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Inscribed Plaque(?) (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Plaque(?) Fragment: Claudian Honorific Inscription for Female Member of Imperial Family
- Date
- 41–54 AD?, Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN61.081
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Honorific Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
- - - - - - [ ]Τ̣Η̣Ν [ θυγατ]έρα ornament
- Inscription Translation
- “[- - - (?) daugh]ter.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- B
- Trench
- BE 61
- Locus
- B Marble Court
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E25 / N60 *97.80
- Findspot
- Bath-Gymnasium Complex, Marble Court.
- Description
- Fragment of the lower right portion of a plaque(?) of white marble; the top and left side broken. The inscription follows guidelines; in l. 1 only the lower parts of the letters are preserved.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.18, W. 0.23, Th. 0.07, H. of letters 0.038.
- Comments
Herrmann’s text and restoration. Summary of his commentary:
The fragment may have belonged to the ensemble of statues of the imperial family probably erected under Claudius (see no. 333 comm.). Because his daughter Antonia was probably honored by Sardis VII 1, no. 37 (no. 336 comm.), the honoree may have been Octavia, who is also honored in a statue group in Ilion representing members of Claudius’s family (IGSK 3, no. 91: [Ὀκτ]α̣ουίαν τὴν θυ[γατ]έρα τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ, with SEG 42, 1095); on the Arch of Claudius in Rome (CIL VI 921; Dessau, ILS 222; cf. CIL VI 8, 2: [O]ctaviai [Ti.] Claudii Caisaris Augusti p. p. filiai, with the “Claudian V” in Octavia’s name) and in the Julio-Claudian group of statues in Rusellae (V. Saladino, ZPE 39 [1980], pp. 222–23, nos. 15–16 [AE 1980, 451]: [O]cta[viae A]ugust[ti f(iliae)]).
The supplement [μητ]έρα would lead to the restoration of the name of Claudius’s mother, Antonia Minor, which is considered also for no. 336.
All this remains highly speculative. If the fragment in fact belonged to a plaque and not to a base, there would be little probability that it belonged to a group of statues. The letters resemble those of the other Claudian inscriptions but are smaller.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Unpublished. Herrmann, ms.
- Author
- GP