Public honors for Ptolemy III and Berenice II

IGCyr063300

Trismegistos ID: 6101

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum, 15 (fragment a) and 7 (fragment b).

Support

Two joining fragments of a white-blue marble base broken at right (fragment a 0.08; 0.07;0.095; fragment b 0.175; 0.155;0.30).

Layout

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

0.019; small omicron 0.012; sigma with four slanting strokes.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Between 240 and 220 B.C. (prosopography)

Findspot

Found before 1956 at Cyrene : exact findspot unrecorded.

Last recorded Location

Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1979 in Shahat : Cyrene Museum .

Text constituted from

Transcription from stone (CDL).

Bibliography

Fraser, 1958 , pp. 111-112, n. 4, pl. XII, 4, whence SEG , 18.734; Fraser, 1972 II, p. 191, footnote 85; Laronde, 1987 , p. 417, whence SEG , 38.1882. Cf. Marquaille, 2003 , and Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique , 2005.620, whence SEG , 53.2028.

Text

|Πέλ|ο̣πα Πέλο[πος τὸν λιβυάρχαν Κυραναῖοι?] |ἀνέ̣|θηκαν ἀρε[τᾶς ἕνεκα καὶ εὐνοίας τᾶς ἐς βασιλῆ Πτο]λεμαῖον κα[ὶ βασίλισσαν Βερενίκαν θεὸς Εὐε]ρ̣γέτας κα[ὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτῶν].

Apparatus

1 Laronde, 1987  [τὸν λιβυάρχαν?] : Fraser, 1958  [Μακεδόνα?]

French translation

(La statue de) Pélops fils de Pélops, [le gouverneur de Libye?] a été consacrée [par les Cyrénéens] en raison de sa valeur [et de son dévouement envers le roi] Ptolémée et [la reine Bérénice, Dieux] Evergètes, ainsi [que leurs enfants].

English translation

[The statue of] Pelops son of Pelops, [the governor of Libya?] was dedicated [by the Cyrenaeans] on account of his valour [and goodwilling towards king] Ptolemy and [queen Berenice, Gods] Euergetai, as well as [their chidren].

Italian translation

[La statua di] Pelops figlio di Pelops, [il governatore della Libia?] è stata dedicata [dai Cirenei] in considerazione del suo valore [e della sua dedizione verso il re] Tolemeo e [la regina Berenice, Dèi] Evergeti, e [dei loro figli].

Commentary

Fraser, 1958 , published only fragment b, but was able to complete the name of Pelops, who was already known from different sources. However he later heard about the missing fragment a, as appears from the mentioned footnote in Fraser, 1972 .

At l. 1, Fraser, 1958 , after having considered the titles στραταγός or Λιβυάρχης, preferred e.g. Μακεδόνα. Laronde, 1987 reinforced Λιβυάρχας which fits better the space available and might also be restored in IGCyr063100 and IGCyr063200.

The terminus post quem is based on the fact that Pelops should have been governor of Cyrenaica before assuming the same duty at Cyprus from 217 to 209 B.C.; the terminus ante quem, on the fact that the eldest son of the royal couple was born ca. 244 B.C.

The inventory number shows that the stone was already part of the epigraphic collection at the time of the reorganization of the Cyrenaean antiquities after World War II care of Goodchild (from 1956 on) and before Fraser observed it. It may well have been found already during the last years of the Italian period.

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