IGCyr2 | GVCyr2
Inscriptions of Greek Cyrenaica | Greek Verse Inscriptions of Cyrenaica

Public honours for an unknown person and artist's signature

EpiDoc XML: IGCyr0771002
Trismegistos ID: 738360

Source description

Support: White medium-grained marble rectangular base with three dowel holes on top, two of them still containing metal tenons; damaged at all corners and a piece (w: 0.10 × h: 0.21 × d: 0.065) chiselled away at the lefthand front side; inscribed front side (w: 0.75 × h: 0.21 × d: 0.55) is chipped.

Layout: The stone was inscribed twice: only two lines of the former inscription (IGCyr0771002) were kept, the upper section being erased and re-inscribed as ll. 1-3 of IRCyr2020 C.446, during the first century BC; moreover the left rim of the whole was lost through ulterior chiselling.

Letters: Line 1 0.025, line 2 0.013; alpha with straight bar, smaller omicron, dissymmetrical pi, rho with very small loop, wide upsilon.

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

Findspot: Found by D. White in 1971 at Cyrene: Enclosed sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, area D 12/13.

Place of origin: Cyrene.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, 71.801 (American finds). Seen by L. Gasperini in 1972 in Shahat: Cyrene Museum, Storeroom of the American excavations Seen by E. Rosamilia between 2010 and 2012 in Shahat: Cyrene Museum.

Text constituted from: Transcription from previous editors and commentators (CDL).

Bibliography

White 1972, p. 185, whence SEG, 26.1825; Gasperini 1985, pp. 353-355, whence SEG, 35.1716 (= Gasperini 2009, pp. 175-177); Gasperini 2010, pp. 397-398, whence SEG, 60.1826;   Reynolds 2012, p. 195, n. A.19; Rosamilia 2014, n. 12, whence SEG, 64.2012 IGCyr 077100 .

Text

Interpretive

[------]
Κ̣υραναῖοι
Ἄριστις Ταβαλβιος ἐπόησε.

Diplomatic

[------]
.ΥΡΑΝΑΙΟΙ
ΑΡΙΣΤΙΣΤΑΒΑΛΒΙΟΣΕΠΟΗΣΕ

Apparatus

1: Κ̣υραναῖοι: Κυραναῖοι White 1972; [Κ]υραναῖοι Gasperini 1985; (vac. 1) [Κ]υραναῖοι Reynolds 2012
2: this line ascribed to the inscription of Roman time by J.M. Reynolds

French translation

(scil. La statue de) ⟦[------]⟧ (scil. a été érigée) par les Cyrénéens.

Oeuvre d'Aristis fils de Tabalbis.

English translation

(scil. The statue of) ⟦[------]⟧ (scil. was set up) by the Cyrenaeans.

Made by Aristis son of Tabalbis.

Italian translation

(scil. La statua di) ⟦[------]⟧ (scil. fu eretta) dai Cirenei.

Opera di Aristis figlio di Tabalbis.

Commentary

All lines on this stone had been edited as one and the same inscription by White 1972.

The artist's signature at l. 2 of our edition (= l. 5 of IRCyr2020 C.446) was ascribed to the Hellenistic stage by Gasperini 1985, a point of which Reynolds was not quite convinced. This line, slightly differing in lettering and spacing from the other ones as it is usual in artist's signatures, could easily be associated with the rest when the whole was re-inscribed and when it became one line among the others. In the first use, the line with Κυραναῖοι was the last one of the main text, so that only the upper lines of the second inscription had to be cut in the slightly sunk area resulting of the erasure. The signature might of course have been cut into a vacat below at any time, but its lettering seems Hellenistic and more similar to that of Κυραναῖοι than to the Roman dedication (so also Rosamilia 2014).

Additional commentary to the second edition: the photograph now available confirms fully Gasperini's opinion.

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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.

Maps

Cyrene general plan

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