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The Mustis arch and its dedication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2024

Santiago Sánchez de la Parra-Pérez Open the ORCID record for Santiago Sánchez de la Parra-Pérez [Opens in a new window]
Santiago Sánchez de la Parra-Pérez*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Salamanca (España). HESPERIA Research Group.
*
Email: yago987@usal.es
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Abstract

The arch of Gordian III at Mustis (Al Karib, Tunisia) has been the subject of scholarly work since the eighteenth century, and its dedicatory inscription has drawn the attention of antiquarians and archaeologists since the early nineteenth century. The transcription and reconstruction of its text were proposed by the editors of the eighth volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum in numbers 1577 and 15572. This version has prevailed in scientific literature ever since, even though Beschaouch announced in a short note in 1969 the discovery of a fourth block that substantially alters the information it contains. However, a comprehensive study of the complete inscription was never published due to the lack of graphic material. Thanks to the drawing by J. Vérité, the architect in charge of the monument's restoration, we can analyse the inscription as a whole. We conclude that the proposal by the CIL editors is incorrect, we provide the complete transcription of the epigraph, and we propose a new date for the dedication of the arch, in 240 AD.

كان قوس جورديان الثالث في موستي (الكريب، تونس ) موضوعاً للبحث الأكاديمي منذ القرن الثامن عشر، وق استحوذ نقش التكريس على اهتمام الأثريين وعلماء الآثار منذ أوائل القرن التاسع عشر. و قد تم اقتراح نسخ وإعادة بناء النص من قبل محرري المجلد الثامن من مجموعة النقوش اللاتينية في الأرقام 1577 و15572. وقد ساد هذا الحل في الأدبيات العلمية منذ ذلك الحين على الرغم من أن باش شاوش أعلن في ملاحظة قصيرة في عام 1969 عن اكتشاف الكتلة الرابعة التي تغير بشكل كبير المعلومات التي يحتوي عليها نقش التكريس. ومع ذلك، لم يتم نشر دراسة شاملة للنقش الكامل بسبب نقص المواد المرسومة. و بفضل الرسم الذي انجزه جي. فيريتيه، المهندس المعماري المسؤول عن ترميم النصب التذكاري، يمكننا تحليل النقش ككل. نخلص إلى أن اقتراح محرري مجموعة النقوش اللاتينية غي صحيح، ونحن نقدم النسخ الكامل للكتابة، ونقترح تاريخاً جديداً لتكريس القوس وهو عام 240 م .

Keywords

archMustisGordian IIIinscriptionLatin
Type
Articles
Information
Libyan Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Institute for Libyan & Northern African Studies

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Footnotes

*

The online version of this article has been updated since original publication. A notice detailing the change has also been published

1

We appreciate the comments and proposals from external reviewers and the editorial board of the journal Libyan Studies.

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