Private honors for a Ptolemaic officer with artist's signature

IGCyr063400

Trismegistos ID: 6102

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum, 55+185.

Support

Two adjacent fragments of a white marble panel broken on top and at right; bottom edge partly preserved, left edge recut (0.25; 0.24;0.055).

Layout

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

0.02-0.025 at lines 1 to 4, 0.015-0.019 at line 5; slight serifs; alpha with a dropped bar, non-slanting sigma.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Second half of the second century B.C. (lettering)

Findspot

Found between 1929 and 1930 at Cyrene : Sanctuary of Apollo, Temple of Apollo .

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. 116-118, n. 9, pl. XIII, 9, whence SEG , 18.735; Laronde, 1987 , p. 453, footnote 228. Cf. Adams, 2002 , p. 40 and Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique , 2005.622, whence SEG , 53.2042; Rosamilia, 2014 , n. 10.

Text

[------]   [------]   [---] Λ̣Α[---]  [εὐνοίας ἕνεκα τᾶ]ς̣ ἐς βα[σιλῆ Πτολεμαῖον] 5[θεὸν Εὐεργέταν κα]ὶ βασί[λισσαν Κλευπάτραν τὰν γυναῖκα αὐτῶ καὶ] ἐς τὰ π[αιδία? αὐτῶν]. [ ---]  υ οντος Κυρα[ναῖος ἐποίησεν].

Apparatus

7 [---]  υ οντος : Rosamilia, 2014  [---] οντος : Fraser, 1958  [---] [μέδ]οντος

French translation

(La statue de) [ [---] (fils de) [---] ] (a été consacrée), par [---]  fils de [---]  [en raison de son dévouement] envers le roi [Ptolémée, Dieu Evergète,] envers la reine [Cléopatre, son épouse et leurs] enfants.

[Oeuvre de ---]  fils de [---] ôn cyrénéen.

English translation

(The statue) of [---] , [son of ---]  (was dedicated) by [---]  son of [---]  [on account of his goodwilling] towards king [Ptolemy, God Euergetes,] and queen [Cleopatra, his wife as well as their] children.

[Made by ---]  son of [---] on, a Cyrenaean.

Italian translation

(La statua) di [---] , [figlio di ---]  (è stata dedicata) da [---]  figlio di [---]  [in considerazione della sua dedizione ] verso il re [Tolemeo, Dio Evergete,] verso la regina [Cleopatra, sua sposa e verso i loro] figli.

[Opera di ---]  figlio di [---] on, cireneo.

Commentary

This panel was probably attached to a base or another monument honoring a royal official, serving under a king whom Laronde identified with Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, whose regnal date would fit well the lettering. However Rosamilia is less confident.

Adams' suggestion that the royals mentioned here were themselves portrayed above is a nonsense.

Line 1 would have mentionned the honorandus at the accusative.

Lines 2 may have contained his titles.

For line 7, written in smaller characters, Fraser, 1958 thought either of a dedicant or of an artist, prefering the latter for reasons of style (the smaller lettering) and of formula (the ethnic would be less surprising for an artist's signature, even at his birthplace). So does also Rosamilia. Near the break at the beginning, there remains part of an oblique stroke, not seen by Fraser, which might belong either to an upsilon or to a chi. The former would allow to restore the father's name as Λύων, whereas no name ending with -χων may be suggested. However, as both Cyrenaican occurrences of Λύων date from the imperial period, we preferred not to restore it.

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