The surviving and readable four lines of the inscription in Greek on the column's socle relate that a Praefectus Aegypti () called Publius dedicated the monument in Diocletian's honour. The monument commemorated the victories of the augustus on one of his visits to Egypt, commemorating either the institution of the Alexandrian state grain supply, the victory over Domitius Domitianus, or another of Diocletian's Egyptian campaigns. A praefectus aegypti named Publius is attested in two papyri from Oxyrrhynchus; his governorship must have been held in between the prefectures of Aristius Optatus, who is named as governor on 16 March 297, and Clodius Culcianus, in office from 303 or even late 302. Since Publius's name appears as the monument's dedicator, the column and stylite statue of Diocletian must have been completed between 297 and 303, while he was in post. The governor's name is largely erased in the damaged inscription; the remaining rendering of Publius as ΠΟΥΠΛΙΟΣ () was confused with the Greek spelling of the Republican general of the first century BC Pompey, ΠΟΜΠΗΙΟΣ (, ).