Rome and the East
(..–) the city minted with the Latin legendTVRIORVMseems re-
markably fragile evidence for the common notion that the status ofcolonia
was removed and then restored.^127
The inscriptional evidence for the colonial status of Tyre is not extensive
but includes items of remarkable interest, complexity, and suggestiveness.
The earliest is certainly a Latin inscription from Lepcis Magna in Tripolitania,
the native city of Septimius Severus, itself a Phoenician/Punic city which
had been Romanised in the early Empire, and had become acoloniaunder
Trajan.^128 Among the many inscriptions from there honouring Severus and
other members of his family, there is a statue base with the words[[P.Septimio
Getae nobilissimo Caesari]] Septimia Tyros Colonia Metropolis Phoenices et aliarum
civitatium.^129 Severus’ younger son, Septimius Geta, held the title ‘‘Caesar’’
from.. until he was made joint Augustus with his father and elder
brother in . His name was erased from inscriptions, including this one,
after his murder by his brother Caracalla, probably late in... The dedi-
cation of the original statue therefore belongs to the period..–.
What is significant about the inscription is that it is a conscious reflec-
tion of the historic connections between the two cities which had been cre-
ated by the Phoenician colonisation of the North African coast in the archaic
period, and was indeed reflected also in dedications by Lepcis, as theColonia
Ulpia Traiana Aug(usta) Fidelis Lepcis Magna, put up in Tyre and honouring its
mother-city, before it in its turn became acolonia.^130 Precisely for that reason
Septimia Tyrosis not content here to be onlyColoniaandMetropolis Phoenices
but addsetaliarumcivitatium. It is entirely consonant with this that among the
colonial coins of Tyre are ones portraying Dido supervising the foundation
of Carthage. Thus, in the dedication to Geta, Tyre, made acoloniaby a citizen
of Lepcis, is recalling another and much older colonial relationship. The an-
cient glory of Tyre as a Phoenician city is also recalled on a colonial coin of
the reign of Gallienus, on which, apart from the normalCOL TVRO METR
. SoBMC Phoenicia, cxxv and –, followed, e.g., by H. Ingholt,VariaTadmorea,
inPalmyre:bilanetperspectives(), , on , and K. Harl (n. ), . Alla Stein pointed out
to me that under Elagabal coins of Laodicea sometimes showΛΑΟΔΙΚΕΩΝor LAUDI-
CEON,BMC Syria, –.
. For the background, see the very good account by A. R. Birley,TheAfricanEmperor,
Septimius Severus(), chaps. –.
.IRT.
. For what follows, see F. Millar, ‘‘The Phoenician Cities: A Case-Study of Hellenisa-
tion,’’Proc. Camb. Philol. Soc. (): , esp. – ( chapter of the present volume).
For more dedications from Tyre, in Latin and Greek, see J.-P. Rey-Coquais, ‘‘Une double
dédicace de Lepcis Magna à Tyr,’’ in A. Mastino, ed.,L’Africa RomanaIV (), .