Description: a) block of black marble, broken in two pieces (together, w:
2.07 x h:
0.30 x d:
0.60).
b) Fragment of a similar block (w:
0.70 x h:
0.30 x d:
0.60).
Text: Inscribed in irregular characters on one roughly-dressed face.
Letters: Roughly incised capitals: 0.04.
Date: CE 202-205 (prosopography)
Findspot:
Lepcis Magna:
Colonnaded Street, outside the Forum Severianum.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location:
Findspot
English translation
Translation by: J. M. Reynolds
(a) For dispatch to the most splendid colony of Leptis Magna on the order of Fulvius Plautianus, of senatorial status, praetorian prefect and relation of our lords.
(b) For dispatch t[o the most splendid colony of] Leptis Magna [on the order of Fulvius Plautianus, of senatorial status,] praetorian prefect [and relation of our lords].
Commentary
Worked fragments of the same marble have been found inside the Forum Severianum. The marble was evidently shipped in bulk, to be worked locally, and the texts are in effect consignment notes from the quarries.
C. Fuluius Plautianus: PIR F 0554, https://pir.bbaw.de/id/6413
a) line 3. praefectus praetorius ac necessarius from 202, when Plautianus' daughter married Caracalla.
Bibliography: Ward-Perkins, 1951 90-91, whence AE 1952.83; IRT, 1952, 530, whence IRT, 2009, 530; a: EDH (Bigi, 2017) 018959, b: EDH (Bigi, 2017) 067671; for BSR images see BSR Digital Collections.
Images
Fig. 1. Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR (Sopr. CLM 1097)
Fig. 2. Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR (Sopr. CLM 1096)
Fig. 3. Ward-Perkins, 1951 (Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR 51.VI.30)
Fig. 4. Ward-Perkins, 1951 (Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR 51.VI.19)