Support: Part of a marble low base, neatly cut at left (see commentary) and broken off at right (w: 0.57 × h: 0.32 × d: 1.13).

Layout: Inscribed in two lines on front face. (w: 0.40 × h: 0.32), which is the upper face of the remaining block as it now stands.

Letters: 0.027; some letters were hammered and are illegible; pi with projecting upper bar.

Date: Probably between 130 and 116 BC (lettering, reign).

Findspot: Found before 1960 at Cyrene ➚: area of the House of Jason Magnus, in the so-called Temple of Hermes.

Place of origin: Cyrene ➚: probably from the Agora.

Last recorded location: Seen by D. Morelli in 1960 at the findspot, in the Temple of Hermes. Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1977 at the same place.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

(scil. La statue du) [roi Ptolémée] Dieux Evergète [--- a été consacrée par Un tel] des Premiers Amis [---].

English translation

(scil. The statue of) [king Ptolemy] God Euergetes [--- was dedicated by So-and-so] of the First Friends [---].

Italian translation

(scil. La statua del) [re Tolemeo] Dio Evergete [--- è stata dedicata dal tale] dei Primi Amici [---].

Arabic translation

(تمثال) [الملك بتوليميوس (بطليموس)] المُؤلَّه المُنْقِذ [--- كُرِس من قِبل فلان] من الأصدقاء الأوائل (أحد أعضاء هذه المجموعة) [---].

Commentary

There are many obscurities in this inscription, which seems to belong to a larger monument with a missing part at left, either another block or a part that was cut off for a re-use.

The reading is made difficult because of both lines being partly hammered, perhaps on occasion of a re-use. A honorific base for a king would have stood on the agora proper. It may whave been moved from there to its findspot, some blocks further to the East.

At line 1, Morelli's reading does not lead to an acceptable name. The last preserved letter, read by him as sigma, has only the upper and lower bars preserved, so that it may be an epsilon as well. If so we catch a possible mention of a king 'God Euergetes' who, given the lettering, would be the second one, preferably at the end of his reign.

At line 2, as read by Morelli, genitive of masculine Πράτας or nominative of Πράτα, those names are unknown in Cyrenaica and nearly inexistant elsewhere. C. Dobias-Lalou could not read as much as Morelli. The 2nd letter, a rho for Morelli, not seen by C. Dobias-Lalou, seems to be confirmed by the photograph. Of the 3rd letter she could see only the upper part which is not pointed like an alpha and would rather be an omega. The 4th letter is a clear tau. The 5th letter, which she could not see, might be also an omega instead of the alpha read by Morelli.

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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 igcyr105710 Honours for Ptolemy VIII

Fig. 2. Drawing of igcyr105710 Honours for Ptoelmy VIII

Maps