294. Dedication to Liber Pater

Description:
Bracket (w: 0.31 x h: 0.16) of grey limestone.  
Text:
Inscribed on the face below the projection. Four lines of Neo-Punic follow the Latin text, which must therefore belong to the first century. 
Letters:
Irregular capitals: I.1, 0 01- 0.025; l. 2, 0.015; l. 3, 0.012; l. 4, 0.01. 
Date:
Fist century A.D. (language)  
Findspot:
Lepcis Magna: Found in the Punic Market 
Original Location:
Unknown 
Last recorded location:
Lepcis Museum.  
Bibliography:
Levi Della Vida, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research LXXXVII ( 1942) 30- 31. This edition taken from J. M. Reynolds and J. B. Ward-Perkins, The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, Rome: British School at Rome, 1952.  
Text constituted from:
Transcription (Reynolds, Ward-Perkins) 
Libero Patri sacr(um)
Boncarth Muṭḥumbalis f(ilius)
sobti IIIuir macelḷi ex multis
5(denariis) LXII quibus adiecit de suo (denarios) LIII
LIBEROPATRISACR
BONCARTHMV··VMBALISF
SOBTIIIIVIRMACEL·IEXMVLTIS
5 denarius LXIIQVIBVSADIECITDESVO denarius LIII
<ab>
<lb n="1" />
Libero
Patri
<expan>
<abbr>
sacr
</abbr>
<ex>
um
</ex>
</expan>
<lb n="2" />
Boncarth
Mu
<unclear reason="" >
th
</unclear>
umbalis
<expan>
<abbr>
f
</abbr>
<ex>
ilius
</ex>
</expan>
<lb n="3" />
sobti
<num value="3" >
III
</num>
uir
macel
<unclear reason="" >
l
</unclear>
i
ex
multis
<lb n="5" />
<expan>
<abbr>
<am>
<g type="denarius" > </g>
</am>
</abbr>
<ex>
denariis
</ex>
</expan>
<num value="62" >
LXII
</num>
quibus
adiecit
de
suo
<expan>
<abbr>
<am>
<g type="denarius" > </g>
</am>
</abbr>
<ex>
denarios
</ex>
</expan>
<num value="53" >
LIII
</num>
</ab>

3, sobti: Presumably a local variant of "sufes"

Translation:

Sacred to Liber Pater; boncath son of Muthumbal, ?sufete, member of the commitee of three for the market (set this up) using sixty-two denarii raised in fines, to which he added fifty-three denarii from his own fonds.

Commentary:

Of the Neo- Punic text. 1. 1 only is clearly legible. It is translated by Levi Della Vida: " This is the statue which Bodmelqart ben Muttunba`al Sh.- m.ki set up to the Lord Sh. d. r.p,". For this divinity, see Starcky, Syria XXVI (1949) 43- 85.

Photographs:

Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR (Sopr. CLM 328)
 Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR (Sopr. CLM 328)

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