Description: Upper right corner of a mosaic floor panel.
Text: Mosaic lettering within a tabella ansata
(w:
1.14 x h:
0.58). The patter of its border shows that it cannot
have been more than 0.70, giving space for only up to three lines.
Letters: Second-third century 0.18; lunate sigma.
Date: Second to third centuries CE
Findspot:
Cyrene:
Baths of Trajan: probably in 1914,
in the floor at the east end of the frigidarium.
Original location: Findspot
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
English translation
Translation by: Editors
(Not usefully translatable.)
Commentary
The panel lies in front of and perhaps referred to, a statue base at the east end of the room which supported a Capitoline-type Venus and other statues. Assuming base and panel to have corresponded in length, the panel will have been c. 3.02m long; the patter of its border shows that it cannot have been more than 0.70 deep, space for three lines only. It is probably not part of the Trajanic decoration of the room.
It is tempting to suggest a reference to Cyrene as τὴν μητροπόλ]ιν τῆς / [ἑξαπολέως] but there are many other possibilities.
Bibliography:
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (Reynolds VIII.93)
Fig. 2. Face (Reynolds VIII.94)