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Inscribed Architectural Fragments, Detail (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Inscribed Architectural Fragments (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Architectural Fragments: Building Inscription for Portico (from Hypaipa portico to tetrapylon; built without city funds)
- Date
- 4th–6th century AD., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN68.019
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Architecture, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Building Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
(a) † Ἐκτίσθη ὁ ἔν̣βολος ἀπὸ τοῦ scroll Ὑπεπηνοῦ ἐνβόλου ἄχρι τοῦ τετραπύλου, ἐκκοπίσης τῆς 4 πίλης καὶ παντὸς τοῦ τόπου † (b) ἐκχωσθέντος χωρὶς πόρων πολιτικῶν. †
- Inscription Translation
- “The portico was built from the Hypaipa portico as far as the tetrapylon; the gate was demolished and the whole place cleared - without (using) funds of the city.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- HoB
- Trench
- Bldg R
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E57.5 / S104.5 *101.00
- Findspot
- House of Bronzes sector, Building R.
- Description
(a) Architectural piece of white marble with a molding on the far right side; the rear is broken away. (b) Architectural piece of white marble; on the left front are the remains of a curved cornice, while the inscribed surface is smoothed; the sides, as cut for reuse, are mostly preserved. There are clamp holes in both fragments. Ll. 1–4 stand on bands that are marked by lines above and below the letters (ll. 5–6 lack such bands).
- Dimensions
- (a) H. 0.21, W. 0.88, Th. ca. 0.52, H. of letters 0.022; (b) H. 0.35, W. 1.04, Th. ca. 0.80, H. of letters 0.026.
- Comments
1–2 ὁ ἔνβολος: see no. 426, 1.
J. and L. Robert: “importante inscription pour la topographie et des travaux futurs éventuels: construction d’une avenue à colonnades allant de l’avenue de Hypaipa (donc au Sud) jusqu’au tétrapyle…, avec travaux de démolition d’une porte et remblaiement de tout le lieu…, sans les fonds de la ville.” Cf. M. Rautman, “Sardis in Late Antiquity,” in Archaeology and the Cities of Asia Minor in Late Antiquity, ed. O. Dally and Ch. Ratté (2011), p. 13: “…an embolos that ran from an unidentified tetrapylon to the embolos of Hypaepa, presumably meaning the colonnaded street that led in the direction of the Southwest Gate.”
For examples for private munificence of the sixth–seventh centuries by which buildings were erected without using the city’s money, see J.-B. Yon and P.-L. Gatier, eds., Choix d’inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (2009), nos. 18–19.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- C. Foss, M4, p. 115, nos. 18 (a) and 19 (b) (J. and L. Robert, BE 1977, 453 [as one text]; SEG 26, 1318–1319).
- Author
- GP