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Inscribed Cylindrical Statue Base (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Cylindrical Statue Base (reused in MMS/N, south colonnade): Honorific Inscription for Deified Tiberius
- Date
- 41–54 AD., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN79.008
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Statue Base, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Honorific Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Τιβέριον Καί- σαρα Θεὸν Σε- βαστόν, τὸν 4 αὐτοκράτορα, τὸν Τιβερίου Κλαυδίου Γερ- μανικοῦ Καίσα- 8 ρος Σεβαστοῦ, τοῦ αὐτοκράτο- ρος θεῖον καὶ τῆς πόλεως κτίστης (sic) 12 καὶ εὐεργέτην τοῦ κόσμου, ornament εὐσεβεί- ας καὶ εὐχαριστίας ἕνεκεν leaf ὁ δῆμος 16 καθιέρωσεν· ἐργεπιστατήσαντος Τιβ̣[ερίου Κλαυδίου] [Δημητρίου υἱοῦ] 20 [Κυρείνα Ἀπολλοφάνους].
- Inscription Translation
- “The People dedicated (the statue of) Tiberius Caesar divus Augustus, the emperor, the uncle of the emperor Tiberius Claudius Germanicus Caesar Augustus, and the founder of the City and the benefactor of the world, because of piety and gratitude; Tib[erius Claudius Apollophanes, son of Demetrios, from the tribus Quirina,] superintended the work.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- MMS/N
- Trench
- MMS/N 79.1
- Locus
- MMS/N 89.1 Locus 10
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E135 - E137 / S30 - S31.5 top *99.77
- Findspot
- MMS/N, south colonnade collapse.
- Description
Cylindrical statue base of white marble; bottom cut off (for reuse?). On the top are a recess (0.13 × 0.05) and two clamp holes.
- Dimensions
- H. 1.61, Diam. 0.61, H. of letters 0.065–0.075.
- Comments
The monument is mentioned by F. Yegül in SPRT, p. 160 and Greenewalt et al., BASOR 249 (1983), p. 13, figs. 14 (findspot) and 15 (inscription).
“…hence the Main Avenue was begun under Tiberius and finished under Claudius. L. Robert (by letter, October 1979) conjectures that this statue was a counterpart to a statue of Claudius erected shortly after Claudius’ accession, in A.D. 41” (SPRT, p. 275 n. 28). Herrmann wonders whether Sardis VII 1, no. 39 was this counterpart. He reckons with a larger ensemble, a group of inscribed honorary monuments for Claudius’s relatives; see also nos. 334, 335, and 336.
2 Θεόν: Sardis VII 1, no. 47 (reign of Trajan), 5–6 and no. 373, 12–13 mention a ἱερεὺς Τιβερίου Καίσαρος; see also no. 384, 9–10 comm. It is unknown since when Tiberius was worshiped with a cult in Sardis (cf. G. Lafaye on IGRR IV 1523).
11 κτίστης: instead of κτίστην. For Tiberius’s financial support after the earthquake of 17 AD that qualified him as “founder,” see nos. 329 and 414.
17–20 Restored after Sardis VII 1, nos. 10 (completion of an aqueduct by Claudius) and 11 (honorary monument for Agrippina Minor; SEG 45, 1646), where the same person appears as ergepistates under Claudius.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- C. Foss in R3, p. 169, no. 1, fig. 32 (SEG 36, 1092). P. Herrmann, “Sardeis zur Zeit der iulisch-claudischen Kaiser” (in Forschungen in Lydien, ed. E. Schwertheim [1995 = AMS 17], pp. 21–36 = Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 147–68), pp. 32–33, pl. 4, 1–2 = Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 160–61, 168, fig. 7.
- Author
- GP