The RomanColoniaeof the Near East there are the legends in GreekΕΛΛΗ[ΝΕΣ]andΚΑΔΜΟΣ: the type recalls
the invention of the alphabet in Phoenicia, and its subsequent transmission
to Greece, by showing Kadmos giving a papyrus roll to three Greeks.
As was noted above (text following n. ), it could have been expected
that if a major Roman jurist originated from any of thecoloniaeof the Near
East, it would have been Berytus, or Heliopolis. But in fact the major jurist
of the classical period of Roman law, Domitius Ulpianus, came from Tyre.
His official career and his fame as a lawyer are duly reflected in a puzzling in-
scription engraved on a column found near the Roman arch of Tyre, which
itself belongs to the early third century.^131 The lettering on the column may
be late Roman, and it is perhaps a re-inscription of a contemporary text. If it
is indeed a re-inscription, the fact that it is in Latin and concretely recalls the
colonial status of the third-century city will have made it a sort of historical
monument in itself. It is reported as reading:
Domitio Ulpiano, Praefecto
Praetorio, eminentissimo viro,
iurisconsulto, item Praefecto
Annonae Sacrae Urbis SEDERIA (SEBERIA?)
FELIX AUG [.. .] PRIOR COL METROPOL
P[A]TRIAThe city title at the end seems confused, and it could of course be that the
col(onia), metropol(is)named is not in fact Tyre but some other city. However,
Miss B. M. Levick, to whom I was very grateful for her comments on the
published text and photographs, suggested that instead ofPRIORin line
we should readTYRIOR.SEDERIAin line might be a personal name,
SEDEKIA(S)FELIX, described asAUG(ur?)orAUG(ustalis?)of theTyrior(um)
col(onia) metropol(is). The last three terms would then be in the same order
as in the inscription from Lepcis Magna, though with the substitution of
a group genitive plural for the place-name.RIAin the last line might be
[MEMO]RIA. To go beyond that would be pure speculation. But Miss Levick
confirmed that the lettering seems to be of the fourth century.
More securely located in its historical context is a Greek inscription
of the mid-third century from Tyre, in honour of Septimius Odenathus:
. For the Roman arch of Tyre, see M. Chéhab, ‘‘Fouilles de Tyr. La nécropole I: l’arc
de triomphe,’’Bull. Mus. Beyrouth (); for the inscription, –, and pls. xiv–xv; cf.
AE, . See now M. Christol, ‘‘Entre la cité et l’empereur: Ulpien, Tyr et les em-
pereurs de la dynastie sévérienne,’’ in F. Chausson and É. Wolff, eds.,Consuetudinis Amor:
Fragments d’histoire romaine (II–VIesiècles) offerts à Jean-Pierre Callu(), .