• m14-339-10
    General view of inscription built into Spolia Wall. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m14-339-20
    Inscribed Block, upper text above vacat. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m14-339-30
    Inscribed block, lower text below vacat. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • m14-339-40
    Inscribed block, central vacat and part of lower text. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Inscribed Block (reused in late antique Spolia Wall): Honorific Inscription for Statue of Gaius Iulius Quadratus Machairion, by members of “the Great Shoemaker” Plateia

Date
1st century AD? (letter shape), Roman
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
IN05.017
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Statue Base, Inscription
Inscription Type
Honorific Inscription
Inscription language
Greek
Inscription Text
		Ἡ βουλ̣[ὴ] καὶ ὁ δῆμος  leaf
		ἐτείμησεν τὸν ἑαυτῶν
		σωτῆρα καὶ κτίστην Γ. v Ἰού(λιον)
	4	Κουαδρᾶτον Μαχαιρίωνα̣·

			vacat ca. 0.51 m

	5	ἀναστησάντων τὸν ἀνδριάν-
		τα τῆς μεγάλης πλατείας σκυ-
		τικῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ.
Inscription Translation
“The Council and the People have honored Gaius Iulius Quadratus Machairion, their savior and founder. (The members of) ‘the Great Shoemaker plateia from the (statue? of) Okeanos’ erected his statue.”
Inscription Comment
Site
Sardis
Sector
F55
Trench
F55 05.3
Locus
F55 13.1 Locus 3
B-Grid Coordinates
E771.50 / S184.20 *129.26
Findspot
Field 55, east side of Wadi B Temple terrace, built into late antique Spolia Wall.
Description

Block of marble, built into a wall. Letters with small apices, slightly deeper and smaller in ll. 5–7, the traces above which may point to a rasura of two lines.

Dimensions
Visible H. 1.20, W. 0.62, Th. 0.52, H. of letters 0.025–0.03.
Comments

The same person is honored in nos. 340 and 341. In the inscription TAM V 1, 544, which is dated by P. Herrmann to the early first century AD, the [κατοικ]οῦντες of the city of Maionia (in the neighborhood of Sardis) honor (ll. 4–8) Γάιον Ἰούλι/[ον Μαχαιρί]ωνος υἱὸν /(6) [ ca. 7 letters ] Μαχαιρίω/[να τὸν ἀ]ρχιερῆ καὶ /(8) [στεφανη]-φόρον. P. Herrmann and K. Z. Polatkan, Sitz.-ber. Österr. Akad. Wiss. 265 (1969), pp. 36–37 assume that in the lacuna of l. 6 the tribus of the honoree was given. There is certainly not enough space for the restoration of [Κουαδρᾶτον], and the present σωτὴρ καὶ κτίστης cannot be identical with the [ἀ]ρχιερεὺς καὶ [στεφανη]φόρος. But both persons must have been members of the same family. P. Thonemann, Philia 3 (2017), p. 46 n. 14, on the latter: “…one of the earliest individuals known to us from north-east Lydia to have gained Roman citizenship,” referring to other C. Iulii in the middle Hermos region at this period.

1–2 Ἡ βουλ̣[ὴ] καὶ ὁ δῆμος ἐτείμησεν: instead of -σαν, a frequent phenomenon, see no. 373, 10 and no. 380, 2.

3 KTI-: the T is written over a deleted A.

4 For the name Μαχαιρίων, see O. Masson, ZPE 11 (1973), p. 2 (= id., OGS 1, p. 164), referring (n. 11) to Latin Machaerio (Plaut., Aul. 2, 9, 1). - End of the line: N followed by a small A.

5–6 ἀναστησάντων τὸν ἀνδριάντα τῆς μεγάλης πλατείας: constructio ad sensum (cf. no. 344, 26–28 comm.).

6–7 πλατείας σκυτικῆς: “La πλατεῖα est une avenue, et le mot revient assez souvent dans les inscriptions de l’époque impériale, alors que presque toutes les villes s’ornaient de larges avenues rectilignes bordées de colonnades” (L. Robert, Et. anat., pp. 532–38, with testimonies; id., Op. Min. I, p. 424; id., Asie Min., p. 128); cf. ἡ πλατεῖα τῶν σκυτέων, in Saittai: TAM V 1, 79–81; 146; in Phrygian Apameia οἱ ἐν τῇ σκυτικῇ πλατείᾳ τεχνῖται (IGRR IV 790, 15–16).

See Also
Bibliography
Unpublished.
Author
GP