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Inscribed Fragment (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Fragment: Letter from Laodike
- Date
- “époque d’Antiochos III, sans qu’on puisse préciser davantage” (Gauthier, p. 131); “ca. 213 B.C.” (SEG)., Hellenistic
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN64.006
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Architecture, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Letter or Dossier Containing Letters, Decisions, Petitions, Subscriptiones, Honors
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
] Ι̣ Ι̣ [ ἡ] βασίλισσα γέγρα[φεν ]γένει τῶν περὶ Η̣ΜΑΣΕΙ̣[ . ]Ι̣[ 4 ] ἐν τῆι περὶ Σ̣άρδεις οἰκον[ο]μία[ι ] Πορσουδδα κώμην καὶ ΣΑΝ̣ΝΙ̣ΦΕ̣[ ]Τ̣ΑΙΣ̣ κατὰ τοὺζ π̣ροϋπάρχοντ[ας περιορισμούς ?] ]ΣΙΝ ἐν ταῖς κώμ[α]ις καὶ τοῖ[ς] ΑΓ̣[ 8 ]ΤΑΙ αὐτός τε καὶ οἱ ἔγγονοι αὐ[τοῦ ]Υ̣Τ[ ]ΠΛ̣[ . ]ΩΝΤΟ̣[
- Inscription Translation
- “[- - -] the queen has written [- - -] of those who belong to our entourage(?) [- - -] in the fiscal district of Sardis [- - -] the village Porsoudda and [- - -] according to the pre-existing [delimitations? - - -] in the villages and in the [- - -] himself and his posterity [- - -].”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- B
- Trench
- BE 64
- Locus
- B BE-C
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E10 / N10 *99.5
- Findspot
- Bath-Gymnasium Complex.
- Description
Fragment of grayish-white marble; “brisé de tous côtés” (Gauthier, p. 129). It seems to me that on the right side a small portion of the original edge is preserved.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.18, W. 0.28, Th. 0.07, H. of letters 0.01.
- Comments
Gauthier’s Greek text; here follows a summary of his detailed commentary:
2 ἡ] βασίλισσα: Laodike, the wife of Antiochos III.
3 Gauthier (p. 132 n. 8) considers: [Ἑρμο- / Μηνο]γένει? - τῶν περὶ ἡμᾶς Ε - - - (“qui fait partie des…de notre entourage”), or a toponym: τῶν περὶ Η̣ΜΑΣΕΙ̣[? - ΕΙ̣[ . ]Ι̣[ , my reading; ΕΙ̣ - - - or ΕΚ̣ - - -, Gauthier.
4 ἡ περὶ Σάρδεις οἰκονομία: the village(s) had belonged to the king before being donated. Gauthier stresses that this is the first attestation “du mot οἰκονομία au sens de district relevant de l’oikonomos” (p. 132). For a possible continuation of the Seleucid oikonomos into the Attalid realm see P. Herrmann, “Apollon de Pleura…” (in L’hellénisme d’époque romaine…, ed. S. Follet [2004], pp. 277–86), p. 282 = id., Ausgew. Schriften , pp. 242–43, on no. 317, 14.
5 ΦΕ̣[ ]: or ΦΗ̣[ ].
7 Gauthier proposes [σὺν - - - τοῖς ὑπάρχου]σιν (or [οὖ]σιν) ἐν ταῖς κώμ[α]ις. - The last letter was either Γ or Π. Ma considers ἀγ̣[ροῖς] or ἀπ̣[ο- ], “for instance a noun qualified by a passive participle of ἀποδείκνυμι?”
9 After Π follows the upper portion of an Α or Λ and then a worn H or E.
This seems to be a royal letter to a functionary of the king (rather than to the Council and People of Sardis, Gauthier), or, as K. Rigsby suggests (Gött. Gelehrte Anzeigen 243 [1991], p. 49), “from a royal official, as might be suggested by its invocation of the queen’s letter.” Welles, RC, no. 18; I.Didyma, no. 492 (sale of an estate to Queen Laodike) is adduced as a possible parallel. Here, the king seems to give land and a village (l. 5 Πορσουδδα κώμην) to the person mentioned in l. 8, who could be identical with the [--]genes of l. 3.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Gauthier, Nouv. inscr. Sard. II, pp. 129–34, no. 7, pl. VIII (SEG 39, 1289; Ma, Antiochos III, pp. 361–62, no. 41D, with translation and note).
- Author
- GP