Support: White marble base with plain mouldings on top and below and two round dowel holes on top; colored in red by the earth and broken off at left and right ends, beginning at both dowel holes (w: 0.395 × h: 0.16 × d: 0.14).

Layout: Inscribed in two lines on front face (w: 0.33 × h: 0.07).

Letters: 0.02; slight thickening at end of strokes rather than real serifs; slanting sigma, phi with oval loop, open omega.

Date: End of fourth or beginning of third century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found before 1960 at Cyrene ➚: plausibly from a Necropolis.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, 183. Seen by Pugliese Carratelli in 1960 in Shahat: Cyrene Museum. Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou at the same place.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

Kallô fille de Phôkiôn.

English translation

Kallo daughter of Phokion.

Italian translation

Kallò figlia di Phokion.

Commentary

Nothing is known about the provenance of this base. However the circular dowel holes do not correspond to a satue base erected for private honours, but may be found in some funerary bases which supported half statues of the funerary goddess (so for instance IGCyr084900²). As to the date of the find, the inventory number is a plausible clue for a discovery before World War II. However, Pugliese Carratelli does not mention any trace of it from Oliverio's papers.

At the beginning of line 1 the lower oblique bar of a kappa is clear; at the end of the line, there is only the very short lower part of a vertical stroke, so that either a nu or an iota may be read, giving viz. a masculine name Κάλλων or a feminine Καλλώι; the latter is already attested at Cyrene, the former hitherto not attested but quite plausible. On behalf of the space available, inferred from the position of the final sigma of line 2, we eventually prefer to restore an iota, although this might be discussed.

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Images

Fig. 1. Squeeze of igcyr101000 Epitaph

Fig. 2. Drawing of igcyr101000 Epitaph

Fig. 3. Drawing of top of igcyr101000 Epitaph

Maps