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Inscribed First Story Architrave of Marble Court (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed First Story Architrave of Marble Court (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed First Story Architrave, Aedicula 8, after treatment 2004 (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed First Story Architrave, Aedicula 8, after treatment 2004, from left (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed First Story Architrave, Aedicula 8, after treatment 2004, close up (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed First Story Architrave, Aedicula 8, after treatment 2004, from right, close up (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Close up: conserved inscription (aedicula 8) from right side (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed First Story Architrave of Marble Court: Building Inscription Dedicated to "the gods of our fathers," Caracalla, Geta, Julia Domna, the Imperial Family, the Senate, and people of Rome
- Date
- 211–212 AD., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN59.065
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Architecture, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Building Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Line 1: [Θεο]ῖς πατρίοις καὶ Αὐ[τοκ]ράτορι Καίσα|(2)ρι Μ. Αὐρ. Ἀντωνίνῳ Εὐσεβε[ῖ Σεβαστῷ καὶ] | Αὐτοκράτορι Καίσαρι Πο. Σε⟦[πτιμίῳ Γέτᾳ]⟧ |(4) Σεβαστῷ καὶ Ἰουλίᾳ Σεβαστῇ, μητρὶ κ[άστρων καὶ τῶν | αὐτο]κρατόρων καὶ παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ τῶν Σεβαστῶν καὶ ἱε|(6)[ρ]ᾷ συγκλήτῳ καὶ δήμῳ Ῥωμαίων ἡ μητρόπολις τῆς | Ἀσίας καὶ δὶς νεωκόρος τῶν Σεβαστῶν κατὰ τὰ δό|(8)γματα τῆς ἱερᾶς συγκλήτου, v φίλη καὶ σύμμαχος | Line 2: [Ῥωμαίων] καὶ οἰκεία τῶν κυρίων ἡμῶν αὐτοκ[ρατόρ]ων Σαρδιανῶν πό|(10)[λ]ις τὸ ἀλειπτήριον ἐκ θεμελίων σὺν παντὶ τῷ [ . . . . . κόσμῳ] | κατεσκεύασεν ἐπὶ ἀνθυπάτου Τ⟦ . . . . . . . . . . . . ⟧, ἐπιτροπεύοντος τῆς Ἀσ[ία]ς Δι|(12)ονυσίου τ[οῦ κρατί]στου, λογιστεύ[ο]ντος τῆς πόλεως [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . | . . . . το]ῦ κρατ[ίσ]του ἀνθυπάτου Ἑλλάδος. vac. |(14) Ἐχρυσώθη δὲ τὸ ἔργον ὑπό τε τῆς πόλεως καὶ Ἀντωνί|ας Σαβείνης ὑπατικῆς καὶ Φλαβίας Πωλλίττης ὑ[πατικῆς, |(16) λο]γιστεύοντος Ἰ. Ἀντ. Κοδράτου Ἀττάλου τοῦ κρατίστου. leaf
- Inscription Translation
- “To the gods of our fathers and to Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Augustus and to Imperator Caesar Publius Se⟦ptimius Geta⟧ Augustus and to Iulia Augusta, Mother of the Camp and of the imperatores, and to the entire house of the Augusti and to the sacred Senate and to the People of the Romans the city of the Sardians, the metropolis of Asia and keeper of two Koinon temples of the Augusti by virtue of the decrees of the sacred Senate, friend and ally of the Romans and relative of our lords the imperatores, has built the aleipterion from the foundations, with the entire [ - - - decoration] under the proconsul T⟦ - - - ⟧, while the vir egregius Dionysios was procurator of Asia and the vir egregius [ - - - ], proconsul of Hellas, was curator of the city. The building was gilt by the city and by the woman of consular rank Antonia Sabina and by the woman of consular rank Flavia Politta while the vir egregius Iulius Antonius Quadratus Attalus was curator.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- B
- Trench
- BE-H 59
- Locus
- B Marble Court
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E17 / N57 *99.50 - 99.00
- Findspot
- Bath-Gymnasium Complex, Marble Court, first story architrave.
