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There must have been a dedicatory inscription in which the name of the donor, the source of the money, the date of the building, and something more descriptive than [handwritten: ὄμος] or [handwritten: σὸμοι] were given. Of course it could have been on the lintel above the entrance to room (19), where such inscriptions were sometimes xx placed. Since,however, the stone-work of the building is in xxx general poor, xxxx [handwritten: d] especially in comparison with the excellence of the floor mosaics, it is [handwritten: more likely] highly probable that it was placed in the floor along with the other inscriptions.
If it be objected that the performance of a Christian rite would have been out of place in a bath- a building xxxxx often associated with immorality- the Homeric couplet in the south border of the mosaic provides a partial confutation; [handwritten: Ἐξέδρην θάλαμόν τε ἀ ... ἀιδῶς ... καὶ [κοσμιότης] κοσμεοῦν τε καὶ ... ἀιδῶς]
Handwritten: Κοσμιότης not only fits metrically and xxxxx spatially.
but is confirmed by Themistius, [handwritten: ἀλλ' οὔτε ὅσα ἐξαρκεῖ μοι τὰ ὄντα,]
Handwritten: ὃ τε μισθὸς ἱκανὸς μοι ἔστιν ὃν φέρουσιν ἔνιοι ἔχοντες, κοσμιότητα, καὶ
Handwritten: αἰδῶ καὶ ὡφροσύνην.
The couplet is, moreover, probably an echo of a clause in [handwritten: the first] letter of Timothy, [handwritten: ὡσαύτως γυναικας ἐν καταστολῇ]
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain