A NOTE ON THE ARAMAIC TEXT OF THE BILINGUAL GURAS INSCRIPTION (PAT 0251 = CIL III 3.7999 = CIS 3906)

Aramaic-speaking soldiers from Palmyra who were serving in the imperial army left their mark at multiple sites in Roman-era Dacia in the form of Latin (and sometimes Latin-Aramaic) inscriptions. This article analyzes the Aramaic portion of one such bilingual text. Our photographic analysis of the text corrects a faulty reading that has gone undiagnosed for over one hundred thirty years. In correcting this reading, we have simultaneously offered a correction to the lexicographic data in use by Aramaists: the Aramaic hpṭyw is a loanword from the Latin optio, and demonstrates
a closer phonological correspondence to its source lexeme than it has been previously recognized.