The inscription appears on the base of the obelisk in both Latin and Greek. The Latin text reads "Imp Caesar Divi F Augustus Pontifex Maximus Imp XII Cos XI Tr Pot XIV Aegypto in potestatem Populi Romani redacta soli donum dedit." Since there are many standard abbreviations in this inscription, a list of their full text and meaning follows.

• Imp=Imperator (commander)
• F=filius (son)
• Imp=Imperator (victorius in battle)
• XII=twelve times
• Cos=Consul
• XI=eleven times
• Tr Pot=tribunicia potestate (with tribunician power)
• XIV=fourteen times

  The translation of the inscription reads "Commander Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine (Julius Caesar), High Priest, victorious in battle twelve times, Consul eleven times, with tribunician power fourteen times, having returned Egypt to the control of the Roman People, has given this gift to the Sun." The grammatical constrtuction of the inscription follows:

• Imperator Caesar Augustus (followed by his offices and accomplishments - nominative/subject
• F(ilius) - nominative/apposition
• Divi (Julii Caesaris) - genitive/possessive
• Aegypto . . . redacta - ablative absolute
• in - preposition with the accusative
• potestatem - accusative/object of the preposition
• Populi Romani - genitive/possessive
• Soli - dative/indirect object
• donum - accusative/direct object
• dedit - perfect active/transitive

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