MAMA XI 287 (Northern Lykaonia) 
Funerary inscription of Basilissa, in verse
- Type of monument:
- Funerary inscription in verse.
- Location:
- Zengicek (Koçyaka) (Northern Lykaonia): in a lane.
- Description:
- Grey marble column, probably complete below, cut off above.
- Dimensions:
- Ht. 1.45+; Diameter 0.34; letters 0.025-0.030.
- Record:
- Squeeze; line drawing; MB notebook copy (1956/130).
- Publication:
- Calder 1922: 127, no. 10 (SEG 1, 456; Peek 1955: 66, no. 256; Merkelbach and Stauber 2001: 14/06/23).
- Date:
- Third or fourth century AD.
Β̣α̣σ̣[ί]λ̣ι̣σ̣[σα]
στήλλην εὐποίη-
τον ἀνασ̣τήσασ᾿
ἐχάρα̣ξ̣ε̣ν
5ὄφ̣ρα πολυκλαύσ̣-
τοιο̣ τάφου μνη-
μήϊος εἴη.
Line 1: Βασίλισσα C(alder).
Line 2: στήλην C.
Basilissa set up and inscribed this well-made stele, in order that it might serve as a memorial for this much-wept grave.
Illustrations:
Squeeze of MAMA XI 287 (Northern Lykaonia 13: 1956-130)
Line drawing of MAMA XI 287 (Northern Lykaonia 13: 1956-130)
Lines 2-7 of this inscription form two fairly accurate hexameters. Peek suggested, not implausibly, that μνημήϊος in lines 6-7 (unattested elsewhere) might be a mason’s error for μνημήϊο⟨ν⟩. For ὄφρα + optative in late antique funerary inscriptions, see Wilhelm 1932: 805-6. For the phraseology in lines 2-4, compare SEG 6, 442 (Konya), τίτλον εὐποίη[τον τάφῳ ἐπεχά]ραξεν, and cf. MAMA XI 292 (1956/151). For the juridical significance of recording the carving of the inscription, see Fıratlı and Robert 1964: 143-4; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 95; OMS V, 317. For the name Basilissa in this region, see also MAMA XI 361 (1954/51: Kana); 211 (1954/75: Azak [Hodoğlu]).