Support: White marble rectangular block re-used in a late wall (w: 0.875 × h: 0.27 × d: 0.65). The anathyrosis at the left-hand side shows that another block was adjacent at left.

Layout: Inscribed on the front face of this block and the next one, now lost, to the left; laid out in two columns of two lines each (i.a and i.b), then one line on the whole width and a fourth line in smaller characters below (ii).

Letters: 0.025 for b and c, thus also for a, 0.015 for d; smaller dotted theta, nearly non-slanting sigma.

Date: Between ca. 246 and 235 BC (Rosamilia) (lettering, prosopography).

Findspot: Found in 1926 at Cyrene ➚: Sanctuary of Apollo, West of the Temple of Apollo, reused in a Roman House.

Place of origin: Cyrene ➚.

Last recorded location: Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 2001 in situ, in the Sanctuary of Apollo. Seen by Rosamilia in 2012 in situ.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL + Rosamilia).

Apparatus

French translation

i. [Un tel fils d'Un tel ---],

Aristis fils de Theudôros, prêtre.

[Un tel fils de Theu]dôros a consacré (scil. le monument).

ii. Oeuvre d'Agathôn fils d'[Aga?]thoklès.

English translation

i. [So-and-so son of So-and-so ---],

Aristis son of Theudoros, priest.

[So-and-so son of Theu]doros dedicated (scil. the monument).

ii. Made by Agathon son of[Aga?]thocles.

Italian translation

i. [Il tale figlio del tale ---],

Aristis figlio di Theudoros, sacerdote.

[Il tale figlio di Theu]doros dedicò (scil. il monumento).

ii. Opera di Agathon figlio di[Aga?]thokles.

Commentary

This inscription has been originally considered a dedication to the god Horus, with a dative ending without iota that was inconsistent with the chronology. Rosamilia's interpretation is much more convincing. The layout with the names of the persons portrayed above at the nominative case and below a full sentence giving the name of the person among them who was responsible for the dedication has an exact parallel in IGCyr097900². At line 2 of the lost column a, there should have been an indication about an office held by the other dedicant.

Although both name and father's name of the priest who made the present dedication are frequently used in Cyrenaica, the very similar script of IGCyr101500² allows to infer that the latter might be a dedication by the son of the priest; if of the same family, the Aristis son of Theudoros who subscribed about 280 BC (IGCyr065210², col. a, l. 147) might be the priest's grandfather (so Rosamilia 2023, who amended the higher date suggested in IGCyr).

For the artist's signature, Oliverio's restoration seems good, for Ἀγαθοκλῆς is rather common in Cyrenaica and gives echoing names for father and son. Chamoux 1946, p. 68, n. 1 had checked the extent of the gap and C. Dobias-Lalou (IGCyr) added that theta is the only possible letter before the incomplete omicron. Chamoux and Rosamilia think that Agathon was a Cyrenaean. See discussion at Rosamilia 2014, n. 8.

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