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Excavations carried out by the Polish Mission in Ptolemais, Cyrenaica, brought to light an interesting crop of epigraphic finds. It consists of three mosaic inscriptions (nos. 1–2 and 6), three wall graffiti (nos. 3-4 and 9), and 6 inscriptions in stone (nos. 5, 7–8 and 10–12), including two fragments, found in the Villa with a View and vicinity1. These inscriptions are pre-sented below in topographical order, according to their place of discovery.

1-5. Inscriptions in the Villa with a ViewThe Villa with a View is a rich urban house constructed in a Greek style slightly adapted to local conditions2.

1 I have excluded legends to figural representations on mosa-ics and paintings, as well as inscribed instrumentum domesti-cum. Both of these categories of inscriptions will be published with their respective groups of finds. For legends occurring in the so-called Achilles mosaic see T. Mikocki, The Achil-les mosaic from the Villa with a View in Ptolemais (Libya), ArcheologiaWarsz 56, 2005, 57-68, especially 61.

2 For a general description of the Villa with a View see T. Mikocki et alii, Ptolemais. Archaeological tourist guide (Warsaw 2006) 62-70. For the characteristics of Cyrenaican do-mestic architecture see G. Bejor, Contributi cirenaici alla storia della casa greca in età romana, in: E. Catani – S.M. Marengo (ed.), La Cirenaica in età antica, Atti del Convegno Internazio-nale di Studi, Macerata 18-20.05.1995 (Pisa–Roma 1998) 35-42.

Built in the second half of the 2nd century A.D. or the first years of the 3rd century, it occupied the mid-dle part of an insula, extending across its entire width. It had two floors, of which the ground floor boasted representative rooms and the first floor (not preserved) – rooms for private use of the inhabitants. The floors of the villa were decorated with mosaics, which carried two inscriptions3. Both of them were found in the pave-ments of rooms on the ground floor, more precisely in the peristyle (R 6) and in the room adjoining it from the south (R 1), which most probably played the role of a triclinium4.

1. The inscription in the peristyle is the essential ele-ment of an emblema situated in the very centre of the room and oriented toward a viewer approaching from the west. The panel is incorporated into the mosaic’s geometric pattern, which consists of squares divided diagonally into black and white halves, and occupies an area equal to four squares. A white medallion with a diameter of 54 cm is situated against a background

3 See T. Mikocki, New mosaics from Ptolemais in Libya, Ar-cheologiaWarsz 55, 2004, 19-30.

4 For the functional identifications of rooms of the Villa with a View see M.T. Olszewski, Mosaïque de pavement de la <Maison de Leukaktios> à Ptolémaïs en Cyrénaïque (Libye). Essai d’identification des pièces, ArcheologiaWarsz 58, 2007, 89-95, especially 91-92 (room R 6) and 92-93 (room R 1).

Greek inscriptions discovered during archaeological works of the Polish mission✳

A da m Ł aj ta r

✳ The present article was prepared on the basis of an autopsy of the inscriptions during a one-month stay in Ptolemais (Tol-meita) as a member of the Polish Archaeological Mission in September/October 2006. Some details were additionally checked during a study trip to Ptolemais in May 2009. I would like to thank Monika Rekowska-Ruszkowska, Marek T. Ol-szewski, Piotr Jaworski, and Jerzy Żelazowski for cooperation and discussions. I also thank Dorota Dzierzbicka for correct-ing the English of this paper.

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a representation of a female personification or a goddess (most probably Nike/Victoria) that holds an inscribed tabula ansata in outstretched arms in front of her6. The tabula measures 11 cm in height, its width together with ansae amounts to 67.5 cm, without ansae to 59 cm. The inscription occupies one line. It is made of white tesserae laid against a violet background (in the word εὐτυχῶς) and a reddish-brown one (in the word Λευκακτίῳ). The letters are of uneven height ranging from 4 cm (Α) to 6.2 cm (Υ in the word εὐτυχῶς). Generally speaking, the letters in the word εὐτυχῶς are tall, narrow and tightly spaced, those in the word Λευκακτίῳ – rather thickset and loosely standing. One should observe that Α in the word Λευκακτίῳ has the left-hand hasta extended upwards. This is unusual as it is the right-hand hasta of triangular letters that should be prolonged. We are undoubtedly dealing with a mistake of the mosaicist, who laid an Α of a “normal” shape while preparing the negative of the inscription, thus producing the mirror image of this letter in the final form of the mosaic. The Υ in the word Λευκακτίῳ has a similarly inverted shape.

εὐτυχῶς Λευκακτίῳ.

Good luck to Leukaktios.

The two mosaic inscriptions from the Villa with a View were published by Jadwiga Kubińska, Deux in-scriptions en mosaïque dans la demeure de Lucius Actius à Ptolémaïs (Cyrénaïque), in: C. Dobias-Lalou (ed.), Questions de religion cyrénéenne, Actes du colloque de Dijon, 21-23 mars 2002 (Paris 2007) 159-166 (= Karthago 27). Her publiation was reported in Bull. ép. 2008, 617 (D. Feissel) and in SEG LVI 2037 (cf. AE 2008, 1605) Kubinska’s reading of the inscriptions differs from the one adopted above (for details see commentary below).

It is easy to notice that the two inscriptions under consideration have the same text composed using the ac-clamation εὐτυχῶς τῷ δεῖνι. This acclamation is a relatively late and not very common element of Greek inscriptions. Its earliest attestations come from the Hellenistic period

6 For the publication of the mosaic, see T. Mikocki, New mosa-ics..., 24, no. 4, pl. V, 1.a. A photo of the emblema is found in T. Mikocki et alii, Ptolemais..., 64, fig. 87; see also M. Bogacki – J. Żelazowski, Ptolemais..., 64.

of dark-coloured tesserae5. A wreath consisting of two laurel (?) branches bound at the bottom with a scarf and connected at the top by an almond-shaped element, runs along the medallion’s circumference. The inscrip-tion is arranged in four short lines filling up almost the entire space delimited by the branches of the wreath. It is not carefully executed. The letters are irregular and their height varies from 4.5 cm (Τ in line 4) to 7 cm (Υ in line 2). One should observe that letters in lines 1-2 are generally slightly bigger than those in lines 3-4. Lines 1-2 are laid out with violet tesserae and lines 3-4 are made of reddish-brown ones, though the dot at the end of line 3 is violet, like lines 1-2. Letters in lines 1-2 are square in shape (see especially Ω) and have prominent apices. Letters in lines 3-4 lack apices and Ω is triangu-lar. Syllables in lines 1-2 are separated by dots placed in the middle of the lines (•ΕΥ•ΤΥ•ΧΩC•).

εὐτ- υχῶς Λευκα-4 κτίῳ.

Good luck to Leukaktios.

2. Just like the inscription in the peristyle, the inscription in the triclinium is part of an emblema in-serted into the mosaic’s geometric pattern. Contrary to the situation observed in the peristyle, the panel is not located in the centre of the room but further to the north, towards the entrance from the peristyle, and facing a viewer going into the triclinium. The panel surrounded by an illusionistic border contains

5 For the publication of the mosaic see T. Mikocki, New mosa-ics..., 20-21, no. 1, fig. 2, pl. I, 1. a-b. An excellent colour photo of the medallion is published in T. Mikocki et alii, Ptolemais..., 62-63 with fig. 86; see also M. Bogacki – J. Żelazowski, Ptole-mais. A lost city in Libya (Warsaw 2011) 65. A black-and-white photo is found in J. Żelazowski, Ptolemais w Cyrenajce i polskie badania archeologiczne, in: P. Jaworski (ed.), Skarb z Ptolemais. Katalog wystawy, Zamek Królewski w Warsza-wie, 15 grudnia 2008 – 15 stycznia 2009 (Warszawa 2008) 20, fig. 13, and Idem, Le indagini archeologiche polacche a Ptole-mais, in: E. Jastrzębowska – M. Niewójt (ed.), Archeologia a Tolemaide. Giornate di studio in occasione del primo anni-versario della morte di Tomasz Mikocki, 27-29 maggio 2008, Accademia Polacca delle Scienze, Biblioteca e Centro di Studi a Roma, Conferenze 125 (Roma 2009) 112-113, fig. 2-4.

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but it gained popularity only in Late Antiquity, which delighted in acclamations of different kinds7. The accla-mation εὐτυχῶς τῷ δεῖνι is essentially attested in four con-texts: 1) In occasional graffiti and dipinti left by different persons in public spaces, including cult places, as a wish for the writer, for his/her relatives and acquaintances, or, alternatively, for figures from the world of politics, cul-ture and sport admired by the writer8. This group also

7 On Late Antique acclamations see generally Ch. Roueché, Acclamations in the Later Roman Empire: new evidence from Aphrodisias, JRS 74, 1984, 181-199; for the acclamation εὐτυχῶς τῷ δεῖνι see especially E. Peterson, Εἷς θεός. Epigra-phische, formgeschichtliche und religionsgeschichtliche Un-tersuchungen (Göttingen 1926) 223-224. The Latin counter-part of the Greek εὐτυχῶς was feliciter.

