Description: Limestone column,
moulded above and with another line of moulding below the text
(h:
1.59 x diam.:
0.71). A second column from the left side of the door is so badly damaged that the inscription,
if it carried one, is completely lost.
Text: Inscribed on the drum between the mouldings.
Letters: Probably second century: 0.075.
Date: Probably second century CE
Findspot:
Ptolemais:
in the street on the right side of the main door to the Villa of the Four Seasons; found in 1957
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location:
Findspot, seen by Adam Łajtar in 2009
English translation
Translation by: Editors
For the deified Augusti
Commentary
On the building, see Kraeling, 119 f., but his assumption of a connection between its foundation and the inscription is unsafe.
Θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς is also found P.168 and P.410 at Ptolemais and C.767 at Cyrene. Kraeling argued that the closest datable parallels are Neronian, but the cult might be expected at any time from the deification of Livia in CE 42 (and for its rapid development thereafter cf. the dedication Dis Augustis at Lepcis Magna by the end of 43 (IRT 273) and the Claudian text from Aezani in Phrygia referring to a priesthood τῶν μεγάλων Θεῶν ὁμοβωμίων Σεβαστων (IGRR IV. 584, whence PHI 272646); there are anticipations of it in the Eastern Provinces at least, cf. MAMA IV. 143, whence PHI 269574) from Apollonia in Galatia, [τοὺς κοινοὺς] καὶ ἰδίους Θεοὺς Σεβαστους, probably to be dated between CE 14 and 19). It is also the case that the cult certainly went on much later.
Bibliography: Kraeling, 1962, 1, pl. LII B, whence Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1964.589; dicussed, Łajtar, 2012, 267-269.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (1957, The Oriental Institute - Chicago, 48689)