- Description
First story architrave of marble from the Marble Court; broken into twenty-five fragments. The text runs through on the architrave in two lines. The division signs (|) indicate individual fragments and correspond to the lines in SEG.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.58, H. of letters, l. 1 avg. 0.095; l. 2 0.073.
- Comments
Dots between words: l. 5 -ΡΩΝ·ΚΑΙ; l. 6 -ΤΩ·ΚΑΙ and -ΩΝ·Η; l. 10 [Λ]ΙΣ·ΤΟ
9 οἰκεία: see no. 395, 5–6 comm.
10 “Aleipterion: the entire establishment rather than a specific ‘oiling room,’ ed. pr.” (SEG 36; in the same sense Nollé, p. 128 n. 4: “die gesamte Anlage”); see Herrmann’s discussion in Chiron 23, pp. 234–35 n. 5 (SEG 43, 867: “…does not necessarily indicate the entire establishment”); A. V. Pont, “Τὸ ἀλειπτήριον dans les inscriptions d’époque impériale,” (REA 110 [2008], pp. 151–74; summarized in SEG 58, 1972), pp. 164–69, identifies the Marble Court with the ἀλειπτήριον mentioned here. - σὺν παντὶ τῷ [ . . . . . κόσμῳ]: Nollé, who considers (p. 128 n. 5) as the most probable restorations σὺν παντὶ τῷ [ἰδίῳ κόσμῳ] (see IGSK 16 [Ephesos], no. 2113, 18) or σὺν παντὶ τῷ [περὶ αὐτὸ κόσμῳ] (see IGSK 14 [Ephesos], no. 1266, 4–5; IGSK 12 [Ephesos], no. 518 [2], 4–5) and refers for extended variations, e.g., to I.Ancyra I, no. 294 and MAMA VI 79; as a less probable restoration he mentions σὺν παντὶ τῷ [λευκολίθῳ κόσμῳ] (see IGSK 12 [Ephesos], no. 437, 4); [λιθίνῳ κόσμῳ] the preceding edd.
11 Τ⟦ - - - ⟧: Gavius Tranquillus (Γα. Τρανκύλλου)?, or T. Sextius Lateranus, consul ordinarius in 197 AD?; W. Eck (SEG 36).
11–12 For the identification of Dionysios, the procurator of Asia, see W. Eck, ZPE 124 (1999), pp. 235–36 (SEG 49, 1677).
12–13 and 16 “Eck suggests that the curator, mentioned in ll. 12–13, might possibly have been the same as the curator in l. 16” (SEG 36); Herrmann, Chiron 23, p. 248 proposes [Ἀσιννίου Κοδρά|του] or [Ἀσ. Προτίμου Κοδρά|του]. He discusses (pp. 236–48) the meaning of the title ἀνθύπατος Ἑλλάδος; see SEG 43, 867, with reference to H. Brandt, ZPE 104 (1994), pp. 78–80.
14 ὑπό τε τῆς: the stone; ὑπὸ τῆς edd.
14–15 Ἀντωνίας Σαβείνης ὑπατικῆς: see no. 687, 4–5 comm.
15 Herrmann (SEG 36 and Chiron 23, p. 235) refers to TAM V 2, 1213 for Flavia Politta; see here no. 322, 9 comm.
Ed. pr. “suggests that this text records a major renovation involving the Marble Court and possibly some other areas of the complex” (SEG 36).
- See Also
- Bibliography
- C. Foss in R3, p. 170, no. 3, figs. 116–19. From a squeeze: P. Herrmann, SEG 36, 1094 and Chiron 23 (1993), pp. 233–34 (AE 1993, 1505; cf. C. Brixhe, BE 2006, 349; J. Nollé, Gephyra 7 [2010], pp. 127–34); W. Eck, “Korrekturen und Präzisierung zu Daten von Konsuln vom 1.-3. Jahrhundert - Teil II,” ZPE 224 (2022) 280-290.
- Author
- GP