8 The examples are numerous; what follows is a selection: IG XII 3, 1028: εὐτυχῶς Διοδώρῳ τῷ φιλοπαίκτῃ (Thera, 2nd century B.C.); IG XII 8, 581 = IG X 2, 1, 1041, 7-10: Ζωίλῳ ἀρχικερδενπόρῳ εὐτυχῶς (Thasos, 2nd century A.D.); I.Colosse 51, 1-3: εὐτυχῶς Μαρίῳ Γεμέλλ[ῳ] (ἑκατοντάρχηι) (graffito on the Memnon colossus in Egyptian Thebes, A.D. 150; the same text in I.Colosse 53, 5-6); I.Colosse 51, 13-14: εὐτυχῶς [Ῥου]-φίλλῃ [τῇ] καὶ Λονγεινίᾳ (graffito on the Memnon colossus in Egyptian Thebes, A.D. 150); A. Łajtar, Deir el-Bahari in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A Study of an Egyptian tem-ple based on Greek sources, JJurP Suppl. 4 (Warsaw 2006) nos. 317, 1: εὐτυχῶς τῷ γράψαντι; 320: εὐτυχῶς τῷ γράψαντι Νεχοτι (visitors’ inscriptions in the temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari; Roman Imperial period); I.Syringes 482: ε[ὐ]-τυχῶς Ἀναστασίῳ τῷ κόμ(ιτι) τῷ τ[ο]ποτηρητῇ (graffito in the Theban Valley of the Kings, Roman Imperial period?); cf. also I.Syringes 788); I.Syringes 917, 1: εὐτυχῶς Λεοντίῳ (graffito in the Theban Valley of the Kings, Roman Imperial period?); D. Devauchelle – G. Wagner, Les graffites du Gebel Teir. Textes démotiques et grecs, Recherches d’archéologie, de philologie et d’histoire 22 (Le Caire 1984) 41, no. iii 1: εὐτυχῶς τοῖς λαξοῖς (graffito in the quarries of Gebel Teir in the Libyan Desert, Roman Imperial period); G. Wagner, Les Oasis d’Égypte à l’époque grecque, romaine et byzantine d’après les documents grecs, Recherches de papyrologie et d’épigraphie grecques, IFAO Bibliothèque d’Étude 100 (Le Caire 1987) nos. 45: εὐτυχῶς [ . . . . . ] τῷ καλῷ καὶ ἀγαθῷ (graffito in a church at Shams el-Din; the text is reprinted as SEG XXXVIII 1772); 65, 6, 3-4: εὐτυχῶς [τῷ γρ]άψαντι καὶ τῷ ἀναγινώσκοντι (el-Bagawat in the Kharga Oasis; Late Antiquity); 77 Ia: εὐτυχῶς τῷ καλῷ βασιλικῷ (Amheida in the Dakhla Oasis, 3rd cen-tury A.D.; the acclamation is repeated twice); 78 Ib: εὐτυχῶς Ἀριστέᾳ, Τίτῳ ἀπελευθέρῳ, Ἀριστονίκῳ βασιλικῷ (Amheida, 3rd century A.D.); SEG LII 1784: εὐτυχῶς Ἀνουβίωνι Μαῦρος (graffito on the rocks of Darb Ain Amur in the Kharga Oa-sis, 4th century A.D.); H. Cuvigny et alii, La route de Myos Hormos. L’armée romaine dans le desert orientale II, Fouilles d’IFAO 48/II (Le Caire 2003) 277 = SEG LIII 1930: εὐτυχῶς Σερήνῳ (graffito on the rocks of Abu Kuwaya).

includes wishes for institutions, including entire cities9; 2) In monumental inscriptions as a dedicatory formula10; 3) In inscriptions on objects as a wish for the owner11; 4) In mosaic inscriptions laid in private houses and pub-lic buildings as a wish for the owner and/or visiting per-sons12. The inscriptions from Ptolemais obviously repre-sent this latter group. On their grounds one can assume that the Villa with a View belonged to one Leukaktios at some point of its existence. This Leukaktios was ap-parently a Greek without Roman citizenship, unless we assume that he indicated only his Greek name used as a cognomen omitting his nomen gentile.

As far as I can ascertain, the personal name Λευκάκτιος is attested here for the first time. It is an ethnic of the place name Λευκὴ Ἀκτή or Λευκάκτιον, literally meaning “White Promontory”. Several places

9 LBW 2070g: εὐτυχῶς τῇ πόλι (Adraa in South Syria, date un-known).

10 As an example one can cite: I.Alex.Imp. 101: εὐτυχῶς καὶ ἐπ’ ἀγαθῶι Μάρκωι Αὐρηλίωι Μικκαλῶνι τῶι καὶ Θεοφίλωι, ἐνάρχωι γυμνασιάρχωι καὶ ἀγωνοθέτη[ι] κτλ. (Alexandria in Egypt, end of the 3rd century A.D. ?).

11 Cf. e.g. SEG XXIX 1607: εὐτυχῶς τοῖς νυμφίοις (inscription on two gold leaves coming probably from a wreath, Gaza, 1st-3rd century A.D.); SEG LIII 2115: εὐτυχῶς Δομετιανῷ (inscription on a gem with a representation of a nude male, probably an athlete, undated).

12 Here one can cite first of all a group of mosaic inscriptions of the 4th/5th century A.D. from the so-called House of He-sychius in Cyrene; cf. SEG XXX 1785, 1.a.1: εὐτυχῶς Ἡσυχίῳ ἐν θεῷ διὰ παντὸς αὔξη βίου; 1.a.9: εὐτυχῶς Ἡσυχίῳ τῷ Λιβυάρχῃ; 1.a.11: εὐτυχῶς Ἀθηνάειδι; 2.a.1: εὐτυχῶς Ἡσυχίῳ; SEG XVIII 751: [εὐτυ]χῶς Ἡσυχίῳ τῷ κτίστῃ. Other examples include: T.B. Mitford, The inscriptions of Kourion, Memoirs of the American Philological Society 83 (Philadelphia 1975) no. 201: εἴσα[γε] ἐπ’ ἀγαθ[ῷ]· εὐτυχῶς τῷ οἴκῳ (vestibule of the so-called Annex of Eustolios to the city baths; Kourion on Cyprus, late 4th century A.D.); SEG XLVIII 1881: [εὐτ]υχῶς [Στεφ]άνῳ μετὰ [συμβί]ου κὲ τέ[κνων] (Caesarea Maritima, mosaic on the floor of a shop, 5th/6th century A.D.); SEG XXXVII 1639: εὐτυχῶς τῷ κτίστῃ (Pelusium [Tell Farama], mosaic inscription in the hall of a bath complex, later Roman Imperial period); SEG XXVIII 1436 = SEG LIII 1866: εὐτυχῶς τοῖς ὧδε [ἥ]κουσιν (or [οἰ]κοῦσιν; mosaic inscription in a building in Jerusalem, 5th/6th century); B. Lifshitz, Dona-teurs et fondateurs dans les synagogues juives (Paris 1967) 72-73, no. 81b: εὐτυχῶς Εὐστοχίῳ καὶ Ἡσυχίῳ καὶ Εοὐαγρίῳ τοῖς κτίστες (Huldeh, mosaic inscription in a synagogue, prob-ably of the 5th century); SEG LIII 668: καλῶς ἦλθες· εὐτυχῶς (Philippopolis; inscription on a mosaic in a large residential building, 4th/5th century).

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called Λευκὴ Ἀκτή are known to us. According to Philo of Byblos (quoted by Herodianus, De prosodia catholica, ed. A. Lentz, Grammatici Graeci, vol. III 1, Leipzig 1867, p. 275, Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnika, s.v. Λαοδίκεια, and Eustathius, Commentarium in Dionysi periegetae orbis descriptionum 915, 7-12) this was the old name of Laodicaea, but it is uncertain whether he meant the vil-lage in Phoenicia or the city in Syria13. Strabo (IX 399) gives the name Λευκὴ Ἀκτή to a mountain range in the south-western part of the island of Euboea. The same Strabo (X 489 and XVII 799) and several other Greek geographical writers including Scylax (107), Stadiasmus Maris Magni (14) and Claudius Ptolemaeus (IV 5, 7) mention a rocky promontory called Λευκὴ Ἀκτή on the Libyan coast of Egypt, one thousand stadia (ca. 190 km) west of Alexandria. The latter locality is also listed in an Oxyrhynchus papyrus of the early 2nd century A.D. (P.Oxy. XI 1380, 45) as the place where Isis was venerated as Aphrodite, Moukhis and Eseremphis, and Apollo (= Horus) had an oracular sanctuary14. A harbour called Λευκὴ Ἀκτή in the Thracian Chersonesos is attested by Herodotus, Historiae VII 25, Lysias, In Alcibiadem I 27 and Fragmenta, ed. U. Albini, Lisia. I discorsi, Firenze 1955, p. 331, Demosthenes, De Halonneso 40, Scylax 67, Stadiasmus Maris Magni 14-15, Hippolytus, Chronicon 255, Photius, Lexicon, ed. C. Theodoridis, Photii patri-archae lexicon, vol. I, Berlin 1982, p. 217, and Suda λ 321. Λευκὴ Ἀκτή was the name of a mythical island in Pontos Euxeinos opposite the mouth of the Danube in the story of Iphigenia in the Tauris described by Euripides, Iphigenia Taurica 43615. This island is probably to be identified with Λευκή, where the body of Achilles disap-peared; cf. Euripides, Andromacha 1262 and Scholia in Pindarum, Ode N4, scholion 79b. An inscription from the island of Lesbos dated to A.D. 285-305 (IG XII 2, 79, a, 6) informs us of a χωρίον Λευκὴ Ἀκτή found on that island. Thanks to the Byzantine historian Georgius Cedrenus (Compendium historiarum, ed. I. Bekker, vol. II, Bonn 1839, p. 281) we are also aware that a place

13 Cf. RE XII (1925) col. 2261 s.v. Λευκὴ ἀκτή (Honigmann); RE XII (1925), cols. 2261-2262, s.v. Λευκὴ κώμη (2) (Honigmann).

