I 25. Tyras. Building inscription, early II century C.E.

Monument

Type

Architrave. 

Material

Limestone, marble-like, dense, gray. 

Place of Origin

Tyras. 

Fragment 1

Dimensions (cm)

H. 41.0, W. 92.6, Th. 38.0.

Additional description

Left corner is preserved. The front is worked even and flat, suffered much damage: the top, left corner, and the right half are broken off. The left side is treated as the front; the upper part of the front is broken off (about 10,5cm from the top). The right side is broken off. The top is treated summarily and roughly, the bottom is planed. The back is roughly picked at the top, but planed towards the bottom. Upper fascia: H. 11,0; lower fascia: H. 5,0; the middle fascia projects 1,6cm over the lower one, and the top over the middle to the same extent. 

Find place

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. 

Find context

In secondary context. 

Find circumstances

Found in 1973, excavations of I.B. Kleyman, in secondary use. 

Modern location

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. 

Institution and inventory

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Regional Studies Museum, А-8915, КП-33624. 

Autopsy

A.I. Ivantchik, August 2006. 

Fragment 2

Dimensions (cm)

H. 41.0, W. 76.0, Th. 42.3.

Additional description

The front, back, top and bottom are treated in the same way as on Fragment 1. Broken off on the left and right. Fasciae: the same measurments as for Fragment 1. 

Find place

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. 

Find context

Unknown. 

Find circumstances

Unknown. The stone was given to the museum by a local resident; entered in the Inventory catalogue on September 19, 1990. 

Modern location

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. 

Institution and inventory

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Regional Studies Museum, А-8926, КП-37814. 

Autopsy

A.I. Ivantchik, August 2006. 

Epigraphic field 1

Position

On the front. Line 1 appears on the top fascia, line 2 on the middle. Broken off on the left and right. Margins: upper - no less than 4,5cm in line 1, and 2,3cm in line 2; lower - 1,0cm in line 1 and 1,2cm in line 2; left (in line 2) 26,0cm.  H. 18.0, W. 42.0

Lettering

Precisely and evenly cut letters, adorned with serifs. Eta with detached crossbar, rho with unclosed loop; sigma with parallel top and bottom horizontals; diagonals of ypsilon meet below the middle of the letter height. 

Letterheights (cm)

5.5 - 6.0

Epigraphic field 2

Position

On the front. Line 1 appears on the top fascia, line 2 on the middle. Broken off on the left and right. Margins: upper - no less than 4,8cm in line 1, and 1,1cm in line 2; lower - 1,0cm in line 1 and 1,2cm in line 2. H. 18.0, W. 59.8

Lettering

See Fragment 1. 

Letterheights (cm)

5.4 - 6.2

Text

Category

Dedication of a building. 

Date

Early II century C.E. 

Dating criteria

Palaeography. 

Editions

Fr. 1. L1. Karyshkovsky 1979, 76-79, № 1, рис. 1; 1.1. SEG 31, 714. Fr. 2. Ineditum. 

Edition

[Ὑπ]ὲ̣ρ τῆς τ̣[οῦ αὐτοκράτορος ---] . Ἀμαστ[ρ ---]
vac. Τυρ̣α̣ν̣[--- πλ]ῆ̣θος ἱκ[ανόν ---]

Diplomatic

[..].ΡΤΗΣ.[..............---]·ΑΜΑΣΤ[.---]
      ΤΥ...[---..].ΘΟΣΙΚ[....---]

EpiDoc (XML)

<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
   <ab>
      		<lb n="1"/><supplied reason="lost">Ὑπ</supplied><unclear>ὲ</unclear>ρ τῆς
            <unclear>τ</unclear><supplied reason="lost">οῦ</supplied> 
            <supplied reason="lost">αὐτοκράτορος</supplied> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> 
            <gap reason="illegible" quantity="1" unit="character"/> 
            <seg part="I">Ἀμαστ<supplied reason="lost">ρ</supplied></seg> 
            <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
      		<lb n="2"/><space extent="unknown" unit="character"/> <seg part="I">Τυ<unclear>ραν</unclear></seg><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> <supplied reason="lost">πλ</supplied><unclear>ῆ</unclear>θος 
            ἱκ<supplied reason="lost">ανόν</supplied> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
   </ab>
   </div> 
 
Apparatus criticus

1-2: ὑπ]ὲ̣ρ τῆς τ̣[οῦ αὐτοκράτορος Τραιανοῦ vel Ἁδριανοῦ τύχης] | Τυραν[|ῶν πόλις τὴν στόαν(?) ἀνέθηκε] Karyshkovsky 1979

Translation

For the [well-being or health vel sim of the emperor - - -] Amast[ris - - - the city] of Tyran[oi - - -] su[fficient qua]ntity [- - -]

 

Commentary

The inscribed architrave must have belonged to a monumental building of Ionic order (сf. Bujskich 2010, 44, 159, Taf. 46, 9; 138, 6). The discovery of the second fragment disproved Karyshkovsky's original restoration. The substance of the inscription must have been more complex than he had assumed, restoring a standard dedicatory formula in honour of an emperor. Not only do the two fragments not join, but they belong to different blocks of stone and must have been placed quite apart from one another, if we judge by the difference in letter size and thickness of the blocks.

1. The restoration Ὑπὲρ τῆς at the start is doubtless, so that we can be sure that we are dealing with a dedication of a building for either well-being or health of an emperor. The restoration of the word αὐτοκράτορος, also proposed by Karyshkovsky, is certain, but then miltiple possibilities for the restoration of text arise: not only the name of an emperor, but also his titulature, in a shorter or fuller form, the word preceded by the article τῆς – besides τύχης, suggested by Karyshkovsky, other possibilities include σωτηρίας, ν(ε)ίκας, διαμονῆς, ὑγείας etc. or a combination of several. In any case, it would seem that the text was not limited to a short formula imagined by Karyshkovsky. The letters preserved on Fragment 2 are part of the ethnicon "Amastrian"/ "of Amastris," although the context of its usage here is unclear. Two main possibilities are: either a man or men of Amastris were among those for whose well-being the dedication was being made, or he/they were the dedicants. In the first case, a highly placed official, a native of Amastris, may have been mentioned after the mention of an emperor, members of his family, or of the Roman senate and people, provincial magistrates and alike (cf. a reference to the Amastrian origin of veterans and soldiers of V Macedonian legion quartered in Lower Moesia: ISM V, 184, 185). We cannot exclude the possibility that the ethnicon referred not to the origin of an individual, but to the area in his charge: during the reign of Trajan, we have evidence for a praefectus orae maritimae Amastrensis et classis Ponticae (I. Sinope 126); this praefect apparently was in command of the Pontic navy and may have played a significant role during one of military conflicts in the western Black Sea region, alongside the troops stationed in Moesia. In the second case, we could envision that a dedicant of the monumental building, or one of them, was a citizen of Amastris; the latter may have been one of several franchises held by him, including that of Tyras.

2. Restoration of the ethnicon Tyranoi is hardly in doubt. If the dedication was not made on behalf of the polis, as Karyshkovsky believed, then it may have been the ethnicon, possibly not the only one, of the dedicant(s). The rest can be restored as a phrase "sufficient quantity."

 

Images

(cc) © 2017 Askold Ivantchik (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
You may download this inscription in EpiDoc XML. (This file should validate to the EpiDoc schema.)