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Last Updated on 23 Mar 2017

Author: François Chevrollier

CAPInv. 1136: U-LIB-001

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Libya with Cyrenaica
ii. Region Cyrenaica
iii. Site Ptolemais

II. NAME

i. Association with unknown name U-LIB-001

III. DATE

i. Date(s) m. iii - e. i BC

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) Łajtar 2010: 102-18 (m. iii - e. i BC)
Online Resources Will soon be available at IGCyr
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Catalogue in Greek of heads of an association.
i.c. Physical format(s) Stele inscribed on two faces, but originally inscribed on all four faces.
ii. Source(s) provenance Between Tocra Gate and the city theatre.

VII. ORGANIZATION

ii. Leadership The catalogue has more than 30 entries, each with two or three names. It is supposed that these two or three names record the leaders of the association and not regular members. There are more than 30 entries from m. iii BC to e. i BC., i.e. over c. 150 years : the association's heads could therefore have rotated every two years.
iv. Officials Two men bear official titles within the catalogue:
εὐεργέτης καὶ ἱερεύς, euergetes kai hiereus (l. 14)
ἱερεύς, hiereus (l. 32)

VIII. PROPERTY AND POSSESSIONS

iii. Income Probably funded through the generosity of benefactors (εὐεργέτης, euergetes, l. 14).

IX. MEMBERSHIP

ii. Gender Men
Note Only men are recorded in the catalogue.
iii. Age Adults
iv. Status Citizens. Prosopographical relations between several men in the catalogue suggest that the association was restricted to the civic elite.
v. Relations Several father-and-son (e.g. l. 9 with l. 16; l. 19 with l. 23) or brother-and-brother (e.g. l. 27 with l. 28; l. 39 with l. 40) relationships between members.

XII. NOTES

i. Comments The dating is based on paleographical grounds only.
There is no proof of any cult by the group but the dates of existence of the association (more or less from the refoundation of Ptolemais up to the Roman conquest) strongly suggest that the association had something to do with royal cult.
iii. Bibliography Dobias-Lalou, C. (2011), ‘Bulletin épigraphique’, REG 124: no. 658.
Łajtar, A. (2010), ‘A catalogue of officials of an association (?) in a newly discovered inscription from Ptolemais in Cyrenaica’, in R.W.V. Catling and F. Marchand (eds.), Onomatologos. Studies in Greek personal names presented to Elaine Matthews, Oxford: 102-18.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Possible
Note Łajtar 2010 thinks that it is a private association with cultic purpose.
Łajtar may be right in seeing in the inscription an association since it has 1. heads 2. others officials 3. maybe laws with the rotation of the heads every two years 4. maybe a cultic purpose