14 For the Egyptian Λευκὴ Ἀκτή, see RE XII (1925) col. 2261 s.v. Λευκὴ Ἀκτή (Kees).

15 Cf. E.M. Hall, The geography of Euripides’ “Iphigenia among the Taurians”, AJPh 108, 1987, 428.

called Λευκάκτιον was situated on the north-eastern shore of the Marmara Sea. In addition to the places listed above, there might have been other localities called Λευκὴ Ἀκτή or Λευκάκτιον, not attested in our sources, as white rocks entering the sea are a common feature of the Mediterranean landscape. The personal name Λευκάκτιος occurring in our inscription may refer to any Λευκὴ Ἀκτή/Λευκάκτιον, be it attested or not. The choice of the name was dictated by the personal prefer-ence of the name bearer’s father, whose predilections are completely unknown to us. Nevertheless, the Egyptian Λευκὴ Ἀκτή seems to be the best candidate for the source of the name Λευκάκτιος occurring in Cyrenaican Ptolemais. The place under consideration must have been well known in Cyrenaica, given that it was situated on the main route from Cyrenaica to Egypt and every traveller headed eastward or westward, be it by land or by sea, must have passed it. Moreover, the area of Λευκὴ Ἀκτή was inhabited mainly by people of Libyan origin and it had close ties with Cyrenaica.

In the discussions that followed the discovery of the mosaic inscriptions in the Villa with a View a fre-quently expressed opinion was that the sequence of let-ters ΛΕΥΚΑΚΤΙΩ should be read Λευκ(ίῳ) Ἀκτίῳ rather than Λευκακτίῳ. This opinion is found, among others, in the archaeological guide to Ptolemais prepared by the members of the Polish mission16 and it was adopted by Jadwiga Kubińska in her editio princeps of the inscrip-tions17. With the reading Λευκ(ίῳ) Ἀκτίῳ, the owner of the villa would have been a Roman with the name Lucius Actius. The reading Λευκ(ίῳ) Ἀκτίῳ is not impos-sible but it evokes a number of doubts:

1) It is true that the Greek personal name Λεύκιος was occasionally used as an equivalent of the Latin Lucius, but the latter was normally transcribed as Λούκιος in Greek sources.

2) The abbreviation Λεύκ(ιος) for Lucius is very unusual. One expects Λ(εύκιος) in accordance with the Roman praxis. Additionally, one should note that the abbreviation was not marked in Λευκ(ίῳ) in either of the two inscriptions.

16 Cf. T. Mikocki et alii, Ptolemais..., 52 and 62-63.

17 Kubinska’s reading was criticised by D. Feissel in Bull. ép. 2008, 617, who, independently from me, suggested to read Λευκακτίῳ.

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3) With the reading Λευκ(ίῳ) Ἀκτίῳ the owner of the villa would have been addressed by his praenomen and nomen gentile. This type of address was normal in the Republican period but would have been odd in the late 2nd/early 3rd century, when the praenomen gradually fell out of use18. Instead of the sequence praenomen – nomen gentile, at that time one would expect the sequence no-men gentile – cognomen.

None of the above doubts is alone decisive for refut-ing the reading Λευκ(ίῳ) Ἀκτίῳ, but put together they speak in favour of doing so and choosing the reading Λευκακτίῳ.

18 For the date of the inscription, see infra. For changes in the Roman nomenclature in the Imperial period (gradual dis-appearance of praenomina, growing importance of cogno-mina) see O. Salomies, Die römischen Vornamen. Studien zur römischen Namengebung, Societas Scientiarum Fennica. Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 82 (Helsinki 1987) passim, especially 277-299. The omission of the praenomen was a frequent phenomenon among Greeks with Roman citizen-ship; cf. G. Daux, AJPh 100, 1979, 19-23.

It is nearly certain that Leukaktios was not mentioned originally in the two in-scriptions discussed here, i.e. that he was not the owner of the Villa with a View at the time when the mosaics were laid. When describing the inscriptions I have pointed out that in both cases the words εὐτυχῶς and Λευκακτίῳ differ in the colour of the tesserae and in palaeography. This indicates that both inscriptions were reworked. In all probabil-ity the parts with the name of the original owner were removed and replaced with the name of Leukaktios. A closer look at the originals even reveals the joins between the old and the new parts. In the inscription in the medallion (no. 1) it runs horizontally and in the inscription in the tabula ansata (no. 2) – obliquely between the words εὐτυχῶς and Λευκακτίῳ. The reworking of the inscription in the medallion (no. 1) finds further cor-

roboration in the presence of the point at the end of line 3. This point is made of a violet tessera identical with the tesserae used in lines 1-2 but different from the red-brown tesserae of lines 3-4. It is undoubtedly a remnant of the original arrangement of lines 3-4 which, similarly to lines 1-2, must have had syllables separated by points. The points are lacking in the new arrangement of lines 3-4 containing the word ΛΕΥΚΑΚΤΙΩ.

Archaeological criteria suggest that the Villa with a View was constructed in the second half of the 2nd / early years of the 3rd century A.D. At that time it was most probably decorated with mosaics carrying inscrip-tions with best wishes for the original owner whose name is unknown to us. We have no firm data on the date and the circumstances of the villa’s passing into the hands of Leukaktios and the subsequent reworking of the in-scriptions. A suggestion concerning this may be found in the mosaic with the inscription in the tabula ansata (no. 2). Except for re-laying the right-hand half of the tabula with the owner’s name, the mosaic shows major alterations in the adjacent parts of the representation of Nike including her left wing, left arm with the hand holding the tabula, and the garment. Such extensive alterations to the figure of Nike suggest that the mosaic suffered serious damage, perhaps inflicted by the villa’s structural elements falling down during an earthquake

■ fig. 1 Mosaic inscription from the Villa with a View (no. 1)


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in the middle of the 3rd century19. The partly ruined house subsequently changed its owner who ordered to replace the name of the addressee of the greetings in the inscriptions while restoring the mosaics. However attractive, this reconstruction of events cannot be taken

19 The question of the number of earthquakes that affected Cyrenaica in the middle of the 3rd century A.D. and their date(s) is a matter of controversy; cf. A.S. Suleiman – P. Al-bini – P. Migliavacca, A short introduction to historical earth-quakes in Libya, Annals of Geophysics 47, 2004, 545-554. An obscure passage in the life of the two Gallieni in Histo-ria Augusta seems to suggest for Cyrenaica an earthquake in A.D. 262. On the other hand, S. Stucchi and R.G. Goodchild suggested on the basis of an analysis of archaeological mate-rial that Cyrenaica was struck by the earthquake that affected Crete in A.D. 251. The coin-hoard found recently in one of the rooms of the house neighbouring the Villa with a View on the south is a strong argument in favour of the latter possibility. The hoard contains ca. 600 coins of which the most recent ones were struck during the reign of Trebonianus Gallus (A.D. 251-253). For the description of the hoard and its historical im-plications see P. Jaworski, Skarb z Ptolemais, in: P. Jaworski (ed.), Skarb z Ptolemais..., 39-50; Idem, A hoard of Roman coins from Ptolemais, in: E. Jastrzębowska – M. Niewójt (ed.), Archeologia a Tolemaide..., 146-156.

for granted, all the more so that it is not entirely certain that the restoration of the figure of Nike was part of the same work as the replacement of the owner’s name. Leukaktios could have come in possession of the Villa with a View at any time and in any way. He could have been, for example, a descendant of the original owner of the villa or could have otherwise obtained it by testa-mentary disposition or perhaps purchased it either still before the fatal earthquake of the middle of the third century or long after this earthquake happened.

3. The inscription stands on a fragment of plaster found in the fill of room R 9. The room under consid-eration, situated to the west of peristyle R 6 and boast-ing a beautiful mosaic showing Dionysos on Naxos, probably played the role of a triclinium. The fragment carries painted decoration consisting of bands of vari-ous width and colour (red, yellow, white, green), slightly convex towards the top. The convexity of bands and the

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■ fig. 2 Mosaic inscription from the Villa with a View (no. 2)

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sequence of colours within them clearly show that we are dealing with a portion of the upper part of the frame of an emblema identical to those found in situ on the walls of this very room20. The text is inscribed in a wide red band bordered by narrow white bands, in its lower part, along the lower white border. The inscription is a graffito composed of single scratches going through the thin layer of red paint and reaching the whitish-yellow plaster base. It measures 9.2 cm in width and 2.5 cm in height. The height of the letters varies from 0.8 cm (O, Ω) to 2.2 cm (A). The hand is practiced and even elegant. At the beginning of the inscription the letters are inclined majuscules, later they become less formal and even cursive (note especially N and Δ).

