A Frontier Dedication to Zeus, Ares, and Aphrodite

This damaged Greek inscription from Tanais belongs in the Scythian library because it preserves a frontier voice from the Don mouth: Sirachi, Scythians, Taurike, royal envoys, Tanais civic offices, and a dedication to Zeus, Ares, and Aphrodite all appear in one compact source.

The stone begins in loss and remains uncertain in several administrative phrases. The translation below keeps the broken places visible and does not infer the lost subject of the war report. Its value is source access to a Tanais inscription where Scythians and neighboring steppe/frontier peoples are named in civic and religious context.

The translation below was made from the inspected Greek text captured from PHI Greek Inscriptions, CIRB 1237 / PH183977, with PHI's SEG 30:987 parallel used only as a control for lines 5-6.

Translation

[...] a thousand,

and having made war also against the Sirachi and the Scythians,

and having taken Taurike under treaty,

he declared [it] free in Pontus,

for Pontobithynia, for those sailing the sea.

When the strategos of the citizens was [...] son of Zenon,

Dadas son of Euios, and Julius D[.]onos and Julius Rhodon, those formerly in office under the kingdom,

Zenon II, son of Dadas, sent by the king to the trading-station,

consecrated this to Zeus, Ares, and Aphrodite,

when Boraspes son of Babos was archon of Tanais and Rhodon son of Chariton was Hellenarch,

in the 490th year, on the first of Dystros.

On the right of lines 15-20: a Sarmatian sign.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Scythian shelf by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Ancient Greek inscription text printed below. The English is a new rendering from the Greek. PHI Greek Inscriptions was used as the source text, with the local HTML capture retained for verification.

The translation is a new Good Works rendering from the inspected Greek source text.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: CIRB 1237

Ancient Greek source text from PHI Greek Inscriptions, CIRB 1237 / PH183977. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

[— — — — — — — —]

χειλίους, πολ[ε]μήσας

δὲ καὶ Σιραχοὺς #⁵⁶ καὶ Σκύ-

θας καὶ τὴν Ταυρικὴν ὑ-

πόσπονδον λα<β>ών, <ἐ>λεύ-

θε<ρ>ον ἀπέδει<ξ>ε <ἐν> Πόν-

τ<ῳ>, Βειθυν̣ίᾳ τοῖς <π>λέου-

σι τὸ πέλαγος ∙ ἐ[πὶ] σ̣τρα-

τηγῷ πολειτῶν̣ [— — — Ζή]-

νωνος Δ̣άδα Ε<ὐ>ίο̣[υ, καὶ]

Ἰουλ(ίου) ∙ Δ[․]ο̣νου κα<ὶ> Ἰουλ̣[ίου]

<Ῥ>όδω̣[νο]ς ∙ τῶν πρὶν ἐπὶ̣ [τῆς]

βασιλε[ία]ς ∙ Ζ̣ήνων ∙ βʹ τοῦ <Δ>ά-

δα ἐκπε̣[μ]φ̣θεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ

βασιλέω̣[ς] εἰς τὸ ἐμπόριον

καθιέρω̣[σ]α ∙ Διί ∙ Ἄρῃ καὶ

Ἀφροδίτῃ ἐπὶ Βορά-

σπω <Β>άβου ἄρχοντ(ος) ∙ Τα-

νάεως καὶ ἑ<λλ>ηνάρχ(ου)

Ῥόδωνος Χαρίτ<ω>νος.

ἐν τῷ ϟυʹ, Δύ<σ>τρου αʹ ∙

{a dextra vss. 15-20: signum Sarmaticum}

Source Colophon

The source text was inspected from PHI Greek Inscriptions, CIRB 1237 / PH183977, Tanais, dated 193 AD and cross-referenced by PHI as IosPE II 423. The source capture is preserved in the Scythian source archive.

PHI also links SEG 30:987 / PH338627 as a parallel for CIRB 1237, lines 5-6, citing L. Robert, A travers l'Asie Mineure (1980), p. 81, 500. The parallel capture is preserved in the Scythian source archive. That control supports reading the broken Pontic/Bithynian line cautiously as Pontobithynian sea-passage language, not as an independent second inscription.

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