Support: Two adjacent fragments of a white marble block, broken off at left (w: 0.510 × h: 0.210 × d: 0.585); there are two holes for attachment (long 0.14) on the upper side, near the right edge.

Layout: Inscribed on front face in three lines of different dimensions and width; axial layout at least for ll. 2 and 3.

Letters: 0.025 at l. 1 and probably also at l. 3, taller at l. 2 (estimated from photograph); careful script, serifs slightly engraved at l. 3, small omicron and theta, slanting sigma, calice-shaped upsilon.

Date: Late fourth or early third century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found by S. Stucchi between 1958 and 1961 at Cyrene ➚: Agora North-West corner, reused in the fence of the Audience Hall that superseded the Augusteum.

Place of origin: Cyrene ➚: presumably from the Sanctuary of Apollo.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, Storeroom of the Italian missions, inv. number unknown. Observed by L. Gasperini in 1961 at Shahat: Storeroom of the Italian missions. Fragment b only seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1979 in front of the Casa Parisi; fragment a was missing.

Text constituted from: Transcription from part of stone (CDL) and from previous editor.

Apparatus

French translation

[---] a été consacré par Polytimos fils d'Aristarkhos au titre de [la dîme?].

English translation

[---] was dedicated by Polytimos son of Aristarchos as a [tithe?].

Italian translation

[---] è stata dedicata da Polytimos figlio di Aristarchos come [decima?].

Commentary

Monuments offered as tithes usually stood in the sanctuary of Apollo and not on the Agora. It is however not impossible that it has been brought up from there on the occasion of its re-use during the fourth century AD.

The dedication of a man's statue as a tithe is not so common, but IGCyr067000² provides another instance. However the layout remains puzzling: if a statue stood at the right end, it would be in correspondence with the dedicant's name and not with the name of the honoured person, which would be inscribed at left. The object fixed upon the base might be no statue, but a portrait within a frame. Moreover the holes might also be related to the re-use.

Any way, the verb being at the singular, it is not possible to suppose another dedicant mentioned at the nominative in the gap. In spite of all this obscurities, we stick to the idea that the word at line 2 was 'tithe', while prefering to leave the question of the missing part of line 1 open.

Additional commentary for IGCyr2: we get two improvements from Rosamilia 2023: first, he reminds that the father of this dedicant was a damiergos in IGCyr011800², as already suggested by Gasperini and missed in IGCyr; second, he interprets the holes on top of the block as corresponding to a rider's statue (he will develope this point in a study still to be published with L. Vasta).

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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. Fragment of igcyr107200 Private honours and tithe

Maps