word φίλος, which is also found linking pairs of ephebes - see P.12, where the two terms are both used. The use of a monogram certainly indicates a standardised relationship, and probably something more intimate than the military term contubernalis.
Bibliography: i only: Pacho, 1827pl. LXXIV whence CIG, Vol.III, 5205b; Oliverio, DAI, 1932-1933, 5, p.69, and Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936, 503 (27),whence SEG 9.384, PHI 324233.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
