Antoninus Pius to Ptolemais Barca about the Capitolia Oliver, James H Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1979; 20, 2; Periodicals Archive Online pg. 157 Antoninus Pius to Ptolemais Barca about the Capitolia James H. Oliver JOYCE M. REYNOLDS1 has just published all nine fragments of the large inscription at Cyrene which contains (1) an imperial letter of A.D. 135 to Cyrene with an appendix about what Hadrian had written on the same subject to the archon of the Panhellenion, (2) extracts of another epistle 2 of [Hadrian] to the Cyrenaeans, (3) a long section from a speech 3 (rather than an edict) of Hadrian, (4) extracts of (I think) one epistle of Antoninus Pius to the Cyren­ aeans, and (5) a complete epistle of Antoninus Pius to Ptolemais Barca. Two fragments of this inscription were already known but not enough to give a clear idea of what the lines said nor of the purpose of the inscription. The lower part, which is entirely new, shows that the purpose was to advertise the eugeneia and assert the status of Cyrene as the mother city of the Cyrenaica. The first four documents will receive considerable attention in my forthcoming Greek Constitu­ tions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri, but mean­ while I should like to add to the many good remarks of Miss Reynolds a short observation concerning the last document, which I know from her publication and from photographs kindly placed at my disposition by Professor Donald White and Mr Woodard Openo. The text reads as follows. AVTOKpaTWp Kai:cap ewu J1.[optavou VL]OC, eEOU Tpatavou IIapet­ KOU VLWVOC, (hou NEpova EYY[ 0]- VOC, TtTOC AZAWC J1.optav[oc )tVTWVE]i:VOC EEf3acToc, apxtEpEVC ftEytCTOC, oY)ftapXtKYJc Et[ ov]- 80 I ''1'' I [ \ f3' "] \ r:;:r , I~ ctac TO ts , aVTOKpaTW p TO ,V7Ta TOC TO 0 , 7TaT7Jp 7TaTpwoc, II TOAEftaEUct BapKatOt [c] 1 "Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and the Cyrenaican Cities," ]RS 68 (1978) 111-21 with plates. 2 Line 12 might read KnpaA(UU E~ E1TLCTOAi/[ C aAA1)c 8£OfJ J48p,uvofJ]. 3 If line 25 reads KEcpaAuwv EK ~[1)fL1)yopiuc (or ~[taM~wJC) 8EOfJ J48p,uvofJ], it would imply a visit sometime by the emperor, probably in A.D. 123 between Carthage and Alexandria. 157 158 ANTONINUS PIUS TO PTOLEMAIS BARCA Xa{pEtV vacat [6)aVf.La,w] 6Tt f.L7JS£7TOT€ ev -rep Ef.L7TPOCOEV Xpovcp Sta7TEf.Lif;av[ 'TEC Kat] CVV(JVcaV'TEC dc 'T6V 'Tw[v Ka7TE'TW Btwv aywva vvv 7TPW'TOV , '\ ,\, .... [ "] a7TEC'TEt/\a'TE' OV yap ayvOEt 'TE OTt 'T6 'T(X 'TotaV'Ta KatVO'Tof.L [ELV ai'Tt] av 7TapEXEt 'TatC 7ToAECt 4>tAo- , " '['] VEtKtaC V EyEVE'TO 'TOtVV V 7J CVV - (J , ,\ ~ "(J [' \ \ '] ~ 'E 'Q 0' \ I VCta V7TEp 'TOV E VOVC ava 'TOV a ywva. 7TpECf-'EVEV va/\EptOC IIavcavtac, cP 'T6 e4>oS,[ov So(J~]- 85 'TW El f.L~ 7TpoLKa V7TE4xE'T0. Ev'TV JxELT€ vacat The text is based on that of Joyce Reynolds except for Kat (aAM Reynolds) in line 81, Ka7TE'TwBtwv (Kvp7Jv]t;dwv Reynolds) in line 82, and Cava 'TOV a]ywva ([ .•.•••. ]Eva Reynolds) in line 84. TRANSLATION "Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrian [Anton ]inus Augustus, [son] of divus [Hadrian], grandson of divus Trajan Parthicus, great­ grandson of divus Nerva, pontifex maximus, tribunician power for the seventeenth time, imperator [twice, consul] four times, pater patriae, to the Ptolemais-Barcans, greetings. "[I marvel] that you, who in all the time gone by have never sent a delegation or shared in the sacrifice, have now for the first time sent representation to the contest of the [Capitolia]. For you are not unaware that the making of such innovations brings upon the cities the [charge] of contentiousness. Well, [the joint] sacrifice