Support: Fragment of a marble panel, broken off at right, above and below, also cut off at the lower left edge (preserved dimensions w: 0.10 × h: 0.155 × d: 0.035).

Layout: Inscribed on the face with a small margin at left and regardless of the word and syllable limits; the face is much worn out and the traces of letters rather faint.

Letters: Regular letters not pressed together (0.008), with small serifs; epsilon with short central bar, nu with the lower attachment of the oblique bar higher than the bottom of the right hasta, large circular letters, non-slanting sigma, upsilon with a very short hasta.

Date: Probably second half of second or first half of first century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found and photographed probably before World War II, probably at Cyrene ➚: exact findspot not registered.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, 93. Seen by Dobias-Lalou in 1979 at Shahat: Cyrene Museum.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone, squeeze and photograph (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

[---] []itos fils d'Hippos[---] [] votre c[oncitoyen ---]; choisissant [---], lui-même et [---] grand [---] ce qui a concouru à tout [---] pour la cité et [---] la couronne [---] ayant [---].

English translation

[---] []itos son of Hippos[---] [] your f[ellow citizen ---]; choosing [---], himself and [---] large [---] what contributed to the whole [---] for the city and [---] the crown [---] having [---].

Italian translation

[---] []itos figlio di Ippos[---] [] il vostro c[oncittadino ---]; scegliendo [---], lui stesso e [---] grande [---] ciò che ha contribuito all'intero [---] alla città e [---] la corona [---] avendo [---].

Commentary

This edition has been enhanced with help of a copy and a squeeze made by Dobias-Lalou in 1979 and found again in 2021, whereas the first edition (2017) was based only on the photograph kept in the Department of Antiquities at Cyrene.

The layout and presumable date allow to think of a public legal document and the probable mention of a man with father's name Hippos-, together with the use of 'your' at l. 3 with the plausible 'citizen' and a probable mention of a garland at l. 9 recall of honorific decisions. Yet the use of the koine (at least proved by αἱρούμενος at l. 4, whence other restored forms) prevents from thinking of a decree of the city and would rather indicate some decision by a Ptolemy. However, the whole remains hypothetical because of the very fragmentary condition of the stone.

The second personal name at line 2 might be Ἱππόστρατος, already attested at Cyrene for a contributor about 280 BC (IGCyr065200²), but other names such as Ἱπποσθένης, common in other regions, would be quite predictable also in Cyrenaica. Before that name, the group ιτον is plausibly the end of a name at the accusative, so that Hippos[---] would be the father's name.

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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 igcyr132500 Royal letter (?)

Maps