S.E.G. IX, 63 again

Extract

In the last number of these Proceedings (no. 189, n.s. 9, p. 2) Miss Joyce Reynolds discussed this well-known inscription, which is dated in A.D. 2/3 and is incised below a relief of a man reclining on a couch, cup in hand. It was found in the Sanctuary of Apollo at Cyrene in 1925; for a bibliography, see Miss Reynolds's article. The text she prints at the beginning reads as follows:

(ἔτους) λγ´ ἐπὶ ἱερἑως Παυσανἰα Φιλίσκω φύσει δὲ Εὐφάνευς

vacat παυσαμένων πάντων τῆς ἀνείας Λούκιος ᾿Ορβιος Λουκίου πυλοκλειστὴς τὸν

λυσιπόλεμον

ἡνίκα Μαρμαρικοῦ λῆξεν πολέμοιο κυδοιμὸς γήθησεν Βάττου πολλὰ πόλις μερόπων

τῆμος ἀν[α]

γλύψας κατακείμενον ἡδυπο 〈πο〉 τοῦντα Λεύκιος εἰνοδίωι θῆκε παρὰ προθύρωι

κλεῖ[δα] πύλης διέπων 'ωραι φίλαι οὗ χάλις ἔοχεν Παυσανίαν ίερῆ καιρόθ̣ι παυσάμενον

The last sentence raises acute difficulties. It has driven Adolf Wilhelm and Louis Robert to the desperate assumption that we have here one of the rare cases of a spondee standing in place of the penultimate dactyl of a pentameter. Wilhelm read καιρούς and Robert καιρῶν both imagined that the words meant the same as ἀνιῶν παυσάμενον. The authority of these two eminent scholars should not prevent us from seeing that the suggestion is ridiculous.