in behalf of the region's population did take place [during the] contest. "As ambassador Valerius Pausanias served, to whom let the travel money be paid unless he promised to go at his own expense. Farewell.' , COMMENTARY The epistle is addressed to the Ptolemais-Barcans, i.e. the men of a single community comprising Barca and its port Ptolemais about 16 km. away. This city, the rival ofCyrene in the region, apparently tried to challenge the preeminence of the old mother city, not by holding a festival at Ptolemais Barca (so Reynolds), but by sending a delegation to the Capitoline festival at Rome in order to offer the sacrifice for the ethnos, which presumably means the Cyrenaica rather than the whole province of Crete and Cyrene.4 The emperor 4 For £/Jvoc in the meaning 'region' see the edict of Severus Alexander (P.Fayum 20) line ll, and the examples collected in the writer's commentary, AJP 99 (1978) 474-85. JAMES H. OLIVER 159 replies sarcastically, but they were not refused a part in the sacrifice. On the Capitolia, the magnificent penteteric festival established at Rome by Domitian in honor of Jupiter Capitolinus and held for the first time in the summer of A.D. 86, little has been added since Wissowa's succinct article in RE 3 (1899) 1527-29, S.U. CAPITOLIA. 5 It was a festival of a Greek type over which the emperor himself presided in Greek costume. If one rolls the four-year cycle forward, one finds that another celebration did indeed occur in the summer of 154, which by anyone's computation falls in the middle of the seven­ teenth tenure of the tribunician power by Antoninus Pius. The joint sacrifice 6 is a welcome addition to our knowledge. The contentiousness of Ptolemais Barca in 154 explains the whole inscription, which begins with an epistle of Hadrian on the extrava­ gant claim of another city, surely Barca,7 to share with Cyrene the distinction of membership in the Panhellenion. As absurd as the claim seemed for historical, religious and cultural reasons in the second century, the outrageously ambitious Barca was destined eventually to supplant Cyrene, so much so and so long that some European maps as late as the eighteenth century still referred to the Cyrenaica as the kingdom of Barca. 8 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND January, I979 5 L. Robert, "Deux concours grecs a Rome," CRA! 1970, 6-27, says on p.B n.2 that the list of references in L. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms 10 IV (Leipzig 1923) 276-BO, "Zur Geschichte des kapitolinischen Agons," could today be abundantly augmented without becoming thereby more interesting. His own incisive article, however, makes the environment more familiar. 6 On a CVVOVTTJC as representative of his fatherland see L. Robert, op.cit. (supra n.5) 10. On rivalries of cities see also L. Robert, HSCP 81 (1977) 21-38. 7 On the foundation of Barca as a rival of Cyrene see Hdt. 4.160. In Olympionikai (MemLinc VIlL8 [1957] 2) 198, L. Moretti refers the reader to fourteen victors from Cyrene, one from Barca and none from any other city of the Cyrenaica. In 460 B.C., when it produced its victor (Moretti, no.261), Barca must already have been considered a Greek city. See also O. Masson, "Grecs et Libyens en Cyn!naique," Antiquites qfricaines 10 (1976) 49-62, especially p.53 on the Libyan name of a king of Barca at the end of the fourth century B.C. a On a Dutch map from the eighteenth century in the writer's possession the whole area (Cyrenaica plus Marmarica) is labeled "Ie royaume de Barca." Johan Blaeu, Le grand atlas (Amsterdam 1663), map between pp. 57 and 58, shows the eastern part as "Barcha Marmarica."