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Inscribed Statue Base? Fragment (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Statue Base? Fragment: Honorific Inscription for Emperor Caracalla or Severus Alexander?
- Date
- Reign of Caracalla?, Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- OIN58.023
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Statue Base, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Honorific Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
- - - - - - - - - ]ρος Μ. [Αὐρ. - - - Ε]ὐσεβ. Εὐ[τυχ. - - π]ᾶσιν τῆς π̣[όλεως - 4 - - ]την εὐνο[ια- - - - - ]. Ε̣Ι̣ .[ - -
- Inscription Translation
- “[- - - Caesa]r M(arcus) [Aurelius - - -] Pius Felix [- - - in] every respect of the [city - - -] favor [- - -].”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Findspot
- Discovered in 1958 in the ruins of the excavation house of H. C. Butler.
- Description
Fragment of marble, presumably from a statue base; broken on all sides.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.45, W. ca. 0.33, Th. ca. 0.24, H. of letters 0.025.
- Comments
Herrmann’s text and restorations. Summary of his commentary:
2–3 The elements of the name and title point to Caracalla or Severus Alexander; the shape of the letters is in accordance with that date; reference to Commodus or Elagabalus is not to be ruled out.
3–4 The obvious restoration [τὸν ἐν π]ᾶσιν τῆς π[όλεως…εὐεργέ]την—see nos. 333, 12; 377, 7; 389, 15–16—εὐνο[ίας ἕνεκεν…] is made unlikely by the preceding genitive [Αὐτοκράτορος Καίσα]ρος Μ. [Αὐρ(ηλίου)]. The following two interpretations are also rather improbable:
1) The honoree was named in the accusative and [Αὐτοκράτορος Καίσα]ρος, etc. was part of an indication of relationship with the emperor;
2) If ll. 3–4 went together with the genitive of l. 1, one would obtain the variation: [τοῦ ἐν π]ᾶσιν τῆς π[όλεως εὐεργέτου…διὰ] τὴν εὔνο[ιαν].
Herrmann eventually proposes that the construction may have been something like [ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας Αὐτοκράτορος Καίσα]ρος, etc. (“for the salvation of the Imperator Caesar…,” perhaps Caracalla) and continued with [διὰ] τὴν εὔνο[ιαν].
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Unpublished. Herrmann, ms.
- Author
- GP