Support: Limestone stele moulded above, the upper part of the face occupied by a round-headed niche with flanking columns in relief containing a relief of a gladiator (w: 0.57-0.59 × h: 1.74 × d: 0.28-0.30).

Layout: Inscribed in a tabula ansata below the relief (w: 0.475 × h: 0.21); lines 2 and 3 encroaching on the right ansa, line 6 below the tabula.

Letters: 0.03-0.035; lunate epsilon, sigma and omega.

Date: Second or third century AD (lettering).

Findspot: Found before 1915 at Ptolemais ➚: in the Amphitheatre (see commentary).

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Seen at an unknown date by J.M. Reynolds at Ţulmaythah: in the Tolmeita Museum. Seen by Dobias-Lalou in 1985 at the same place..

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

Ceux-là ont été tués par Arès et son atroce mêlée;

moi, c'est la maladie qui m'a tué quand j'avais réchappé au fer.

English translation

Those have been killed by Ares and his dread din of battle;

me, it was disease that killed me after having escaped iron blades.

Italian translation

Questi li ha uccisi Ares e la sua atroce pugna;

quanto a me, la malattia mi ha ucciso dopo che ero sfuggito al ferro.

Arabic translation

هؤلاء كانوا قد قُتِلوا على يد آريس وضَّجَّتهُ (جَلَبَتهُ) المُرْعِبة (المُخِيفة) في المعركة؛ لي (بالنسبة لي)، المرض هو الذي قتلني بعد أَن نجوت (هربت) من شفرات الحديد (أداوات حادة في عجلة العربة تقتل الرجال في المعركة).

Commentary

At Ptolemais, were found three other steles for gladiators (IRCyr2020 P.215, IRCyr2020 P.216 and GVCyr017²); only the latter and this one were composed in verse and mention a reason for death. The findspot of GVCyr017² is unknown, whereas the three others were found together.

This inscription has been incorporated into the epitaphs (SEG and Peek 1955). However, Oliverio 1933-1936 reported that this one, IRCyr2020 P.215 and IRCyr2020 P.216 were found in the cavea of the amphitheatre. Kraeling 1962, p. 110 thus thought that «they were presumably not connected with funerary structures». Differently, Ghislanzoni (see Ghislanzoni – Oliverio 1915, pp. 122-124), who visited the place before Oliverio, had been told that the two others (the inscription of which gives no clue for or against a funerary function) were found in the West necropolis, re-used as lids of later tombs. As the amphitheatre and the West necropolis were situated not far from one another on either side of the city wall, stones might have been moved here and there. However, the use of τούτους as first word of this one shows that all three steles stood originally together. Either the spot was really the amphitheatre and the inscription is honorary in spite of the funerary topic, or gladiators were buried in a common area and we should thus consider the inscriptions as epitaphs.

Metrical analysis. Two hexameters. At the beginning of line 2, the short syllable is metrically lenghtened; σειδήρου has a ει for a short iota because of iotacism. Both hexameters are quite regular.

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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.

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