Dedication

IGCyr100900

Trismegistos ID: 738521

Source Description

Support

Two adjacent fragments of a nummulitic limestone base, widely mutilated on the left; the blocks are finished on all sides; there is a hole on the upper side. On the front face of the left fragments there is a quadrangular recess for the insertion of a panel, perhaps resulting from a subsequent reuse. (overall dimensions 1.51; 0.645;0.53).

Layout

Inscribed along the upper edge.

Letters

0.035-0.043; carefully cut letters without serifs; slightly smaller dotted theta, slanting mu, open omega.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Second half of fourth century B.C. (lettering)

Findspot

Found by G. Oliverio on November 25th, 1916 at Cyrene : agora, reused in the wall of a Byzantine house, at the North-West corner of the agora (house XIII Stucchi, in the Western side of the portico).

Last recorded Location

Observed by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1977 standing in the area where it was found.

Text constituted from

Transcription from stone (CDL).

Bibliography

Oliverio, Taccuini inediti , VIII.56 and Anti, Taccuini inediti , A VI 10, whence SECir , 169 (no image); Gasperini, 1965 , p. 329, n. 1, pl. LXIV, 6 (= Gasperini, 2008 , pp. 46-47, fig. 20,1); Gasperini, 1967 , p. 168, n. 14, fig. 198 (= Gasperini, 2008 , p. 81, n. 14, fig. 14); Stucchi, 1975 , p. 91; Laronde, 1987 , pp. 103, 117.

Text

[---]  [---] τω τῶ Μελανίππω ἀ[ν]έθηκε

Apparatus

1 [---] τω : Gasperini, 1965 , Gasperini, 1967  [ὁ δεῖνα τῶ δεῖνος θεῶι ἐπὶ ἱερέως---] τω : Gasperini, 1965 , Gasperini, 1967  [ὁ δεῖνα τῶ δεῖνος θεοῖς ἐπὶ ἱερέως---] τω : SECir  [ὁ δεῖνα---] τω

French translation

[Untel fils de]  [---] tos et petit-fils de Melanippos a consacré (ce monument).

English translation

[So-and-so son of]  [---] tos and grand-son of Melanippos dedicated (this monument).

Italian translation

[Il tale figlio di ]  [---] tos e nipote di Melanippos ha dedicato (questo monumento).

Commentary

Pugliese Carratelli did not find the stone in 1960 and edited the inscription from Oliverio's notebook. After Stucchi's excavations on the agora, which began in 1957, the stone has become clearly visible to all visitors.

As no personal name ending with -τωτος is known, the only justification for a segment ΤΩΤΩ is that there stood a personal name, followed by a father's name ending with τος, itself followed by the article and the grandfather's name, who was Melanippos.

As Gasperini rightly pointed out, the lost part at left is of undeterminable dimension, perhaps extending on other blocks, so that before the personal names the gap would allow for the name of one or several deities to whom the dedication was made, although such a mention is not compulsory. His idea that the name of the eponym priest also stood there is less convincing.

The prosopographical relation proposed by Stucchi, 1975 , p. 91 may seem hypothetical; however, the fact that the grandfather is mentioned allows to suspect with Laronde, 1987 , pp. 103, 117 that he belonged to an important family.

For the excavations of the time in that area see now Luni, 2014 , pp. 51-52.

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