Good wishes


- - - - - -
+++[--]+[-]++++[---]
ταθίου καὶ πρωτο +[---]
ε̣ὐχόμεθα ε̣ὐτυχεῖ[ν]
μετὰ ἡμῶν. εὐτύχ[ει]
Σ̣αβεῖνε μετὰ Εὐστα =
〚ΥΤΩ〛θίου. <:vacat>
εὐθόμεθα (:εὐχόμεθα) σὲ εὐτυχεῖ[ν]
μετὰ ὑμ̣ῶν (:ἡμῶν)
πολλοῖς ἔτεσιν.


Translation: “. . . [Eus]tathios (?) and first . . . We pray to have good fortune with us. Good luck, Sabinus with Eustathios. We pray that you may have good fortune with us for many years.”
Findspot: Smyrna, Basilica (Agora.1)
Location metadata ➜
Language: Greek
Writing Style: charcoal
  • Graffito Height: 41
  • Graffito Length: 45
  • Min Letter Height: 2.5
  • Max Letter Height: 5
Apparatus Criticus: 1. Only the bottoms of letters are visible. 2. Presumably this is another appearance of the name Eustathios, although that does not give a good syllabic division. The appearance of this name, common in the fourth century and later, may suggest a relatively late date, although LGPN 4 137 lists one example from Thessalonike dated as early as the second to third century. Perhaps simply πρῶτον̣ at the end, but there are other possibilities. 5. Only the top tip of sigma ligaturing into alpha is visible at the start, but we cannot see any other possible interpretation of these letters. A referee remarks that Sabinus is a common gladiatorial stage name (thinking perhaps of Messalina’s lover of that name in Cassius Dio 60.28) and suggests that the good wishes here might be for success in gladiatorial games. But Eustathios hardly seems to fit that hypothesis, and Sabinus is in general a very common name and not characteristic of slaves. 7. Read εὐχόμεθα. 8. Read (as in line 3) ἡμῶν.
Bibliography: Bagnall, R. S. et al., Graffiti from the Basilica in the Agora of Smyrna (2016): 460-461.
Suggested Citation: AGP-SMYTP1281, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <http://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-SMYTP1281> [accessed: 10 May 2024]
Contributions:

Editor: Roger S. Bagnall

Principal Contributor: Roger S. Bagnall

Last Revision: 2016-10-03