Description: Partly buried wall constructed of sandstone
blocks, inscribed with P.35, P.36, P.37,
P.38, P.39, P.40,
P.41, P.42, P.43,
P.44 and P.45.
This block is detached from but lying beside the east end of the masonry.
Text: Cut on the face. i at the left, ii to the right, iii below.
ii and iii may have run onto an adjacent block to the right.
Letters: Deep trenches, 0.08; probably three hands.
Date: 1st century BCE to 1st century CE
Findspot:
Ptolemais:
near the West Gate, in an unexcavated area between the city wall and the West Church.
Original location: Findspot
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
English translation
Translation by: Editors
(i): Lysis [ . . . ] Poll[- . . . ] (ii): Muli[- . . . ] Licho[- . . . ] (iii): Glauchos [ . . . ]
Commentary
The texts in this group were inscribed when the blocks were already in their present position, since at least one text, P.38, runs on to an adjacent block.
These graffiti (P.35, P.36, P.37, P.38, P.39, P.40, P.41, P.42, P.43, P.44, P.45), contain some terms for groupings which are characteristic of ephebes: σύγκοιτοι (P.38, P.39, P.43), φίλοι (P.40, P.41, P.45), συμπαλοι (P.40); their number and appearance recall those of the Gymnasium at Teucheira (T.27 and following); the probability is that the building on which they were cut is a Gymnasium and it is likely that the many similiarly inscribed blocks found reused in late antique and modern buildings throughout the site derive originally from it. The texts are very roughly cut and in many cases earlier ones have been erased or overcut by later writers. The letter forms are impossible to date and where a year is named it is more likely to be a regnal than an Actian year; but except for one loose block mentioning Nero, (P.356) whose connection with the series is conjectural, they do not indicate whose reign is intended. If P.45 is rightly read however, there is one Roman name among them. On the analogy of the similar graffiti in the Gymnasium of Teucheira (see T.27 and following) and the comparable ones at Cyrene, where there is some precise dating evidence, they perhaps run from the first century BCE to approximately the end of the 1st century CE
For comparable graffiti on the West gate (nos. P.1 to P.27) see on P.1.
We have not attempted to read the underlying older texts except where they are very clear.
Bibliography:
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (Joyce Reynolds, Tolmeita II. 39)