Dedication by a king Ptolemy probably to Zeus Soter
created: Transcription from stone (CDL).
source date: Probably between 116 and 107 BC (Rosamilia)
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: 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. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

Fragment a: [...], p. 30, n. 10 (from †Oliverio's papers), fig. 19, whence [...], 20.721, a; fragment b: not published before [...] 064500.

Cf. [...], pp. 129-130.

Βασιλεὺς Πτολεμαῖος Σωτὴρ Ζηνὶ Σωτῆρι τὸν οἶκον

Βασιλεὺς[^a1] Σωτὴρ[^a2] Ζηνὶ Σωτῆρι[^a3] τὸν οἶκον[^a4]

[^a1: Βασιλεὺς | [...]]

[^a2: Σωτὴρ | [...]]

[^a3: Ζηνὶ Σωτῆρι | Σωτῆρι]

[^a4: τὸν οἶκον | [...] οἰκ[...]]

Le roi Ptolémée Sôtèr a consacré à Zeus Sôtèr cet édifice.

King Ptolemy Soter dedicated to Zeus Soter this building.

Il re Tolemeo Sotere ha dedicato a Zeus Sotere questo edificio.

[الملك] بطليموس [سوتر؟] (ربما كلمة:خَصَّصَ) لِـ [زيوس؟] سوتر [هذا؟] المبنى

In spite of the addition of a new fragment, this inscription remains fragmentary and its restoration remains hypothetical. However, [...] offered a convincing improvement to the former reading.

At line 2, the dative ending in -νι allows to retain a divine epithet rather than a royal title for Soter. As a divine epithet, this is known for two deities in the Hellenistic period at Cyrene: 1) Zeus Soter became the patron of the dynasty in relation with Ptolemy Soter and his immediate followers; he was namely the leader of the theoi Soteres to whom a monumental altar was dedicated on the agora (IGCyr100000); 2) Apollo is said Soter in the quite different context of the dedication made earlier in the port of Cyrene by thearoi travelling to Delphi (IGCyr064100). Both divine names having the same ending at the dative, we choose Zeus on behalf of the mention of a Ptolemy. However the junction gained from the reverse in IRCyr2020 C.153 leaves a limited space for the royal titulature. The one which would fit best would be that of Ptolemy Philadelphus if it was Πτολεμαῖος Σωτήρων 'Ptolemy son of the Soteres', as at IGCyr062900. However his reign seems too early on behalf of the script. As we put it in the 2017 edition, a more convincing possibility would be a short formulation of Ptolemy IX Soter II's titulature with only θεὸς Σωτήρ (shorter than at IGCyr015900 and IGCyr063000). This would fit perfectly the presumable date of the lettering. Rosamilia now suggests that θεός is not necessary. He also argues that that it was not necessary for the king to be present at Cyrene when offering a cult-place to his divine protector, which would be the meaning of οἶκος at line 3.

The provenance of the stone is not documented. It was probably found in the excavations of the sanctuary of Isis and Serapis of the acropolis, where it would have been brought for re-use from the neighbouring agora. In that area, there is indeed a Zeus' temple on the South side of Battos' street, which was rebuilt after the Jewish revolt of the second century AD. The supposed building offered at the end of the second century BC would have been its first stage.