Ἀθηνώδορ[ος].

Alternatively, the inscription could have been con-structed in genitive: Ἀθηνωδόρ[ου]. Other oblique cases (Ἀθηνωδόρ[ῳ], Ἀθηνώδορ[ον]) are rather excluded con-sidering the character of the text. Note that the writer interchanges the graphemes for /ō/ and /o/ – a clear sign of the collapse of the system of vowel length in Post-Classical Greek. The correct reading should be Ἀθηνόδωρ[ος] (Ἀθηνοδώρ[ου]).

This elegant, delicate, small-size graffito written along an element of painted decoration in a room of the Villa with a View could be a signature of the painter. It was not executed in paint for psychological and aes-thetic reasons. A painted signature of a craftsman would have stood out from the background, thus being a cause of possible discontent of the villa’s owner and/or could have been easily taken for an element of didaskalia. If the inscription under consideration was truly left by the painter, its author can probably be identified as a fig-ure painter, pictor imaginarius. It is known that starting with the Second Style painted decoration in Roman

20 For the wall paintings in the Villa with a View see generally J. Żelazowski, Alcune considerazioni sulle pitture parietarie di una casa del III secolo d.C. a Ptolemais (Cirenaica), Arche-ologiaWarsz 56, 2005, 69-75, pl. V-VII. A good colour photo of one of these emblemata with a representation of a bird is found in T. Mikocki et alii, Ptolemais..., 66, fig. 91; see also J. Żelazowski, Le indagini..., in: E. Jastrzębowska – M. Niewójt (ed.), Archeologia a Tolemaide..., 117, fig. 8; M. Bogacki – J. Żelazowski, Ptolemais..., 59.

houses was the collective work of groups of craftsmen that included a plasterer, an apprentice who prepared the materials, an ordinary painter, pictor parietarius, who applied the background and prepared the frames, and the most specialized and most skilled of them, the figure painter, pictor imaginarius, who filled the frames with figures21. One can easily imagine that the latter, who was automatically the leader of the group, signed the work after it was brought into completion. Such a signature was preserved in the form of a graffito on

21 For Roman painters see R. Ling, Roman painting (Cambridge 2004) 204 and 212-220; J.-M. Croisille, La peinture romaine (Paris 2005) 286-287.

■ fig. 3Graffito on the wall decoration (R 9) from the Villa with a View (no. 3)


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4th-century wall decoration found under the church of St. Sebastiano outside Rome. It reads: Musicus cum suis laburantibus Ursus, Fortunio, Maximus, Eusebius22.

4. The inscription is found on the eastern wall of the triclinium (R 1), 117 cm to the south of the northeastern corner, 62 cm above the mosaic floor. It measures 19 cm in width and 9.1 cm in height. The letter height varies between 2.8 cm (A) and 7 cm (Φ). The carving is rather shallow and the script is informal (see especially the cursive M), resembling a graffito. The inscription was executed in the stone surface and not in the plaster that covered the walls of the Villa during its occupation23. It either came into existence during construction work in the Villa, before the plastering of its walls, or it stood on a block that had been brought from elsewhere as build-ing material. In any case, the inscription cannot be later than the construction of the villa in the second half of the 2nd century A.D.

φαμέν.

We are saying.or We say.

22 ICUR NS V 13279; quoted by R. Ling, Roman painting..., 216.

23 Traces of plaster are preserved in the lowest part of the wall, near the mosaic floor.

The word φαμέν standing alone looks strange. Perhaps the person who carved the inscription on the wall had a longer text beginning with φαμέν in mind but did not complete it for some reason. φαμέν has a literary overtone, especially considering that the inscription is dated to the Roman Imperial period. Owing to its ir-regular -μι inflection, the verb φημί gradually went out of use in the time of the koine being replaced by λέγω (εἶπον)24. Only some forms like φησί(ν) and ἔφη persisted in parenthetic expressions but this is hardly the case of φαμέν

25. All this suggests that the inscription here dis-

cussed is a school exercise or a display of erudition based on reading Greek literary pieces of the Classical period. As a possibility one has to consider that ΦAMEN is not a complete word but only the beginning of a word, its end lacking due to omission or abbreviation, hence φαμεν< > or φαμεν( ). Several words begin with φαμεν - including Φαμενώθ, one of the months of the Egyptian calendar, which was also in use in Cyrenaica26. We also know the proper name Φαμενός attested epigraphically on Samos27.

5. The inscription is found on the western wall of the peristyle (R 6), 197 cm to the north of the south-western corner of the room, 58 cm above the mosaic floor. It is 18.5 cm wide and 12.5 cm high. The letters are of uneven height varying between 3.5 cm (Τ at the be-ginning of line 2) and 7 cm (Φ at the beginning of line 1). In terms of palaeography the letters represent epi-graphic majuscules with simple apices (best seen in the initial Φ). The inscription is incised in the stone surface

24 Cf. Moeris 356: φαθὶ Ἀττικῶς, εἰπὲ Ἑλληνικῶς. Generally on the disappearance of φημί see A.N. Jannaris, An historical Greek grammar, chiefly of the Attic dialect (London 1897) § 976.

25 Φαμέν occurs only two times in the Greek papyri from Egypt. Generally on the verb φημί in the language of the papyri see B.G. Mandilaras, The verb in the Greek Non-Literary Papyri (Athens 1973) 86-87 § 142-147.

26 The name of the month was sometimes abbreviated φαμεν in Greek inscriptions and papyri from Egypt, thus e.g. in IFay-oum II 117,7 (57 B.C.), IPan 64a, 3 (2 B.C.), IPhilae I 146, 7 (6 B.C.), PCollYoutie I 37, 7 (Soknopaiou Nesos, 2nd century A.D.), PCollYoutie II 108 vo 2 (2nd-4th century A.D.), PGrenf. II 60, 7 (Soknopaiou Nesos, A.D. 193-4), PHeid. III 259, 4 (A.D. 124), PMilVogl. VI 283, 1, 6 (Tebtynis, A.D. 126-137).

27 Cf. IG XII 8, 165, 11.

■ fig. 4 Graffito on the eastern wall of the triclinium (R 1) from the Villa with a View (no. 4)

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and not in the plaster that coated the walls of the villa during its use28. This and the incompleteness of the text on the right-hand side shows that the present location of the inscription is secondary. It must have stretched over two (or more) blocks, the left-hand one of which was taken out of the original structure and reused in the wall of the Villa with a View. Following this reasoning one has to date this inscription to the period prior to the construction of the Villa with a View in the second half of the 2nd century A.D.

ΦΡΑΣ[ - - - ] ΤΟΙΣ[ - - - ]

1. ΦΡΑΣ[ is likely the beginning of a male per-sonal name like Φρασίας, Φρασίδαμος, Φρασιηρίδης, Φρασικλείδης, Φρασικλῆς, Φρασίλας, Φρασίνικος, Φράσιος, Φρασίων, Φράσμων, Φρασισθένης, Φράσων, vel sim. Theoretically one can also take into consideration the possibility of a verb-form of either φράζω or φράσσω but such a form would hardly suit the formulaic lan-guage of inscriptions, from both the semantic and the syntactic point of view.

2. It is difficult to suggest a reading for this line, all the more so that we do not know if ΤΟΙΣ begins a new word or continues, either in full or partly, a word from the preceding line. Nevertheless the sequence of letters –οις gives an impression of a dative plural. If so, this could be a dedicatory inscription constructed accord-ing to the pattern: ὁ δεῖνα τῷ δεῖνι. It is rather unlikely that we are dealing with an ephebic inscription of the kind discussed below, nos. 7–8, standing on a block that had originally been placed in the defensive walls of Ptolemais.

6. Mosaic inscription in the house to the north of the Villa with a View 6. To the north, the Villa with a View was neighboured by a house the ground floor of which was dominated by a spacious room (R 25) measuring 11.30 by 15 m. This room, which probably played the role of a reception hall for the owner of the house, had a floor decorated with a high quality mosaic displaying geometric and figural

28 The plaster completely disappeared from the western wall of the peristyle of the Villa with a View.

■ fig. 5 Inscription on the wall of the peristyle from the Villa with a View (no. 5)


patterns. A figural panel had originally been placed in the eastern part of the mosaic, on the axis of the pas-sageway to the adjacent room R 29. At some point this panel was replaced by a marble slab 222.5 cm in width. A band with a Greek inscription bordered by meanders is found between this slab and the threshold of room R 29. The band is preserved only in its middle part, while its left-hand and its right-hand sides are lost. It measures 25.5 cm in height, its preserved width amounts to 53.5 cm. It is near to certain that it originally extended along the whole width of the slab (= panel), i.e. that it was 222.5 cm wide. The inscription is laid in black tesserae against a white background. The script is very careful, letters are of equal height amounting to 7 cm. Σ and E are square in shape, O has the form of a rhomb, Ω is triangular. In all probability the inscription together with the mosaic with geometric and figural patterns and the (unpreserved) panel came into existence as part of the same decorative program, which can be dated to the middle of the 4th century A.D. judging from the mosaic’s stylistic traits.

