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A Civic Decree from Benghazi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

J. M. Reynolds
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Extract

Among the more striking finds made during the Society's excavations at Sidi Khrebish is the upper part of an inscribed marble stele which had been re-used, unfortunately with the inscribed face upwards, as a paving stone in the basilica. It is of white marble, probably from the Greek islands, slightly tapered towards the top, measuring 0·46 - 0·47 m. in width × 0·97 in height and 0·19 in depth. A very simple moulding runs round all four sides some 15 cms. from the top. It is chipped along all edges, badly worn on the face, especially in the central area, and pitted and cracked as well, especially in the lower part, probably by an attempt to break it up. A section of unknown size has in fact been hacked off at the bottom.

The text is often hard to read and I am sure that more could be extracted from the worn areas with time and patience; but it seems desirable to offer a provisional publication as quickly as possible.

Type
Research Article
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 5 , 1973 , pp. 19 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1973

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References

NOTES

While working on the stone in Benghazi I had help which is most gratefully acknowledged from Mr Masaoud Shaglouf of the Department of Antiquities, Philip and Sue Kenrick and John Lloyd; in addition, Philip Kenrick took the photographs and Helen Goddard the squeeze. In Cambridge John Chadwick, Michael Crawford and John Killen have generously spent time on the problems. Further, M. Roques of the University of Libya (Benghazi) kindly made available his independent transcription, which I saw in the final stages of preparation of the article. I gratefully acknowledge the donations made by Newnham College and the Faculty Board of Classics, Cambridge, towards printing.

1 SEG ix.5, 1.60 for a Ptolemaic example; Reynolds, J., Libya in History (1968) 184 fGoogle Scholar. for practice in the Roman imperial period.

2 For the history of Cyrenaica from 96 B.C. to Actium, see Oost, S. I., C. Phil. 58 (1963) 11 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Badian, E., Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic (1968) 35 f.Google Scholar, Romanelli, P., Cirenaica Romana (1943) 39 fGoogle Scholar.

3 SEG xvii. 772.

4 See literature cited in n. 2.

5 On the language of inscriptions concerned with pirates see Robert, L., Hellenica xi–xii (1960) 132 fGoogle Scholar.

6 Josephus, , Ant. xiv 114Google Scholar.

7 Plutarch, , Mor. 256A fGoogle Scholar. It is possible that Cyrene continued to claim some degree of suzerainty over the other cities of Cyrenaica so that her own civil strife would have direct repercussions for them.

8 For the date see literature cited in n. 2. The affair was over by 86 when Lucullus arrived in Cyrenaica to collect ships for Sulla, Plutarch, Luc. 2.3, Appian, , Mith. 63Google Scholar.

9 Forbes, C. A., Neoi (1933) 61 f.Google Scholar; F. Poland, PW s.v. Neoi.

10 Cf. Appian, , Mith. 63Google Scholar, stressing that after its encouragement by Mithridates piracy was no longer a matter of privateers but of militarily organised fleets capable of laying siege to cities in a formal sense.

11 Reynolds, J., JRS lii (1962) 99 fGoogle Scholar.