Repository
Cyrene Museum, 2073.
Support
Stele of local limestone, red from earth, broken off at top obliquely and at right below; (0.38; 0.94;0.20); inside an oval medalion (0.35; 0.40; -), two carved busts, at left a girl in a mourning attitude, at right a boy with a round face and short hair on the forehead.
Layout
Inscribed under each bust (a at left on 5 lines, b at right on 6 lines); both poems are not exactly displayed in columns, but the segments of lines belonging to each of them are separated by stops.
Letters
0.02; alpha with dropped bar, pi with both equal vertical strokes, very small omicron, phi with tall hasta.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
First century A.D. (lettering)
Findspot
Last recorded Location
Observed in 1993 by Dobias-Lalou in Shahat : Cyrene Museum (photography not possible).
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Mohamed-Reynolds, 1996 Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1996, Inscriptions recently discovered in Cyrenaica, in M. Khanoussi, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara (eds.), L'Africa romana: atti dell'11. Convegno di studio: Cartagine, 15-18 dicembre 1994 (L'Africa romana11), III, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari28, Ozieri, 1321-1327 - see in bibliography , n. 2 (no image) and Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique Dobias-Lalou, C.Bulletin Épigraphique in Études Grecques (REG)1987- - see in bibliography , 1997.710 and AE Année Épigraphique, Paris, 1888- - see in bibliography , 1996, 1670 (Laronde), whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 46.2212. Cf. Dobias-Lalou, 2014 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Des pierres qui parlent en vers. A propos des épigrammes grecques de Cyrénaïque, in A. Delattre, A. Lionetto, La Muse de l'éphémère. Formes de la poésie de circonstance de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance, Paris, 319-331 - see in bibliography , p. 324.
b.2 λιπὼν ἱερὸ[ς] : Mohamed-Reynolds, 1996
Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1996, Inscriptions recently discovered in Cyrenaica, in M. Khanoussi, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara (eds.), L'Africa romana: atti dell'11. Convegno di studio: Cartagine, 15-18 dicembre 1994 (L'Africa romana11), III, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari28, Ozieri, 1321-1327 - see in bibliography
, Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique
Dobias-Lalou, C.Bulletin Épigraphique in Études Grecques (REG)1987- - see in bibliography
, AE
Année Épigraphique, Paris, 1888- - see in bibliography
(linebreak omitted, λιπών given at l. 1 and ἱερός omitted, whence a shift of the following lines and a different metrical analysis)
b.3 ἔνθα : Mohamed-Reynolds, 1996
Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1996, Inscriptions recently discovered in Cyrenaica, in M. Khanoussi, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara (eds.), L'Africa romana: atti dell'11. Convegno di studio: Cartagine, 15-18 dicembre 1994 (L'Africa romana11), III, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari28, Ozieri, 1321-1327 - see in bibliography
ἐνθά[δε]
b.3-4 [Σα]|βῖνος : Mohamed-Reynolds, 1996
Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1996, Inscriptions recently discovered in Cyrenaica, in M. Khanoussi, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara (eds.), L'Africa romana: atti dell'11. Convegno di studio: Cartagine, 15-18 dicembre 1994 (L'Africa romana11), III, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari28, Ozieri, 1321-1327 - see in bibliography
[Ἀλ]|βῖνος : Mohamed-Reynolds, 1996
Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1996, Inscriptions recently discovered in Cyrenaica, in M. Khanoussi, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara (eds.), L'Africa romana: atti dell'11. Convegno di studio: Cartagine, 15-18 dicembre 1994 (L'Africa romana11), III, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari28, Ozieri, 1321-1327 - see in bibliography
[Καλ]|βῖνος
a) Un corps d'enfant est enfermé dans cette tombe ; l'âme de Krispina, elle, a pris demeure au pays des bienheureux.
b) N'ayant laissé que des larmes à son père, un merveilleux enfant, Sabinos, gît ici; légère soit la terre qui le retient en sa tombe !
a) A child's body is enclosed into this tomb; but Krispina's soul has gone to settle down in the land of the blessed ones.
b) Having left but tears to his father, a wonderful child, Sabinos, lies here; may be light the earth that keeps him in his tomb!
a) Un corpo di fanciulla è racchiuso in questa tomba; ma l'anima di Krispina ha preso dimora nella terra dei beati.
b) Lasciate al padre solo le lacrime, un meraviglioso bambino, Sabinos, qui giace; gli sia lieve la terra che copre la sua tomba!
The date is suggested on J. Reynolds' assesment: 'Julio-Claudian or Flavian'
Mohamed and Reynolds in their contribution of 1996 intended to give a provisional discussion of the area of new discoveries in the Cyrenaican 'Far East' rather than a thorough epigraphical publication, the more so that the placement of the stone in the Cyrene Museum prevented to take any photograph. Dobias-Lalou had the opportunity to study the stone with them in 1993 and again later on and they agreed with her observation about the line that had slipped away in part b.
The erection of one and the same monument and the young age of the deceased, attested both through the wording and the busts, allow to suppose that they were sister and brother and died at the same time or within a small span of time. Nothing is known about the reason of their death.
At b. 3-4 the name of the boy should be restored either with a short syllable beginning with a consonant or with a long syllable beginning with a vowel, leading to the elision of the final α of ἔνθα. Although Ἀλβῖνος would be possible, we prefer Σαβῖνος, which is already attested in Cyrenaica.
Metrical analysis: for each child, an elegiac couplet.
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