Epitaph of L. Sossios
created: Transcription from stone (CDL).
source date: Second century AD
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/)

[...], whence [...], 46.2211 and [...] 1996, 1669 (Laronde); [...] 014. Cf. [...], pp. 150-151, 181 and 208.

Λούκιος Σόσσιος Εὐθυκλῆς βουλευτὴς ζῳγράφος ἐτῶν μα

Λούκιον Εὐθυκλέους τὸν ζωιγράφον, εἴ που, ὁδεῖτα,
ἔκλυες, ὃς τέχνην μέζον' ἐπηγλάϊσα

ἤθεσι, Κυρήνηι βασιλήϊον ὃς μέγα δῶρον
πατρίδι, τὰς μακάρων εἰκόνας, ἠγαγόμην

τῷ καὶ βουλευτῇσι μετέπρεπον, ἐνθάδε κεῖμαι.
λοίσθιον οὐ τεκέεσσ' οὐδ' ἀλόχωι δάκρυον,

Εὐθυκλεῖ δὲ φίλωι μοι ἀδελφεῶι ὅς με γενέθληι
πρεσβεύων, τὰ πατρὸς πάντ' ἐμόγησ' ἐπ' ἐμοί,

μόχθων δ' οὐκ ἀπόνητο· πρὸ γὰρ βαρυ [...]
[...] σηριι[...]

[...]

βαρυ[...][^a1] [...]σηριι[...][^a2]

[^a1: βαρυ[...] | βαρυκήδεϊ πότμῳ]

[^a2: [...]σηριι[...] | χῶρον ἐς ἡρώων ἤλυθον]

Loukios Sossios Euthyklès, membre du conseil, peintre, mort à 41 ans.

Si jamais, passant, de Loukios fils d'Euthyklès, le peintre,

tu as entendu parler, c'est moi qui repose ici: moi qui rehaussai l'éclat de mon art

par mon style, moi qui offris un grand cadeau royal à Cyrène,

ma patrie –les images des bienheureux,

raison pour laquelle je me distinguais parmi les membres du conseil.

Ni pour des enfants ni même pour une épouse je ne suis cause de larmes,

mais je le suis pour Euthyklès, mon frère affectionné, qui, tout en marquant le respect dû à

mon âge, accomplit pour moi toutes les obligations d'un père,

mais ne jouit pas de la contrepartie de ses peines; car avant [...] un lourd [...].

Loukios Sossios Euthykles, city councillor, painter, died aged 41 years.

Wayfarer, if ever you heard of Loukios son of Euthykles, the painter,

I lie here: I who added grace to my skill

with my manners, I who brought a kingly great gift to Cyrene,

my native city - the images of blessed ones,

for which reason I was distinguished among the city councillors.

Neither children nor wife have I left in tears,

but Euthykles, the brother dear to me, who, while paying honour

to my age, undertook all the labours of a father for me,

but did not receive the reward of his toils; for before [...] a heavy [...].

[J.M. Reynolds' translation with some changes]

Loukios Sossios Euthykles, membro del consiglio, pittore, di anni 41.

Se in qualche modo, passante, di Loukios figlio di Euthykles, il pittore,

hai sentito parlare, sono io che qui giaccio, io che con il mio stile

resi splendida la mia arte, io che un grande dono regale ho portato a Cirene,

la patria mia – le immagini dei beati,

motivo per cui mi distinguevo tra i membri del consiglio.

Lacrime ho lasciato non ai figli né ad una moglie

ma a Euthykles, il mio caro fratello, che, mostrando il rispetto dovuto

alla mia età, sopportò per me tutte le fatiche di un padre,

ma non ha ricevuto la ricompensa delle sue pene; infatti prima [...] un pesante [...].

The dead Loukios Sossios Euthykles bore as a cognomen the name that was the personal name both of his father and elder brother. As suggested by Reynolds, he should have newly received the Roman citizenship marked by his nomen Σόσσιος and praenomen Λούκιος, the origin of which we cannot guess.

The elder brother Euthykles, who survived Sossios, had taken care of him after they had prematurely lost their father.

Loukios Sossios was a member of the Council and also a painter who presented his home-city with pictures; in an unpublished contribution Chamoux suggested that he might have offered them on occasion of the restorations operated after the Jewish revolt. This would fit the date based on the lettering.

For [...], Luca Ruggeri (per litteras) convincingly suggested that Κυρήνηι at l. 8 should be related to the verb ἠγαγόμην and associated with πατρίδι rather than with the preceding sentence, as was preferred before. He also corrected a wrong interpretation of με πρεσβεύων at ll. 12-13. We thank him fot both.

The 'pictures of the blessed ones' (l. 9) might be images either of gods or of heroes.

The relationship between Sossios' status as a member of the Council and as a painter are discussed by Reynolds and Bacchielli with bibliography; see also Tybout at [...], 46.2211.

Burford, who had knowledge of this inscription long before its publication, misunderstood some points in translation and interpretation.

As there is an iota on the stone at line 6 in the word ζωιγράφος, we choose to transcribe the same word with a subscript iota at line 4 for the sake of homogeneity; however both forms with or without iota are attested and anyway at line 6 the iota does not correspond to any distinct syllable.

Metrical analysis: after name, occupation and age of the deceased, a series of at least 5 elegiac couplets.