[ - - - ]νιοις Σεραπιων[ - - - ].

The fragmentary state of preservation of the inscrip-tion does not allow for a certain reading, but one can venture some suppositions. They will necessarily take into consideration the location of the inscription (a rich

.

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urban villa) and the character of the vehicle (a floor mosaic).

[ - - - ]νιοις looks like a dative plural of a substan-tive, perhaps a personal name. If it is a name, the plural indicates that it must be a Roman family name (nomen gentile), for example [ - - - Ἀντω]νίοις, followed by at least two personal names (cognomina), probably connected using the conjunction καί. The first of these cognomina was the Greek personal name Σεραπίων, as for the sec-ond we have no indications. The dative must depend on a formula that would have stood at the beginning of the inscription. By comparison with the mosaic inscriptions from the Villa with a View (see above, nos. 1–2), one can supplement εὐτυχῶς here. The reconstructed text reads as follows:

[εὐτυχῶς Ἀντω (?)]νίοις Σεραπίων[ι καὶ - - - ].

Good luck to Antonii (?), Serapion and [ - - - ]. Instead of a nomen gentile one can supplement an

ethnic or an occupation, but these supplements seem less probable to me.

The preserved part of the inscription shows that let-ters were slightly more than 4 cm wide. The reconstruc-tion of the text as suggested above makes the inscription longer by ca. 50 cm on the left-hand side, and by ca. 30-50 cm on the right-hand side, depending on the length of the second name. Thus, the complete inscrip-tion would have had ca. 140-160 cm in width. The rest of the width of the inscribed band, which – if equal to the width of the slab (= panel) – amounted to 222.5 cm, was taken up by the meander borders and possibly some decorative signs at the beginning and the end of the text.

The inscription as reconstructed above shows that the villa to which room R 25 belonged was in the hands of two (?) men, probably brothers or father and son, members of the gens Antonia (?). The Greek cognomen of one of them suggests that they may have been Greeks who received Roman citizenship from a certain Antonius (?). Either they or their ancestors were liberti of an Antonius (?) or, alternatively, they belonged to a family of peregrini of Greek origin the members of which were granted Roman citizenship by an Antonius (?) still before A.D. 212, the date of the Constitutio Antoniniana, which bestowed Roman citizenship upon all free inhabitants of the Imperium Romanum and made all new citizens Aurelii. The second possibility seems more probable to me.

■ fig. 6 Mosaic inscription in the house to the north of the Villa with a View (no. 6)

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7–9. Inscriptions from the house to the south of the Villa with a View The Villa with a View was neighboured on the south by a complex of rooms, largely of industrial and com-mercial character, arranged around peristyle R 51. These rooms either belong to the Villa with a View as its serv-ice area or, which is more probable, were part of a sepa-rate house with commercial and industrial rooms on the ground floor and living quarters on the (unpreserved) first floor.

7. The two inscriptions presented below were in-scribed on two blocks used to build the wall between peristyle R 51 and rooms R 59 and R 52 neighbouring it on the east29. They stand on the western surface of the wall, facing peristyle R 5130. The first inscription is located 230 cm to the south of the doorway connecting R 51 and R 59, 122 cm above the floor. It measures 35 cm in width and 6 cm in height, the letters are 5-5.5 cm tall. The inscription was deeply cut but it became slightly blurred as a result of erosion of the stone surface, which affected especially the upper left-hand corner of the block, between its left-hand edge and the beginning of the inscription; it is even possible that a portion of the text is lost here (see below). The free space between the letters I and Σ is due to the existence of a hole in the stone surface, which must have predated the carving. One should take note that the letters “ΕΣ” are of “classi-cal” shape but “Ω” is round. A schematic branch, 11 cm high, is carved to the right of the inscription.

Τείvσων.

Teison.

Provided the text is not complete on the left-hand side, one has to read: [ - - - ] Τείvσων. This supposed la-cuna most probably contained a date, as it is the case

29 A black-and-white photo of the wall showing the position of the blocks with inscriptions is found in J. Żelazowski, Ptole-mais w Cyrenajce..., 23, fig. 16. A very good colour photo of the same wall is published in M. Bogacki – J. Żelazowski, Ptole-mais..., 62.

30 R 51 is a peristyle with a stone pavement and a shallow rectan-gular basin in the middle, the function of which was to collect water for a cistern situated below.

in the next inscription. If so, the reading would be: [(ἔτους) 1-2 ] Τείvσων.

The personal name Τείσων is well evidenced. It was especially popular in Phokis in Central Greece31 but it also occurred elsewhere. It has been attested twice in Cyrenaica32. Both attestations come from Cyrene and are dated to the 4th-3rd century B.C.

8. The inscription stands on a block immediately below the block with the previous inscription, in its up-per part. It is located 196 cm to the south of the doorway connecting R 51 and R 59, 63.5 cm above the floor of the room. The dimensions of the inscription are 97.5 cm in width and 9.5 cm in height. The letters are fairly regular, 7.5-8 cm tall, though the sign for ἔτους is 9 cm and the final “Σ” – 9.5 cm in height. The inscription is carefully executed and the carving is very deep. The letters are provided with prominent apices.

(ἔτους) ξζ· Διογένης.

Year 67. Diogenes.

31 7 attestations in LGPN III B.

32 For attestations see LGPN I, s.v.

■ fig. 7 Inscription on the wall of the peristyle from the house to the south of the Villa with a View (no. 7)


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The year 67 is that of the provincial era with the starting point in 30 B.C.33 This establishes A.D. 36/37 as the date of the carving of this inscription.

A wall of a private house in the city centre of Ptolemais is surely a secondary context for the two blocks bearing the inscriptions presented above. Originally they most probably were part of the curtains of the defensive walls of Ptolemais, though it is impos-sible to state precisely which part of the walls they came

33 For the use of the provincial era in the inscriptions from Cyrenaica, see J. Reynolds, Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica, in: Fawzi F. Gadallah (ed.), Libya in history: Historical con-ference 16-23 March 1968, University of Libya, Faculty of Arts (Tripoli 1971) 184-185. In the earlier literature of the subject the era used in the Cyrenaican inscriptions was incorrectly called the Era of Actium; cf. e.g. L. Robert, Hellenica XI-XII (Paris 1960) 533; C.H. Kraeling, Ptolemais. City of the Libyan Pen-tapolis, The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publica-tions 90 (Chicago 1962) 209; G. Perl, Die römischen Provinz-beamten in Cyrene und Creta zur Zeit der Republik, Klio 52, 1970, 319-354, especially 320.

from. The connection of the blocks with the city walls stems from the occurrence of similar inscriptions on the Tocra Gate, the only extant part of the fortifica-tions of Ptolemais34, and on the much better preserved walls of the city of Teucheira (Tocra)35. The similarity is seen both in the form of the inscriptions (male names optionally preceded by a date, frequently occurring in groups) and the technique of execution (deep carving with big regular letters).

It is an established fact that the city of Ptolemais was surrounded by defensive walls36. They encircled the entire city on the plain and climbed on Gebel Akhdar that dominates the plain to the south. The walls were

34 G. Oliverio, Documenti antichi dell’Africa italiana II, 2 (Ber-gamo 1936) 247-249, nos. 494-507 (SEG IX 378-389). A note should be taken that Oliverio published only the inscriptions on the western face of the northern building of the gate. The inscriptions from the southern and the northern faces of the same building are lacking in his publication, perhaps because these faces were yet cleared in his time. One should also keep in mind that Oliverio’s readings of the inscriptions are incor-rect in numerous points.

35 They are conveniently collected in G. Oliverio, Documenti..., 167-195, nos. 142-286 (SEG IX 419-556).

36 On the perimeter defences of Ptolemais see C.H. Kraeling, Ptolemais..., 51-62.

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■ fig. 8 Inscription on the wall of the peristyle from the house to the south of the Villa with a View (no. 8)

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built in the Hellenistic period, perhaps still in the 3rd century B.C. in the frame of the original city founda-tion. At some point they were dismantled to such an extent that the early students of Ptolemais even doubted if the city possessed walls at all. The dismantling most probably took place in Late Antiquity (4th-5th century A.D.) following the abandonment of the perimeter sys-tem of defence in favour of the defence of particular points within the city. An additional factor contributing to the dismantling could have been the damages done to the walls by the fatal earthquakes that affected Ptolemais in the middle of the 3rd and in the 4th century A.D. The blocks extracted from the walls were reused in dif-ferent structures within the city. A large quantity of them, including inscribed blocks, were found e.g. in the city baths built in the 5th century A.D. on the southern side of the monumental east-west street37. The inscribed blocks presented here were most probably extracted from the defensive walls and used in the construction of a private house at more or less the same time, perhaps during the rebuilding of the house after the earthquake of A.D. 363.

