Acclamation
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: Second half of the second or third century CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he

Bibliography

[...], B.vi whence [...], 1976.793; [...], 6.vi, whence [...] 28.1555

εἷϲ Ζεύϲ Ϲέραπιϲ εὐτυχῶϲ Κοϲμικῷ δευτέρῳ καὶ τοῖς ϲυναποδημοῦϲιν αὐτῷ

Translation

One Zeus Serapis. With good fortune for Kosmikos ?the second and those travelling with him

Commentary

In line 2 the name restored is a conjecture based on B.10, but the rest is offered exempli gratia only. The invocation of Zeus Sarapis suggests an African connection for the writer. He probably prayed for good luck in terms similar to those used by Kosmikos in B.10, though more elaborate.

Since the divine name appears in the nominative case this must be an acclamation not a dedication, as in the inscription on a gemstone also found at during the excavations [...], A.3, For an account of the history of the Serapis cult, see P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria' 246f.. During the Roman period Sarapis/Serapis became, for some, ‘the unique pantheistic deity,’ see e.g. Tran Tam Tinh in W. Haase (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 17.3 (Berlin 1984) 1713 f. The formula used here expresses this concept and is known from a number of examples; the fundamental study is still Petersen ΕΙΣ ΘΕΟΣ..