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Inscribed Block (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Block from Anta of the Metroon (reused in Synagogue): Letter from Antiochos III
- Date
- Summer 213 BC., Hellenistic
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN63.120
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Architecture, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Letter or Dossier Containing Letters, Decisions, Petitions, Subscriptiones, Honors
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
[ συν]- 1 χωρήσαντες πάντα, ἃ διέτε̣[ιν]εν πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, καὶ νῦν̣ προαιρούμενοι γενέσθαι ὑμᾶς ἐμ βελτίονι διαθέσει πεποήκαμεν τὰ ἐνδεχόμενα· τοῖς τε γὰρ νέοις ἀποτετάχαμεν εἰς ἐλαιοχρίστιον 4 ἀνθ᾿ ὧν πρότερον ἐλαμβάνετε κατ᾿ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐλαίου μετρητὰς διακοσίους καὶ εἰς τοῦτο τὸ πλῆθος συνετάξαμεν ἀποτάξαι προσόδους ἀφ᾿ ὧν ἐξ ὑποκειμένου λήψεσθε εὐτάκτως· καὶ εἰς τοὺς κατασταθμευομένους δὲ παρ᾿ ὑμῖν συνχωροῦμεν λαμβά- 8 νεσθαι ὧν ἔχετε οἰκιῶν ἀντὶ τῶν ἡμισέων τὰ τρίτα μέρη· ἀπολύο- μεν δὲ ὑμᾶς καὶ τοῦ ἐνοικίου οὗ τελεῖτε ἀπὸ τῶν ἐργαστηρίων, εἴ- περ καὶ αἱ ἄλλαι πόλεις μὴ πράσσοντα̣ι· οἰόμεθα δὲ δεῖν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀγομέ{με}νοις Λαοδικείοις ὑπὸ τῆς πόλεως ὑπάρχειν ὑμῖν ἀτέ- 12 λ̣ε̣ιαν ἐφ᾿ ἡμέρας τρεῖς κ̣α̣ὶ̣ π̣ε̣ρ̣ὶ̣ π̣ά̣ν̣τ̣ω̣ν̣ γε̣γρ̣ά̣ψα̣μ̣ε̣ν π[ρὸς] Ζ̣ε̣ῦ̣ξ̣[ιν]- Inscription Translation
- “[- - -] having granted all the things that concerned the recovery (of the city), and now making it our intention that your conditions improve, we have taken the possible measures; for we have given to the young men, (4) as replacement for what you received previously, two hundred metretai of oil a year for the oil-anointment, and we have given orders to set aside, up to this amount, revenues from which you will receive (the oil) regularly, out of specially designated funds; and regarding those among you who have men billeted upon them, we agree that there should be taken (8) (only) a third instead of a half of the houses you have, and we exempt you from the rent which you pay on the workshops, inasmuch as the other cities are not liable to it; we also think it necessary that in the Laodikeia conducted by the city, you should have exemption from public burdens (12) for three days; and we have written concerning all matters to Zeuxis [- - -]” (mostly after Ma).
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Syn
- Trench
- Syn 63
- Locus
- Syn MH Spolia
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E42.5 / N5.50 *97.36
- Findspot
- Synagogue, Main Hall, reused in one of the piers at the western end, see Gauthier, pl. xiv; originally belonging to an anta of the late Classical or Hellenistic Metroon (see no.
308 , 4–5 comm.).
- Description
Block of grayish-white marble. For further details, see Gauthier, pl. XI (drawing of the stone). Nos. 307 and 309 are “twin blocks” of the same shape. - From Sardis, Synagogue, Main Hall, reused in one of the piers at the western end, see Gauthier, pl. xiv; originally belonging to an anta of the late Classical or Hellenistic Metroon (see no. 308, 4–5 comm.; Cahill 2019b)
- Dimensions
- H. 0.28, W. 0.70, Th. 1.23, max. H. of letters 0.015.
- Comments
For details, see the commentaries in Gauthier and further literature.
This letter of Antiochos III could perhaps be the continuation of no. 308 (c), see Gauthier, pp. 79, 83 n. 1.
6–8 Ma’s translation follows the interpretation of D. Knoepfler, Mus. Helv. 50 (1993), pp. 34–35 (“quant à ceux qui, chez vous, sont soumis à l’obligation d’héberger la troupe, nous accordons qu’il leur soit pris (seulement) le tiers, au lieu de la moitié, des maisons que vous avez en propriété”), which was approved by Gauthier, BE 1993, 493.
8–10 N. Kaye, Hesperia 85 (2016), pp. 553–55 modifies Gauthier’s translation (“Nous vous dispensons d’autre part du loyer que vous payez pour les ateliers-boutiques, si du moins les autres cités n’y sont pas soumises”) and understands εἴπερ in a causal sense (p. 554): “- - since indeed the other cities do not pay it.” It seems to me that the negation in εἴπερ…μή precludes this interpretation and that Gauthier’s and Ma’s translations are correct. Kaye concludes: “…Sardis received back the rents of certain workshops, a return to the status quo before the war.” He challenges the scenario put forth by Gauthier: “…there is no reason to site these ergasteria in a stoa and thereby postulate for the royal patrimony an entire portfolio of urban real estate.”
12–13 π[ρὸς] Ζ̣ε̣ῦ̣ξ̣[ιν] / [καὶ Κτησικλῆν?]: “Peut-être Ktésiklès était-il mentionné ensuite. Le roi devait ajouter quelque chose comme ‘et vos ambassadeurs également vous informeront là-dessus’; puis venait la salutation finale” (Gauthier, p. 115). “It is tempting to restore [καὶ Κτησικλῆν] as in document [no. 307], line 8” (Ma).
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Gauthier, Nouv. inscr. Sard. II, pp. 81–111, no. 3, pl. IV (photographs of the stone and a squeeze), with translation and detailed commentary (SEG 39, 1285; K. Bringmann and H. von Steuben, eds., Schenkungen hellenistischer Herrscher an griechische Städte und Heiligtümer I [1995], p. 299, no. 260, IV, with translation and notes; Ma, Antiochos III, pp. 287–88, no. 3, with translation and notes).
- Author
- GP