Betts 7

Siglum: Betts 7
Transliteration: l {ġ}yrʾl bn rmyn bn ṣbḥ bn s²mt w wld h- mʿzy s¹nt ngy q[ṣr h- mdnt]
OCIANA
Translation: By {Ġ}yrʾl son of Rmyn son of S²mt and he helped the goats give birth the year C[aesar] announced [the Province]
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Language and Script: Safaitic

Interpretation

Commentary: In view of the other inscriptions on this stone, it is easy to restore the end of the inscription. For this interpretation of s¹nt ngy qṣr h- mdnt see Macdonald 2014: 154–155. If this is correct, it would date these inscriptions to AD 111 when the emperor Trajan announced Arabia adquisita, even though the Nabataean kingdom had been in Roman hands since AD 106, and this almost immediately came to be used as the starting point of the era of Provincia Arabia (see, for instance the Greek and Nabataean funerary inscription dated to year 3 of the Province (Milik 1958: 243–246, no. 6).

Macdonald, M.C.A. ‘Romans Go Home’? Rome and other ‘Outsiders’ as viewed from the Syro-Arabian Desert. Pages 145-163 in J.H.E. Dijkstra & G. Fisher (eds), Inside and Out. Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity. (Late Antique History and Religion, 8). Louvain: Peeters, 2014.
Milik, J.T. Nouvelles inscriptions nabatéennes. Syria 35, 1958: 227-251, pl. 18-21.

Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA