ИСТИНА

An Olbian dedication to Achilles Pontarches made by a retiring priest includes the priest’s gratitude towards Achilles for ‘the continuance of the city’: ὑπ[ὲρ] τῆς πόλεως … διαμονῆς (IPE I² 140). The word διαμονή can be found in Greek inscriptions more than 200 times. In the majority of cases these inscriptions date from the Roman epoch and are made in honor of Roman emperors, the Senate and the people. This paper offers a classification of the ὑπὲρ τῆς διαμονῆς formulas. The analysis of the διαμονή-usages in the Greek inscriptions of the Roman epoch demonstrates that the Greek διαμονή in this formula is a calque for Latin aeternitas. The abovementioned Olbian inscription IPE I² 140 is an extraordinary exception: a deity is thanked only for Olbian ‘continuance’, without mentioning the Roman one. Another significant specimen of this sort is the CIRB 36 inscription, where an originally Roman cliché is attributed to Bosporan King Teiranes and Queen Aelia. The author thus proposes that we can observe a sort of ‘transmission’ of ‘Rome’s eternity’ to the periphery of the Empire, namely to the Greek city of Olbia or the Greek Bosporan Kingdom (CIRB 36). We can also see how the Greeks applied some phenomena of the Roman culture to themselves.