The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis

Inscribed Stele (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Inscribed Stele (reused as water basin): Minutes from Areopagus of Athens Documenting Honors for Polybius of Sardis

Monograph 14: Sardis: Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Part II: Finds from 1958 to 2017 (2019) Cat. 320

Date

Ca. 150 AD., Roman

Sardis or Museum Inv. No.

IN59.004

Material

Marble, Stone

Object Type

Stele, Inscription

Inscription Type

Letter or Dossier Containing Letters, Decisions, Petitions, Subscriptiones, Honors

Inscription language

Greek

Inscription Text

	0	[					 ]
		λ̣ειπέσθω· ἐπερώτ[ησεν		 ]
		ὁ πρόεδρος· “δοκεῖ γραφῆναι τ[οῖς]
		κρατίστοις Σαρδιανοῖς ὑπὲρ το̣[ῦ]
	4	ἀξιολογωτάτου Πολυβίου;” “π̣ᾶσ̣[ιν?].”
		“τί οἴεσθε;” “ὑπομνηματισάσ̣[θω?].”
		εἰσκληθεὶς εἶπε Πολύβιος· “μεγ[α]-
		λειοτέραν τῆς παρούσης μοι εὐ̣-
	8	δαιμονίας οὐδεμίαν ἄλλην κρίν[ω],
		ἄνδρες Ἀρεοπαγεῖται· παρ᾿ ὑμῖν ε̣[ὐ]-
		τύχηκα καὶ στῆναι καὶ εἰπεῖν κα[ὶ]
		τῆς ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν ἀπολαῦσαι μαρτυ[ρί]-
	12	ας, ἧς ποτε τυχόντες μέγα ἐφ[ρό]-
		νησαν καὶ θεοί.” ἐξεβόησαν·
			         “ἄξιος.”

Inscription Translation

“[- - -] be left(?).’ [name?], the president, asked: ‘Do you wish that a letter be written to the most excellent Sardians about the most venerable Polybios?’ ‘(Yes), we all do.’ ‘What do you think?’ ‘Let it be decreed.’ After being summoned, Polybios said: ‘I judge no other felicity more splendid than the present one, men of the Areopagos: it has been my fortune to stand before you, to speak, and to enjoy your testimony, which once gave great joy to gods when they received it.’ They shouted: ‘He is worthy.’”

Inscription Comment

Site

Sardis

Sector

Trench

BS 59

Locus

BS Locus BS-W 8 (Area of)

B-Grid Coordinates

W24.25 - W25.25 / S1 *97.75 - 97.00

Findspot

From Sardis, Byzantine Shop W8, reused as a water basin.

Description

Stele of bluish marble; upper part broken off. It is inscribed on both sides by the same hand. A Latin cross on orb had later been carved over the surface (another such cross was carved on the surface of the stele no. 697, which stands to the left of the present one).

Dimensions

H. 0.82, W. 0.55–59, Th. 0.16; H. of letters no. 319: 0.015–0.02; no. 320: 0.02.

Comments

Dots on the stone indicate (introduction to) changes of speakers (here not reproduced). “Similar protocol-style in the decrees of the Areopagos SEG 21, 505 and 506 (IG II² 1064), and in IG II² 1368; cf. also SEG 38, 1172, ed. pr.” (SEG 43).

5 “ὑπομνηματισμός is the technical term for a decree of the Areopagos: cf. inter alia Cic., Fam. 13.1.5; the verb is attested only in SEG 21, 506, l. 56, ed. pr.” (SEG 43).

12–13 “For this topos see S. Follet, BE 1995, 248; Jones, art. cit., 248/249” (SEG 43).

Herrmann and Jones deal with Polybios who erected a portrait of Cicero ca. 150 AD; cf. Sardis VII 1, no. 49, with comm. They discuss the possibility that he is identical with the ἀξιολογώτατος ἀσιάρχης καὶ λογιστὴς τὸ β´ Πολύβιος, TAM V 2, 828C, 9–11.

See Also

Related Artifacts