The question arises as to what was the character of the inscriptions on the city walls of Ptolemais and those of Teucheira. The technical aspects of the inscrip-tions exclude them from being occasional graffiti left by sporadic passers-by within a short period of time. Their authors must have devoted much time and effort to their execution, possibly making use of specialized tools. In earlier literature on the subject it has been sug-gested that the inscriptions were left by men (soldiers) who kept guard of the defence of the city38. This view was recently nuanced by Joyce Reynolds39. Basing on the material from Teucheira, where similar inscrip-tions occur both on the city walls and on the walls of

37 For the bath, see C.H. Kraeling, Ptolemais..., 160-175; for the inscriptions discovered in the bath, see ibidem, 212-215, nos. 20-51 (the inscriptions were read by Joyce Reynolds).

38 G. Oliverio, Documenti..., 247.

39 J. Reynolds, Ephebic inscriptions at Tocra and Tolmeita in Cyrenaica, LibyaAnt (n.s.) 2, 1996, 37-43; Eadem, The ephebic inscriptions of Teucheira, in: E. Catani – S.M. Marengo (ed.), La Cirenaica..., 475-484, especially 481-482; see also M. Luni, I ginnasi a Tolemaide e in città della Cirenaica in età tole-maica, in: E. Jastrzębowska – M. Niewójt (ed.), Archeologia a Tolemaide..., 58-84, especially 73.

the city gymnasium, she suggested that the men who are referred to in these inscriptions were ephebes40. It is known that ephebes were entrusted with paramili-tary tasks like patrolling the city territory or guarding some posts – duties they carried out in small groups. It is exactly this activity with which the inscriptions from the city walls of Ptolemais and Teucheira are connected according to the British scholar.

9. The inscription stands on a fragment of the upper part of a doorframe made of local limestone41. The frag-ment, 51 cm high, 43.5 cm wide, and 12.5 cm thick, was found in the fill of room R 59, near the southern side of the entrance leading to peristyle R 51. Its find spot sug-gests that the doorframe it belonged to was originally placed on the southern side of the doorway connecting these two rooms. The text is inscribed on the inner part of the frame, facing the passageway, near the left-hand edge of the stone. It measures 7.5 cm in height and 8 cm in width. The height of letters in line 1 varies between 1.5 cm (Ο) and 3.5 cm (Φ), of those in line 2 between 1 cm and 3 cm (Ρ). The script, rising to the right, is rather informal, resembling a graffito. “Φ” at the end of line 1 is provided with apices.

ΑΠΥΡΤΟΣ ζκφ ΑΠΡΛ( )

1. I do not know how to read and interpret the sequence of letters ΑΠΥΡΤΟΣ. The ending -ΤΟΣ sug-gests a (verbal) adjective, but there is a problem with ΑΠΥΡ, which hardly gives any reasonable meaning

40 An additional corroboration of this suggestion may be the oc-currence of a dedication to the ephebes by the city secretary among the inscriptions on the walls; cf. G. Oliverio, Docu-menti..., 186, no. 239 (SEG IX 500).

41 Door frames as the one discussed here are typical elements of Cyrenaican domestic architecture and are found on many spots in the Villa with a View and adjacent houses; cf. M. Rekowska-Ruszkowska – J. Kaniszewski, Na zachód od Aleksandrii..., czyli o polskich wykopaliskach w Ptolemais (2001-2009), in: J. Kościuk (ed.), Non solum villae. Księga ju-bileuszowa ofiarowana Prof. Stanisławowi Medekszy (Wro-cław 2010) 265-282. They assume the form of massive slabs with the upper edge slightly oblique. They were raised in door passages, along the faces of the walls; the width of a given frame corresponds to the thickness of the wall.


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in connection with -ΤΟΣ. Perhaps one has to assume a spelling variant or a scribal mistake here. Several pos-sibilities come to mind including ἄφυρτος (“unmixed”), Ἄψυρτος (proper name attested for both a mythologi-cal and a literary figure, as well as an actual person42), and ἀπύρωτος (“not exposed to fire, brand new”). The first case would be a phonetic notation under the banal

42 Ἄψυρτος was the name of the son of Aietas, the king of Colchis, half-brother of Medeia, whom she cut into pieces, which she scattered to stop their father’s pursuit of her and Jason. As far as literature is concerned, Ἄψυρτος was the name of the chief of the pirate stronghold in Xenophon’s Ephesiaka. In historical times, the name Ἄψυρτος is attested in Mysia (IK 18 [Kyzikos und Umgebung], 124) and as the name of a veterinarian in the 4th century A.D. (cf. RE II, 1 [1895] col. 286 s.v. Apsyrtos [M. Wellmann]). Ἄψυρτος was also the name of an island, a city, and a river. A note should be taken, however, that a geo-graphical name is rather excluded semantically in our case.

change of the aspirated “Φ” for non-aspirated “Π”43. A phonetic notation would probably intervene also in the second case: a simplification of the diphthong /ps/44. If ΑΠΥΡΤΟΣ stands for ἀπύρωτος, we are deal-ing with a mere lapsus: the omission of “Ω”. All three explanations suggested above are rather unproblematic semantically. Ἄψυρτος ζκφ would mean that a man with the name Apsyrtos offered or received something that was 527 in number. ἄφυρτος ζκφ and ἀπύρωτος ζκφ could be interpreted as information to the effect that there were 527 items of something which was either unmixed or brand new. No matter which explanation is correct, the inscription seems to be a notice made by an inhabit-ant of the house referring to domestic affairs.

What follows ΑΠΥΡΤΟΣ is probably the numeral 527 written from right to left. This way of writing numerals, characteristic of the Syrian and Palestinian epigraphic habits, is well attested in Cyrenaican inscrip-tions45. The numeral under consideration most prob-ably refers to ΑΠΥΡΤΟΣ, but the exact meaning of the sequence ΑΠΥΡΤΟΣ ζκφ must remain uncertain due to the tentative reading of the first element of the sequence (see preceding paragraph).

2. The fourth letter, either “Λ” or less probably “Ν”, is shifted apparently as a mark of abbreviation. I am un-able to suggest any reasonable reading for this line. A se-quence of four consonants like the one occurring here is impossible in Greek so perhaps we have to consider a scribal mistake.

10. Dedication to the Augustan gods 10. The object discussed here was found in test trench F1 24 situated in the south-eastern part of the conces-sion area of the Polish Mission, to the south-east of the Villa with a View46. It is a monolithic column made of

43 For this change see F.Th. Gignac, A grammar of the Greek pa-pyri of the Roman and Byzantine periods, I: Phonology, Testi e documenti per lo studio dell’antichità 55 (Milano 1976) 87.

44 Such a phenomenon is not described in grammars of Post-Classical Greek but it is conceivable.

45 The attestations are too common to cite their complete list here; cf. e.g. G. Oliverio, Documenti..., 171, nos. 162, 171, 175, 185, 188, 211, 261, 294, 332, 346, 353, 355, 356, 364, 366, 389, 405, 407, 445, 452, 452 (all examples from Tocra).

46 The exact context of the find is not clear, as regular excavations were not carried out yet in this area.

Ptolemais I

■ fig. 9 Graffito on a fragment of the doorframe from the house to the south of the Villa with a View (no. 9)

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local limestone, which is white when freshly broken and acquires a gray patina. The column is broken at the top; it originally might have been surmounted by a statue. The present dimensions of the object are: height – 118 cm, diameter of the column – 36 cm, diameter of the base – 52 cm. At the bottom, the column has a simple, slightly rounded base. Its upper part is provided with a prominent torus, almost triangular in shape, and a tiny listel below it. A two-line inscription is situated between the torus and the listel. The inscription measures 28.5 cm in width and 9 cm in height. Letters of line 1 are clearly bigger than those of line 2; the height of the letters var-ies, appropriately, between 3.4-4.2 cm and 2.8-3.2 cm. Palaeographically the letters represent round epigraphic majuscules. The letters “ΤΟ” in line 2 are apparently the result of a correction. Originally, the stonemason probably incised “ΣΕΒΑΣΣΤ”. He immediately noticed his mistake, corrected the second “Σ” for “Τ” and “Τ” for “Ο”, and continued with “ΙΣ”.

θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς.

To the Augustan gods.

The object published here has an exact parallel in Ptolemais. The American excavation team found it in the 1950s standing in a street, on the north side of the

main entrance to the so-called Roman Villa situated immediately to the west of the city centre47. Like the object discovered by the Polish mission, it is a mono-lithic column48 broken at the top, provided with a base and a torus with a listel below it. It carried an inscription carved between the torus and the listel, which read θεοῖς Σεβασστοῖς (sic). The difference between the American and the Polish discovery lies only in the quality of execution (the American find is much more carefully executed than the Polish one), the disposition of the text (the former has one line whereas the latter has two lines), and the height of letters, which are much bigger in the first case (ca. 7 cm). Even the orthography of the text with double “ΣΣ” in Σεβασστοῖς was identical here and there, although this was corrected in the final form of the inscription found by the Polish team (see above). Columns of the type described above are otherwise very characteristic of Ptolemais, even if the majority of them are not inscribed. They were found in different parts of

47 C.H. Kraeling, Ptolemais..., 209, no. 1, pl. XXI, A (the object in situ) and LII, B (inscription). The object is kept now where it was found as I could witness this in autumn 2006 and spring 2009.

48 C.H. Kraeling, Ptolemais..., loc.cit., designates it as a cippus.

■ fig. 10 Dedication to the Augustan gods (no. 10)


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Ptolemais I

the city, standing in streets and squares, most frequently at the entrances to private houses49. This indicates the original context of the object here discussed. It most probably flanked, together with a similar column not yet discovered or lost, the main entrance to an urban villa located in the same insula as the Villa with a View and to the south of it. Publishing the American find, Kraeling suggested on the basis of the inscription that the column was used as an altar, but he is definitely wrong. The considerable height of the object (ca. 150 cm) renders it unsuitable for making offerings. Besides,

49 An example is a column on the southern side of the entrance to the Roman Villa, which constitutes a pair with the column in-scribed θεοῖς Σεβασστοῖς; cf. C.H. Kraeling, Ptolemais..., pl. XXI A. Unfortunately the column is broken at mid-height, which pre-vents us from knowing whether it was inscribed or not. A pair of columns of this type is found at the main entrance to the so-called House of Paulus situated on the north side of the Via Mon-umentale at its west end. Another pair stands at the entrance to an unidentified building on the south side of the Via Monumen-tale, almost opposite the House of Paulus. One of these objects is inscribed with what seems to be a dating formula. An interesting example of an object of the type here discussed is kept in the lapidary of the local museum at Tolmeita. It bears a dedication to Gaios Ioulios Epineikos designated as ἥρως on the part of his parents Gaios Ioulios Pausanias and Kokkeia Thaleia; cf. G. Oli-verio, Documenti..., 153, no. 3 = SEG VIII 411. It is not excluded that also this object stood in a street, in front of the house of Gaios Ioulios Pausanias and Kokkeia Thaleia, in memory of their dead son.

the top was not a flat surface appropriate for sacrificial purposes, but a profiled base for a statue (not preserved). This shows that the object, instead of being an altar, was a kind of base carrying a sculptured representation, perhaps of an emperor, given the inscription. The same holds true for the Polish find published in this paper.

The inscriptions on the columns have the form of a religious dedication addressed to θεοὶ Σεβαστοί. The Greek θεοὶ Σεβαστοί is a translation of the Latin divi Augusti, “the Augustan gods”, although these two des-ignations cover somewhat different semantic domains mirroring two attitudes towards the Imperial cult: the western Roman one and the eastern Greek one. In the Roman West one understood divi Augusti as only the dead emperors, while in the Greek East also living emperors and members of the imperial house were in-cluded among θεοὶ Σεβαστοί50. It is this second mean-ing of the designation “the Augustan gods” that most probably applies in the case of Ptolemais, a city with a predominantly Greek population following Greek cultural patterns. This observation has consequences

50 Cf. F. Lozano, Divi Augusti and Theoi Sebastoi: Roman initia-tives and Greek answers, CQ 57,1, 2007, 139-152.

■ fig. 11 Main entrance to the so-called Roman Villa with dedication to the Augustan gods

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for the dating of the two objects from Ptolemais. Since their inscriptions speak about θεοὶ Σεβαστοί (in plural), they cannot be older than the bestowal of the title of Augusta upon Livia in A.D. 14, as it was rightly noted already by Kraeling in his publication of the American find; before that date there was only one θεὸς Σεβαστός, namely Octavianus Augustus himself. Kraeling noted further that the concept of θεοὶ Σεβαστοί “represents the imperial cult in a relatively advanced stage” and sug-gested a later dating for the American find than just the beginning of the 1st century A.D., although he re-frained from giving an absolute date. For the Polish find archaeological criteria indicate a date in the late 2nd or perhaps even in the first half of the 3rd century.

Dedications to θεοὶ Σεβαστοί are well represented in the Greek epigraphic material. In the publication of the American find Kraeling listed four parallels coming from Motella51, Pergamum52, Pednalissos53, and Tyre54, and dating from the 2nd-3rd century A.D. To them twenty or so further examples, from both older and more recent publications, can be added. They originate from Athens55, Lakonia56,

51 MAMA IV 309: Διὶ Σωτῆρι καὶ θεο[ῖ]ς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῷ δήμῷ τῷ Μοτελληνῶν (A.D. 136/7).

52 IGR IV 318; cf. H. Schrader, AM 29, 1904, 167-168, no. 8: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ Ἑρμεῖ καὶ Ἡρακλεῖ.

53 SEG II 724: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ γλυκυτάτῃ πατρίδι (un-dated).

54 L. Robert, Études anatoliennes (Paris 1937) 65: θεοῖς π[ατρώ]-οις καὶ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς (3rd century A.D.).

55 SEG XLIV 161: [ - - - ] Ἀθηνᾶι Ἀρχηγέτιδι καὶ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς (mid-1st century A.D.); IG II-III2 3185: Ἑστίᾳ καὶ Ἀπόλλωνι καὶ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ βουλῆι τῆι ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου καὶ τῆι βουλῆι τῶν ἑξακοσίων καὶ τῶι δήμωι (mid-1st century A.D.).

56 IG V 1, 378: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ Λακεδαίμον[ι] (Sparta, not before the end of the 1st/beginning of the 2nd century A.D.); IG V 1, 1156 B: [θεοῖς Σ]εβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ πόλει (Gytheion, 2nd century A.D.); SEG XXXIX 372: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖ[ς καὶ τᾷ] Ἀσωπειτῶν πόλ[ει (Asopos, 1st/2nd century A.D.); SEG XLVIII 480 = SEG LII 374: dedication of a μάκελλον to the Σεβαστοὶ θεοί and an unknown πόλις (Teria, A.D. 61-138).

Boiotia57, Phokis58, Thessaly59, Thessalonike60, Thrace61, Kos62, Lesbos63, Keos64, Aphrodisias65, Stratonikeia66, Labraunda67, Alabanda68, Halikar-nassos69, Pednalissos70, Hyllarima71, various Lydian

57 IG VII 2233: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ [τῇ πό]λει (Thisbe, undated).

58 IG IX 1, 47: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ πόλει (Stiris, undated).

59 IG IX 2, 32: θεᾷ Ῥ]ώμῃ δὲ κα[ὶ] θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς (Ainis-Hypa-ta, Augustan period).

60 IG X 2, 1, 57: [θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς κ]αὶ τῇ πόλε[ι] (2nd century A.D.); IG X 2, 1, 102: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ πόλει (2nd cen-tury A.D.).

61 SEG XXIX 677: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς, Εἴσιδι καὶ Σέραπι θεοῖς συννάοις (Neine, A.D. 78).

62 W.R. Paton – E.L. Hicks, The Inscriptions of Cos (Oxford 1891) nos. 396: [θ]εοῖς Σεβαστοῖς κ[αὶ - - - ] (undated); 412: ὁ δᾶμος Σεβαστοῖς θεοῖς τὸ βᾶμα (undated).

63 IG XII 2, 200: dedication to Hadrian, his wife Sabina and το]ῖς Σεβαστο[ῖς θεοῖς] (A.D. 117-138).

64 IG XII 5, 629: [θεοῖς Σεβα]στοῖς (undated).

65 SEG XLI 915: Ἀφροδίτῃ θεο[ῖς Σεβαστοῖς τῶι δήμωι - - - τὴν κ]ερκεῖδα καὶ τὰς ψελίδας ( Julio-Claudian); MAMA VIII 436 (SEG XLI 914): Ἀφροδείτῃ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς τῶι δήμωι ( Julio-Claudian); MAMA VIII 448: Ἀφροδείτῃ καὶ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῶι δήμωι ( . . . ) τὸν Ἑρμῆ καὶ τὴν ἐπίχρυσον Ἀφροδείτην καὶ τοὺς παρ’ ἑκάτερα Ἔρωτας λαμπαδηφόρους καὶ τὸν πρὸ αὐτοῦ Ἔρωτα μαρμάρινον (1st to 2nd century A.D.); SEG XXXI 913: Ἀφροδείτηι θε[ο]ῖς Σεβαστ[οῖς Τιβερ]ίωι Κλαυδίωι Κ[αί]σαρι τῶι δήμῳ ( . . . ) τὸ καθ’ ἑαυτὸν μέρος (A.D. 41-54); J. Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome (London 1982) no. 32: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῶ[ι] δήμωι τὴν Νίκην καὶ τὸν [λ]έοντα (1st century A.D. ?).

66 IK 22.1 (Stratonikeia II, 1) 1026: [θε]οῖς Σεβα]στοῖς καὶ τῇ πατρίδι (end of the 1st/first half of the 2nd century A.D.).

67 I.Labraunda 20: [θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ Διὶ Λαβραύνδωι Σω]-τῆρι καὶ τῷ δήμωι (undated, but surely post mid-1st century A.D.); cf. I.Labraunda 91.

68 Edhem Bey, CRAI, 1906, 419: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ Ἀπόλλωνι Ἰσοτίμῳ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ (undated but surely after the mid-1st century A.D.).

69 CIG II 2658: [Αὐτοκράτορι] Καίσαρι Ἁδριανῶι Ἀντωνείνωι Σεβαστῶι καὶ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς ΙΚ[ - - - ] (A.D. 138-161).

