IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

C.17. Fragmentary caption for a mosaic

Description: Right end of a lettered mosaic panel (w: 0.45 x h: 0.16).
Text: Mosaic lettering within the panel
Letters: 0.16

Date: Third or early fourth century CE

Findspot: Cyrene, Basilica: Found before 1941, on the floor of the apse, near the wall.
Original location: Findspot.
Last recorded location: Findspot

Interpretive

[--- Θ]έ̣μ̣ιϲ

Diplomatic

[---.]..ΙϹ

English translation

Translation by: Joyce M. Reynolds

Due Justice

Commentary

The style of the mosaic seems post-Hadrianic but earlier than the Byzantine reconstruction of the building. See M. Luni and G. Cellini, 'L'Abside della Basilica nel foro di Cirene', Karthago 24 (1999), 27-73, who point out (p.34) that a figure of justice is entirely appropriate to the functions of the building.

In the wall immediately above the panel is a niche which contained, when excavated, the lower part of a statue of a woman accompanied by a winged creature - presumably Nemesis accompanied by a gryphon (see Paribeni, 1959, 424)

Bibliography: Reynolds, 1958, V.b, p. 163, whence SEG 17.814, PHI 324423; Gasperini, 1971, B.8 and fig. 23; Venturini, 2013, 54, on which Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2014.539.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

   Fig. 1. Text