WP 0005

IRT2021
Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania 2021

1206. Christian funerary text (En-Ngila cemetery)

Description: Tomb of rubble, with a plaster surface, w: 1.35 x h: 0.30 x d: 0.50.
Text: Inscribed on the north face; there is an illegiel text on the south face.
Letters: ? Smaller letters

Date: Late 10th-early eleventh century CE (context)

Findspot: Tripoli: Christian cemetery among the sand-dunes at en-Ngila
Original location: Findspot
Last recorded location: Findspot

Interpretive

[O] bos omnes [qui transitis per]
biam, aspicite et bidetis IFA [si est do-]
lo<r> (beste)r qualis e<st> dolor meus

Diplomatic

[.]BOSOMNES[...............]
BIAMASPICITEETBIDETISIFA[.......-]
LORQUALISEDOLORMEUS

2: bidetis IFA [ Paribeni, 1927
3: -lor qualis Paribeni, 1927

English translation

Translation by: Charlotte Roueché

Oh all you who pass on the road, behold and see if your grief is such as my grief.

Commentary

1-2: See Lamentations 1.12, available at Perseus.

Bibliography: Paribeni, 1927, VI; mentioned and indexed IRT, 1952, 262, whence mentioned IRT, 2009, 262; Bartoccini, 1977 XI