Augustan edicts from Cyrene

Abstract

Readers of the Journal will no doubt welcome a reproduction of the highly interesting and important edicts of Augustus which came to light some six years ago in the course of the Italian excavations at Cyrene and have now been published by G. Oliverio in the rather inaccessible Notiziario Archeologico, fasc. iv, 1927, pp. 13–67. As I have busied myself with the interpretation of the documents to the extent of delivering an address on them to the Roman Society on October 25th, I repeat here the substance of what I then said, with some omissions and some additions. The purpose of my address was, not to furnish a complete commentary on the texts, but to attempt an estimate of their historical significance. In consenting to repeat it, I am well aware that pitfalls beset pioneers and that differences of view are not only possible, particularly in regard to the last edict of the series, but will no doubt find expression in the near future. But it is only by the interplay of various minds that the truth can be reached.