IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

P.214. Acclamations serving as captions for frescoes

Description: Block in the internal wall.
Text: Painted: a. To the right of a figure of an armed man with his left hand resting on a shield; b. To the left of an armed man; c. Beside a figure wearing a crown.
Letters: Probably first to second century: lunate epsilon, lunate sigma, cursive omega.

Date: Probably first to second century CE

Findspot: Ptolemais: Amphitheatre, in the corridor of the podium; found in 1935.
Original location: Findspot.
Last recorded location: Findspot.

Interpretive

a
καιρόϲ
b
[ - - - - - - - - - - ]
ΧΗΙϹΕΙ̣[---]
c
τῶι Εὐτύχῳ καὶ Φιλότᾳ [καὶ] Ῥούφῳ [εὐτυ?]χῖτε

Diplomatic

a
ΚΑΙΡΟϹ
b
[ - - - - - - - - - - ]
ΧΗΙϹΕ.[---]
c
ΤΩΙΕΥΤΥΧΩΚΑΙΦΙΛΟΤΑ[...]ΡΟΥΦΩ[....]ΧΙΤΕ

Apparatus

b: χήσει suggesting [εὐτυ]χήσει. Caputo, 1955 Perhaps [ἀγαθῆι τύ]χηι Σε[ι...] c: so Robert; εὐτύχῳ φιλοτά[τῳ, χῖτε], Caputo.

English translation

Translation by: Editors

(a) . . . ] kairos

(b) To/for/by good fortune

( c) For Eutychos and Philotas and Rufus - may you have good luck.

Commentary

The figures, interpreted as huntsmen by Caputo, are more probably gladiators. He argues for a Severan date.

a. Perhaps a name or part of a name, cf. Καλοκαιρός, rather than a divinity as Caputo suggests.

Bibliography: Caputo, 1954, 62, and fig. 48, and more fully Caputo, 1955, 285-7, and pl. XXVI, 2, whence Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1955.277, SEG 16.874, PHI 324359.
Text constituted from: a and c from previous publications; b transcribed by Reynolds.

Images

   Fig. 1. View

   Fig. 2. View