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 w: 1.51 × h: 0.645 × d: 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.

Date: Second half of fourth century BC (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).

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Observed by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1977 standing in the area where it was found on the agora.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

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

English translation

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

Italian translation

[Il tale figlio di ---]tos e nipote di Melanippos ha dedicato (scil. 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. More on this point by Rosamilia 2023.

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

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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. Face of igcyr100900 Dedication

Maps