Dedication of tithe to Apollo.
created: Transcription from stone (CDL).
source date: Probably second century BC
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/)

Never published before this edition.

Σῶσις Βιβίου Ἀπόλλωνι δεκάταν

Sosis fils de Bibios (ou Bibias?) a consacré à Apollon au titre de la dîme.

Sosis son of Bibios (or Bibias?) dedicated to Apollo as a tithe.

Sosis figlio di Bibios (o Bibias?) ha dedicato ad Apollo come decima.

This small inscription, well preserved, belongs to the large series of dedications of the tithe. The name Sosis is common in Cyrenaica. The father's name Bibios (or perhaps Bibias with a non-dialectal ending) has no parallel in Cyrenaica, whereas a name with a similar stem is attested with few instances in various regions and at different dates. Some late instances in places where Roman influence is established are interpreted as Vibius with initial Greek B for Latin V. However, the lettering of this inscription clearly antidates the Roman presence in Cyrenaica, a time when dedications of a tithe are no longer attested. Looking for a Greek origin, we find only two connected names, both rather obscure, Βίβακος at Segesta and Βιβώ in Macedonia. In this inscription, as a father's name it has a genitive case in koine and not in the local dialect. This might be a hint of external influence inside the very typical formulation of the rest of the inscription.

Alternatively, a stem BIB may be found in several inscriptions from Tripolitania, written either in Latin or in Phenico-punic. The whole question is studied elsewhere, the Libyan track being perhaps preferable (see [...]).