70 SEG LIV 1374: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ Π[ - - - ] (perhaps π[ατρίδι]).

71 A. Laumonier, BCH 58, 1934, 379, no. 43: [θ]εοῖς Σεβαστοῖς [κ]αὶ . . . οοις . . ν θεᾷ Ῥώμῃ καὶ δήμῳ (undated).


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sites72, Termessos73, Patara74, Adada75, Lykaonia76, Sagalassos77, Selge78, Anazarbos79, and Neapolis in Campania80. It is easy to observe that a great major-ity of dedications to the Augustan gods comes from the Aegean81 including mainland Greece, Greek islands and western as well as southern Asia Minor, but they are completely absent from the Syro-Palestinian region and Egypt. In that sense the two dedications from

72 TAM V 2, 861: [θεοῖς Σεβα]στοῖς (Thyateira, undated); TAM V 2, 862: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς (Thyateira, undated); TAM V 2, 1244: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ Ἀρτέμιδι Περσικῆι καὶ τῶι δήμωι (Hierokaisareia, undated); TAM V 2, 1335: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ Ἱερᾷ Συνκλήτωι καὶ δήμωι Ῥωμαίων (Hyrkanis/Dareiou-kome, undated).

73 TAM III 16: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῷ δήμῳ (A.D. 161-169); TAM III 21: [θεοῖς Σεβαστ]οῖς καὶ τῇ λαμπροτάτῃ Τερμησσέων πόλει (ca. A.D. 212).

74 TAM II 408: dedication to Antoninus Pius and θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τοῖς πατρώοις θεοῖς καὶ τῇ γλυκυτάτῃ πατρίδι, τῇ Παταρέων πόλει, τῇ μητροπόλει τοῦ Λυκίων ἔθνους (A.D. 147).

75 IGR III 364 = SIRIS 339: [θεοῖς Σεβ]αστοῖς καὶ Διὶ [Μεγίσ]-τῳ Σαράπιδι καὶ τῇ πατρίδι ( . . . ) τὸν ναὸν καὶ τὰ ἀγάλματα σὺν ταῖς περικειμέναις στοαῖς καὶ ἐργαστηρίοις καὶ [παντὶ κὸσμῳ (undated); IGR III 365: θεοῖς Σ[ε]βαστοῖς καὶ τῇ πατρίδι ( . . . ) τὸ ἄγαλμα τῆς Ἀφροδίτης καὶ τὸν ναὸν σὺν τῷ περὶ αὐτὰ παντὶ κόσμῳ καὶ τῇ συστρ[ώ]σει (undated); IGR III 366: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ πατρίδι ( . . . ) τὸν ναὸν ὲκ [θεμελίων] σὺν τῷ ξοάνῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀγάλμασι (undated). Note that the first two inscriptions were erected by the same persons.

76 MAMA I 24a: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖ[ς] εὐεργέταις (Laodicaea Com-busta, undated); MAMA VIII 262: θεοῖς Σεβ[αστοῖς] (Perta, undated).

77 IGR III 342: Ἀπόλλωνι Κλαρίῳ καὶ θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ πατρίδι ( . . . ) τὸν περίπτερον (reign of Antoninus Pius).

78 IK 37 (Selge), 1: [θε]οῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ Ἀρτέμιδι καὶ τῇ πόλει (advanced Imperial); 11: [ - - - ] θεοῖς Σεβαστο[ῖς - - - ] (early Imperial); 62: [θεοῖς Σ]εβαστοῖς καὶ [τῇ πόλει] (advanced Im-perial).

79 IK 56 (Anazarbos), 56: θεᾷ Ῥώμῃ καὶ θεοῖς Σεβ(αστοῖς) (A.D. 150-200); 57: θεᾷ Ῥώμῃ καὶ θεοῖς Σεβ(αστοῖς) Καίσαρσιν (1st-2nd century A.D.).

80 IG XIV 2417: θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῷ δάμῳ; E. Miranda Is-crizioni greche d’Italia. Napoli I (Roma 1990) no. 11: θεοῖς Σεβ(αστοῖς) καὶ θεοῖς φρητρίοις Θεωτάδαι.

81 I did not have access to the article S. Zoumbaki – L. Men-doni, Theoi Sebastoi in Kea-Kythnos, in: L. Mendoni – A.J. Mazarakis Ainian (ed.), Kea-Kythnos. History and ar-chaeology, Proceedings of an International Symposium, Kea-Kythnos 22-25 June 1994 (Athens 1998) 669-678.

Ptolemais echo the Aegean epigraphic habits (and the Aegean form of the imperial cult ?), although they are inscribed on vehicles that belong to the local tradi-tion. It should be observed further that in dedications θεοὶ Σεβαστοί normally occur in the company of other gods among which the most frequently encountered are personifications of the local polis and demos and the local patron gods. Dedications addressed to θεοὶ Σεβαστοί alone are relatively rare. Besides, dedications frequently commemorate the erection of a structure: a temple, an altar, a public building, an object of com-mon use, etc. Seen from that perspective, the Ptolemais dedications are rather exceptional with their simple form restricted to naming the addressees. The closest parallel is the inscription from Lykaonian Perta carved on a “bomos with garlands and ox-heads” and read-ing, like the Ptolemais inscriptions, θεοῖς Σεβ[αστοῖς].

The two inscribed objects discussed here are the only published testimonies of the imperial cult in Ptolemais82. The cult of the Roman emperor is known to have been practiced on various levels: the state level concentrated around the imperial temples in the city of Rome, the provincial level centred at the temple of imperial cult in the capital of the province and its ma-jor cities, the civic level, and finally the private level83.

82 A headless statue of an emperor clad in a cuirass, probably of the 2nd century A.D., accidentally found in spring 2009 in the southeastern part of the ancient town may also be con-nected with the imperial cult in Ptolemais. The statue is not published yet.

83 On the cult of the Roman emperor see generally M. Clauss, Kaiser und Gott. Herrscherkult im römischen Reich (Stutt-gart–Leipzig 1999); on emperor worship in Rome see I. Gradel, Emperor worship and Roman religion, Oxford Classical Mono-graphs (Oxford 2002); on emperor worship in the provinces see D. Fishwick, The Imperial cult in the Latin West. Studies in the ruler cult of the Western provinces of the Roman Empire I-III, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 145 (Leiden 1987-2004) – for the West, and S.R.F. Price, Rituals and power. The Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984) – for the East; see further S.R.F. Price, Gods and emperors: The Greek language of the Roman imperial cult, JHS 104, 1984, 79-85; A. Chaniotis, Der Kaiserkult im Osten des Römischen Reiches im Kontext der zeitgenössischen Ritualpraxis, in: H. Cancik – K. Hitzl (ed.), Die Praxis der Herrscherverehrung in Rom und seinen Provinzen (Tübingen 2003) 3-28. For the question of how the imperial cult is mirrored in Greek inscriptions see most recently M. Kanti-rea, Les dieux et les dieux augustes. Le culte impérial en Gréce sous les Julio-Claudiens et les Flaviens. Études épigraphique et archéologiques, Meletemata 50 (Athens 2007).

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In the case of the objects discussed in this paper only the two lowest levels come into question. The two columns with the inscriptions θεοῖς Σεβαστοῖς were erected either on behalf of the city of Ptolemais as an expression of the municipal cult of the imperial house or by private persons as a manifestation of their sen-timents towards the rulers. In view of the position of the columns in front of the entrances to private houses, evident in the case of the American find and supposed for the Polish one, the latter possibility seems more probable to me.

2. The spelling Σεβασστοῖς, here corrected but pre-served in the inscription on the American find (see above), is rooted in the pronunciation: doubling of a consonant in syllable division /se-bas-stois/84.

11–12. Fragments11. Fragment of a slab or a thick plaque made of sand-stone found in the fill of room R 1585. The stone is bro-ken on all sides, perhaps with the exception of the bot-tom. The slab is 8.5 cm thick, its preserved dimensions are 24 cm in width and 14 cm in height. The back of the slab is roughly dressed. The slab carried on the front

84 For the phenomenon, see L. Threatte, The grammar of At-tic inscriptions, I. Phonology (Berlin–New York 1980) 510 § 42.022; F.Th. Gignac, A grammar..., 159.

85 The room under consideration is situated to the east of the big room R 25, the floor of which is decorated with a mosaic with geometric and figural patterns and the inscription no. 6.

side an inscription in regular letters. The height of the letters varies between 4.5 and 5 cm. “Α” with broken bar.

[ - - - ]ΑΔΗ . [ - - - ]

12. Fragment of a plaque of white, fine-grained mar-ble found on the surface near the square BC 89. The plaque is 2.5 cm thick, its preserved dimensions are 7 cm in width and 7.5 cm in height. The back is carefully dressed. The inscription is not carefully executed, the cutting is shallow. Height of letters varies between 1.2 cm (Ε) and 1.5 cm (Λ). Elements of the cursive script are observed in the letter “M” suggesting a date in the Roman Imperial period.

[ - - - - - ] . . [ - - - ] [ - - - ] . ΛΕΜ . [ - - - ] [ - - - - ] . . [ - - - ]

Institute of ArchaeologyUniversity of [email protected]


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Photo M. Bogacki

greek inscriptions discovered during archaeological works of the polish mission

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