Authentes, meaning “slayer of oneself or others,” appears in Wisdom of Solomon 12:6, as authentas. The Greek αὐθέντας γονεῖς ψυχῶν ἀβοηθήτων translates as “Parents, slayers of helpless souls.” In keeping with this meaning of authentes, should there not also be a connection with killing in the word authentia in 3 Macc 2:29?

There is a strongly supporting piece of literature by Cassius Dio Cocceianus, 155-235 AD whose single use of authentia is in his Historiae Romanae Book 30-35, Chap 102, which says:

The son of Marius, by his authority to execute, having put to death a certain one of the tribunes, sent his head to the consuls, and another he hurled down from the Capitol…

The semantic shift towards “absolute sway” from this judicial licence for execution is evident. Could this definition of authentia, written three centuries earlier, also apply in Ptolemy’s decree, but for killing animals in sacrifice?”

3) Questions of Grammar

“With these limited rights” has been given as the translation of εἰς τὴν προσυνεσταλμένην αὐθεντίαν

eis taking the acc, should not mean “with”, but into/unto/for.

Authentian is acc, fem, singular, not plural of authentia, later translated as “absolute sway or authority”. To give it a plural meaning as “rights” is inconsistent.

This is quite a fine point, but nevertheless, does contribute something important, although difficult to explain. Prosunestalmenen is a verbal perfect participle active, acc fem, sg, describing authentia as restricted/limited/made conditional. The perfect tense indicates that the effect of an accomplished past act continues into the present, ie something had happened in the past which caused the restriction to now exist. It could be best expressed as “now, having been limited” in some way. The perfect tense always defines that a change has happened.