Support: A white marble slab, wider below than on top, with the back left rough and two holes in the upper face (dimensions w: 0.28-0.32 × h: 0.97 × d: 0.15).

Layout: Inscribed on the front face in two lines, beginning at 0.19 from the upper end.

Letters: Carefully cut letters (0.04); alpha with low bar, epsilon with rather long bars, pi with short right stroke, large omicron, slantering sigma.

Date: Perhaps mid-fourth to mid-third century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found and copied by A. Buzaian in 2003 at Balagrae ➚: inside the archaeological enclosure.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Not seen by IGCyr team.

Text constituted from: Transcription from first editor (CDL).

French translation

Epistratos fils de Proklès.

English translation

Epistratos son of Prokles.

Italian translation

Epistratos figlio di Prokles.

Arabic translation

إبستراتوس بن بروكليوس

Commentary

This inscription is the only one known to us from Balagrae before the Roman period. Found by shepherds inside the archaeological enclosure of Balagrae, it is documented only through a careful drawing by the archaeologist A. Buzaian. The shape of the support, described as a slab slightly widening downwards and left rough at rear differs from the usual funerary steles. From the two holes in the upper face, the editors thought that it might have been suspended and suggested a honorific monument inside the sanctuary. However, the suspension of such a heavy stone does not seem very plausible and we know no parallel for it. Alternatively, the dimensions and the rough rear suggest rather that it was a tomb closer. It was found in the vast protected area including Asklepios' sanctuary, most probably displaced from its original context. The only tomb known in the vicinity, briefly mentioned by Buzaian – Bennett – Abdelhamed 2023, p. 81, although dated to the second century AD, indicates the position of at least one cemetery to the South, across the modern road, in relation with some contemporary settlements. Up to now, we knew nothing about a dwelling place at Balagrae in the Hellenistic period, only the extraurban sanctuary of Iatros (Asklepios) depending from Cyrene (see IGCyr011600², lines 16-17) was documented. This inscription, which we hold for funerary, should have belonged to a neighbouring rural settlement.

Both name and father's name are already attested at Cyrene, the former only once in the Hellenistic period, the latter being frequent. The lettering, as revealed by the copy, seems to be older than the second or first century suggested by the first editor. It would thus be a tempting, but hazardous hypothesis to relate this Epistratos son of Prokles with Megakles son of Epistratos, who took part in the subscription about 270 BC (IGCyr065210², i.140).

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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. Drawing of igcyr139300 Epitaph

Maps