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An Inscribed Stone from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in the Wadi Belgadir at Cyrene: Cult, Corn and Roman Revenues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Fadel Ali Mohamed  and
Joyce Reynolds
Fadel Ali Mohamed
Affiliation:
Department of Antiquities, Shahat
Joyce Reynolds
Affiliation:
Newnham College, Cambridge
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Extract

In winter 1987–8 Mr Ramadan Kwaider of the Department of Antiquities at Cyrene found a marble block, inscribed on three faces, in die lower levels of the Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in the Wadi Belgadir; it had been uncovered by a combination of burrowing foxes and winter rains, and is now, by his prompt action, safe in Cyrene Museum (inv. no. 3480). Our preliminary report on it is awaiting publication in Libya Antiqua; we offer here the three texts, with discussion of some of their points of interest.

The history of the block, which was three times re-used, is a vivid reminder of the value of marble at Cyrene, all of it imported and therefore very rarely to be discarded when out of date or damaged, if it could be made to serve another turn. Its findspot solves an uncertainty about the attribution of some other inscriptions to the Wadi Belgadir Sanctuary. More significantly still, it provides a new and suggestive document relating to Roman taxation in Cyrenaica.

Only the third and final inscription on the block (Fig. 1) can be said with certainty to belong to the sanctuary. This was cut on a face which measures w. 0.97 m × ht. 0.35 m × d. 0.23 m and was dressed with a claw chisel, but not polished. The letters (ht. average 0.04 m) were lightly cut, rather narrow for their height, in a style dateable approximately to the Hadrianic and early Antonine periods; but although the layout, with quite careful centering, is respectable, the cutting is light so that the letters would only be easily legible if over-painted. The top surface, when the block is in this position, has been hollowed out, presumably for the insertion of the base carrying the statue implied by the text.

Type
Roman Period and Late Antiquity
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 25 , January 1994 , pp. 211 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1994

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References

Notes

1. In ASA 39–40 (1961–1962) 230–1, no. 10Google Scholar his second cognomen is restored as [Εὐϕράνω]ρ, but Reynolds has added a further fragment to the stele which strongly suggests that this is too long; [Μϵλίω]ρ fits very well in the space available. In any case it was not normal Cyrenaican practice to use two Greek personal names as cognomina, whereas there are other examples of the combination of one Greek (for local identity) with one Latin (for Roman identity), cf. Tib, . Claudius Jason Magnus, SEG IX. 161Google Scholar.

2. The choice of a name derived from Venus for her might perhaps refer to the significance of Venus in the legendary history of early Rome.

3. CIG 5139 (from Cella, P. Della, Viaggio da Tripoli di Barberia… [Genova, 1819] p. 95Google Scholar and Pacho, J. R., Relation d'un voyage dans la Marmarique, La Cyrénaïque… [Paris, 1827], pl. LXIII, no. 4 and p. 394)Google Scholar, CIG 5140 (from Pacho, cit., pl. LXIII, no. 3, no findspot given), SEG IX.163 (from Oliverio, G., Documenti antichi dell'Africa Italiana II.1 (1936) no. 71, pl. XIX, fig. 26Google Scholar), SEG IX.164 (from Oliverio cit., no. 72, pl. XIX, fig. 27).

4. Romanelli, P., La Cirenaica Romana (Verbania, 1943) 221Google Scholar, thought that the dedication to Dionysus belonged elsewhere, and Stucchi, S., L'Architettura Cirenaica (Roma, 1975) 185Google Scholar with n. 4, assigned all the texts to a tomb. See now, after discovery of the new inscription, White, , The Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone… Vol. V (Philadelphia, 1993) 183–4Google Scholar.

5. Pacho (n. 3).

6. White (n. 4), 184.

7. Cf. Callimachos, Hymn to Demeter 1.21 where she is ἁμὶν μεγάλα θεά. For the importance of Kore in the Sanctuary see White (n. 4).

8. See White (n. 4), 183, referring especially to his association with the ritual at Eleusis; Callimachos (n. 7), ll. 70–1.

9. White (n. 4), 183–4; but was the Queen of the underworld really Parthenos?

10. Kane, S. and Reynolds, J., AJA 89(1985) 455–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. SEG IX.1, 1.81.

12. For the type see SEG 1.183.

13. Stucchi (n. 3), 196–7; the building contains Latin inscriptions to Apollo Augustus and Diana Augusta. There is clear evidence of activity, by resident negotiatores, in the Agora; but also some which perhaps associates them with the Sanctuary in the Wadi Belgadir.

14. His nomen is rare and his cognomen not registered in Kajanto, I., The Roman Cognomen (Helsinki, 1965)Google Scholar. It is, however, tempting to suggest a link with a notorious near-contemporary, Romanius Hispo, Tacitus, Ann. 1.74.1, cf. Syme, R., JRS 39 (1949) 14–15Google Scholar, said to be of obscure origins and one of the first to make a career at Rome by charging public men with treason against the emperor.

15. On these companies see Badian, E., Publicans and Sinners (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar for the Republic and, most recently, Brunt, P. A., Roman Imperial Themes (Oxford, 1990), ch. 17, 354fGoogle Scholar. for the principate. For what follows Reynolds is very grateful for comments from Professors P. A. Brunt and Cl. Nicolet.

16. Livy, Epit. 70 with Tacitus, Ann. 14.18.

17. Pliny, Hist. Nat. 19.15.39.

18. Tacitus (n. 16) with Pliny (n. 17); we assume that the loss of the earlier production of silphium reduced the total income of these estates.

19. Strabo 19.837.22 blamed nomad invaders for near extinction of silphium (the damage was, perhaps, inflicted during the Marmaric Wars of the reign of Augustus); the contractors were presumably unwilling to limit grazing for long enough to allow the plant to re-establish itself.

20. An epigraphic reference to publicani at Apollonia, the port of Cyrene, may relate to a collection point for portoria.