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 pleiades; HGL : 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 Fraser, P.M., 1958, Inscriptions from Cyrene, Berytus12, 101-128 - see in bibliography , pp. 116-118, n. 9, pl. XIII, 9, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 18.735; Laronde, 1987 Laronde, A., 1987, Cyrène et la Libye hellénistique. Libykai historiai de l’époque républicaine au principat d’Auguste, Paris - see in bibliography , p. 453, footnote 228. Cf. Adams, 2002 Adams, N., 2002, Another Hellenistic royal portrait from the temple of Apollo at Cyrene?, Libyan Studies (LibStud)33, 29-44 - see in bibliography , p. 40 and Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique Dobias-Lalou, C.Bulletin Épigraphique in Études Grecques (REG)1987- - see in bibliography , 2005.622, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 53.2042; Rosamilia, 2014 Rosamilia, E., 2014, Firme di scultori della Cirenaica: un'analisi del corpus, in Luni, M. (ed.), Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica36, Cirene Atene d'Africa7, Roma, 89-106 - see in bibliography , n. 10.
Text
Apparatus
7 [---] υ also consonant with χ οντος : Rosamilia, 2014 Rosamilia, E., 2014, Firme di scultori della Cirenaica: un'analisi del corpus, in Luni, M. (ed.), Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica36, Cirene Atene d'Africa7, Roma, 89-106 - see in bibliography [---] οντος : Fraser, 1958 Fraser, P.M., 1958, Inscriptions from Cyrene, Berytus12, 101-128 - see in bibliography [---] [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 Fraser, P.M., 1958, Inscriptions from Cyrene, Berytus12, 101-128 - see in bibliography 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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