Support: Stele of local limestone, red from earth, broken off at top obliquely and at right below; (w: 0.38 × h: 0.98 × d: 0.20-0.21); inside an oval medalion (w: 0.35 × h: 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; an omitted sigma at a.2 was added in small dimension overline.

Date: First century AD (lettering).

Findspot: Found between 1972 and 1975 in Martūbah ➚.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, 2073. Observed in 1993 by Dobias-Lalou in Shahat: Cyrene Museum (photography not possible). Observed and photographed in December 2022 by Struffolino in the storeroom of the same Museum.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

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 !

English translation

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!

Italian translation

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!

Commentary

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.

Additional commentary: On Struffolino's visit in December 2022, the stone was again in a position allowing photos to be made. Unfortunately, the lower left angle has been split off and some letters which were clear in 1993 are now lost: the reading would now be ἔνθ[α] at b.3, κεῖ̣[ται] at b.4, whereas γαῖα is wholly lost at b.5.

Metrical analysis: for each child, an elegiac couplet.

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All citation, reuse or distribution of this work must contain a link back to DOI: https://doi.org/10.60760/unibo/igcyrgvcyr2 and the filename (IGCyr000000 or GVCyr000), as well as the year of consultation.

Images

Fig. 1. View of gvcyr011 Epitaph of Crispina and Sabinos

Fig. 2. Face of gvcyr011 Epitaph of Crispina and Sabinos

Maps