The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis

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

Inscribed Block Fragment: Bilingual (Latin and Greek) Honorific Inscription for Lucius Munatius Plancus, by the Italici

Monograph 14: Sardis: Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Part II: Finds from 1958 to 2017 (2019) Cat. 327

Date

After 88 BC, perhaps in the 70s., Hellenistic

Sardis or Museum Inv. No.

NoEx86.018

Material

Marble, Stone

Object Type

Inscription

Inscription Type

Honorific Inscription

Inscription language

Greek, Latin, Bilingual Greek and Latin

Inscription Text

		Italic[ei, quei Sardibus]
		   nego[tiantur],
		L. Mun[atio C. f. Planco].
	4	Ἰταλικο[ὶ οἱ ἐν ταῖς ? Σάρδεσιν]
		πραγμα[τευόμενοι ἀνέθηκαν ?]
		Λευκίω[ι Μονατίωι Γαΐου Πλάγκωι].

Inscription Translation

“The Italici, who are working as tradesmen in Sardis, [erected (the statue)] to Lucius Munatius [Plancus, son of Gaius].”

Inscription Comment

Site

Sardis

B-Grid Coordinates

ca. E570 / S70

Findspot

From same plowed field where no. 380 was found near the unexcavated vaulted substructures tentatively identified as the Roman agora.

Description

Upper left corner of a block of white marble; broken on the right and lower sides.

Dimensions

H. 0.47, W. 0.30, Th. 0.16, H. of letters ll. 1–3: 0.044–0.05, ll. 4–6: 0.028–0.03.

Comments

The Latin text is identical in both of Herrmann’s editions. The Greek text given above corresponds to his second edition; in Arkeoloji Dergisi 4, p. 184 ( = Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, p. 177 [SEG 46; AE 1996]) he had it in a shorter version: Ἰταλικο[ὶ οἱ ἐν Σάρδεσιν] / πραγμα[τευόμενοι] / Λευκίω[ι Μονατίωι Πλάγκωι]. In this earlier edition he considered the date to be the time shortly before the dramatic events of the Ephesian Vesper (88 BC); he adduced IGSK 16 (Ephesos), no. 2058, an inscription erected by the Italicei, quei Ephesi negotiantur.

A certain L. Munatius C. f. Plancus is honored in Delos by the Italicei et Graecei quei Deli negotiantur (Inscr. de Délos 1695–1696); Herrmann thinks that he was a private Roman citizen and has restored the present honoree’s name after him, underlining that the identification is hypothetical.

4–6 It seems to me that Ἰταλικο[ί, οἳ ἐν ταῖς? Σάρδεσιν] πραγμα[τεύονται, ἀνέθηκαν?], Λευκ., etc., would imitate the (restored) syntax of the Latin version more closely.

See Also

Bibliography

P. Herrmann, after BASOR Suppl. 26 (1990), pp. 165–66: Arkeoloji Dergisi 4 (1996), pp. 184–87, pl. XXXVIII, 2 = Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 177–80, fig. 2 (SEG 46, 1521; AE 1996, 1453); Herrmann, “Italiker und Römer in Sardeis” (in Res Publica Reperta…Festschr. J. Bleicken…, ed. J. Spielvogel [2002], pp. 36–44 = Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 221–29), pp. 37–41, no. I = Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 222–27, no. 1 (SEG 52, 1174; AE 2002, 1400).

Author

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