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Inscribed Base (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed Base, In Situ (reused in late antique spolia wall) (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Base (reused in late antique Spolia Wall): Honorific Inscription for Publius Cornelius Aquila Laenas Marcellus, by the Settlement of Hekate-worshipers
- Date
- 1st–2nd century AD? (letter shape)., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- S14.081
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Statue Base, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Honorific Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
[Π(όπλιον) Κο]ρ(νήλιον) Ἀκύλαν Λαίνα Μά[ρ]- [κελ]λον τὸν ἀσιάρχην ἡ Ἑκατειτῶν κατοικία.
- Inscription Translation
- “The settlement of the Hekate-worshipers (honored) [Publius Co]rnelius Aquila Laenas Ma[rcel]lus, the asiarch.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- F55
- Trench
- F55 14.1
- Locus
- F55 13.1 Locus 3
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E773.8 / S182.55 *127.45
- Description
- Base of white marble. There is an uninscribed surface above (0.27 m) and below (0.83 m) the inscription.
- Dimensions
- H. 1.20; W. 0.61; H. of letters 0.025.
- Comments
1 Λαίνα must here be an undeclined accusative of the Latin name Laenas, -natis.
1–2 The same honoree in nos. 344 and 345; probably not identical with Π. Κορ. Ἀκύλα, who is attested numismatically as Sardian πρῶτος ἄρχων in 244–49 AD (see Leschhorn, Lexikon), as the writing style of the inscription suggests an earlier date.
3 The name of the settlement points to worshipers of the goddess Hekate; for her cult in Lydia, see L. Robert, Hellenica X, pp. 113–17; P. Herrmann, TAM V 1, 523 (= R. Merkelbach and J. Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten 1, p. 464, no. 04/22/01); SEG 53, 1341, 21 (Northeast Lydia); Malay, Researches, p. 47, no. 36; Malay and Petzl, New Religious Texts, no. 23; SEG 63, 898; H. Sarian, LIMC VI, 1 (1992), pp. 985–1018, with bibliography; and Athanassia Zografou, Chemins d’Hécate: portes, routes, carrefours et autres figures de l’entre-deux (2010 = Kernos Supplément 24).
For a katoikia using a deity’s name one may compare ἡ Διοσκωμ[ητ]ῶν κατοικία (IGRR IV 635, 5, Sebaste, Phrygia); [κά]τοικοι on the land of Apollon Tarsenos(?), Welles, RC, no. 47; [ἡ Λαρει]σηνῶν ἱερὰ κατοικία (IGSK 17, 1 [Ephesos], no. 3274, 8) belonged to sacred land of the Ephesian Artemis; and οἱ κάτοικοι ἐν Δαφνοῦντι had a sanctuary of Ἀπόλλων Δαφνούσιος (SEG 43, 879–84, Apollonia on the Rhyndakos).
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Unpublished.
- Author
- GP