Description: Lower right corner of a stele of white marble, probably Attic, moulded below (w:
0.155 x h:
0.17 x d:
0.035)
Text: Inscribed on one face.
Letters: First century BCE - first century CE: 0.05; guidelines visible; bars above the figures in line 10.
Date: First century BCE - first century CE
Findspot:
Ptolemais:
Square of the Cisterns; found in 1935.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Tolmeita Museum.
English translation
Translation by: Charlotte Roueché
. . . ] of -kios Apion [ . . . ] of Karnis [ . . . ] having been agreed [ . . . ] the decree [ . . . ] to inscribe and [ . . . ] on a stele of [marble] stone beside the image. Votes in favour, 120.
Commentary
The text of a decree, either of the city of Ptolemais or possibly of a group within it such as the Jewish politeuma. The fragmentary names in lines 3/4 are probably from the genealogy of the man honoured.
Lines. 6ff. provide for recording the text, including its inscription on a stele whose stone was prescribed, and for its erection beside a statue which, it is implied, was also voted earlied in the decree; the place in which they were both to be erected must also have been mentioned. For the formula prescribing erection of a stele beside a statue c.f. Inscr. Del. 1497 bis, 1517, 1523, available at PHI 63933, 63953, 63959.
Line 9. εἰκόνα: The selection of this word for deletion suggests a policy which might be associable with purist Jews, possibly in the Flavian period after the arrival of refugees from Palestine rather than during the violent outburst of CE 115; it would happen the more naturally if the monument did in fact record activity by the Jewish politeuma and stood in a specifically Jewish meeting place.
Line 10: For this formula see B.75 and B.76 (both decrees of Jewish groups), M.245 and IGCyr066900.
Bibliography:
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (Joyce Reynolds, Tolmeita I.63)
Fig. 2. View (1961-05-26, Joyce Reynolds III.18)
Fig. 3. View in context (Reynolds III.46)