IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

P.313. Christian? or Jewish? funerary inscription

Description: Block of limestone, originally from a cornice, re-used (w: 0.55 x h: 0.59 x d: 0.31).
Text: Inscribed on the underside.
Letters: Fifth - sixth century: 0.04, very irregular.

Date: Fifth to sixth centuries CE

Findspot: Ptolemais: Village, by the seashore; found before 1915.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Findspot.

Interpretive

Μνήσθηθε (sic)
Ῥούφου ὁ θεὸς
τῆς κυμήσεος

Diplomatic

ΜΝΗΣΘΗΘΕ(sic)
ΡΟΥΦΟΥΟΘΕΟΣ
ΤΗΣΚΥΜΗΣΕΟΣ

Apparatus

1: Μνήσθηος Applebaum, 1954; Μνήσθηθει Lüderitz-Reynolds, 1983

English translation

Translation source: Reynolds, 1960

Remember Rufus, God of rest

German translation

Translation source: Lüderitz-Reynolds, 1983

Gedenke des Rufus, Gott, (seines) Schlafes

English translation

Translation source: Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003

Remember the rest of Rufus, God

French translation

Translation source: Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique

Dieu, n'oublie pas le repos éternel de Rufus

Commentary

Line 1: apparently for μνήσθητι; for a summary of the material on this formula in pagan, Jewish and Christian prayer see A. D. Nock JTS XXX (1929) 393f. Since there are no Christian symbols here, Applebaum regarded the text as Jewish, but Nock notes that in Syria the form μνήσθητι is limited to Christian inscriptions and it may be that Cabrol Leclerq are right to take it as Christian. See also the discussion by Lüderitz.

Line 3: for κοιμήσεως.

Bibliography: Ghislanzoni, 1915, 152.2, and fig. 42, whence SEG 9.410, PHI 324259; Applebaum, 1954, 23, p.45; Reynolds, 1960, 17. From all these Lüderitz-Reynolds, 1983 37; Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 200.5, whence Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2004.456.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

None available (2020).