Support: Damaged white marble pillar consisting of a pair of orthostates, standing on a base inscribed with IRCyr2020 C.222, moulded on three sides; this inscription on the main (Eastern) face of the shaft below IRCyr2020 C.223; (together w: 0.82 × h: 1.06 × d: 0.69); IRCyr2020 C.222 is on the left face.

Layout: Inscribed in four lines on the lower part of the face; an incised palm branch and an ivy leaf precede the beginning of l. 1; the same may have been lost at the end of l. 4.; the other lines are aligned at left and begin near the edge, implying that a large margin was left at right if the block was complete at the time of engraving.

Letters: 0.025; very carefully cut lettering, letters pressed together; alpha with dropped bar, alpha, delta and lambda with projecting apex; rho with very small loop, square sigma, once in l. 1 and twice in l. 4, only in ligature with eta, four strokes sigma elsewhere, upsilon with a small bar below the oblique strokes, omega very classical in shape; large omicron, but in δωμήσατο and νηόν, where they are written very small; nu at l. 3 also very small in Ἀπόλλωνι.

Date: Soon after 181 AD (prosopography).

Findspot: Found in 1922 at Cyrene ➚: in the Byzantine Baths, re-used as a paving stone.

Place of origin: Cyrene: pillar of the doorway from the cella to the adyton of the Temple of Apollo.

Last recorded location: Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1977 and again in 1997, replaced in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo, beside the entrance to the cella, on the left side.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

French translation

Une première fois pour toi, Phoibos, un temple fut construit

par Battos Aristotélès, envoyé de Thèra.

De même aujourd'hui, quand il eut été abattu par la guerre, pour Apollon

un temple a été érigé sous l'effet de la piété par un Aristotélès.

English translation

A first time, for you, Phoibos, a temple was built

by Battos Aristoteles, who had been sent from Thera.

In the same way now, as it has been thrown to the ground because of the war, for Apollo

a temple has been erected as a result of piety by an Aristoteles.

Italian translation

Una prima volta per te, Febo, costruì il tuo tempio

Battos Aristoteles, inviato da Tera.

Così ora, poiché è stato abbattuto dalla guerra, per Apollo

eresse un tempio, in virtù della sua pietà, un Aristoteles.

Arabic translation

في المرة الأولى ، يا فوبس، كان قد بُني لك معبداً من قبل باتوس أريستوتيليس، الذي كان قد أرسل من ثيرا. والآن بنفس الطريقة، ، كما أسقطت على الأرض بسبب الحرب ، لأجل أبولو، أعيد بناء المعبد بسبب الإيمان القوي بأريستوتيليس (باتوس).

Commentary

This epigram takes place at the end of a list of eponymous priests, of which the last mentioned one is explicitely dated to 178/9 AD. We know from another list (IRCyr2020 C.250) that a Dekimos Kaskellios Aristoteles was priest in 181/2 and deserved the epithet καλλιέτης because his year was a successfull one. Instead of having only his name on the present stone, we have an epigram playing on the similarity of his name with that of the Founder. The latter is better known through his surname Battos 'Stammerer', but his first name Aristoteles is also mentioned by some authors. It is commonly admitted that the 'war' mentioned here is the Jewish Revolt of 115-117. Unlike some public buildings quickly repaired under Hadrian, the temples of Zeus and Apollo had to wait for a thorough transformation (see Stucchi 1961, pp. 71-75 and Laronde 1988, pp. 1052-1053). As shown by Chevrollier 2019, the word χαμαιριφῆ is echoed in the queer layout of the verse-lines, showing that they were cut on a block broken during the revolt. The priest Aristoteles was surely not the only benefactor who made this possible, but more probably the work was finished under his priesthood.

Metrical analysis: two regular elegiac couplets. At l. 3, the name of Apollo has the usual lengthening of the initial α for metrical purpose and therefore the hexameter is spondaic.

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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.

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