Reused Hellenistic column drum from the Temple of Artemis, cut into a voussoir belonging to the monumental arch at the intersection of the colonnaded Marble Road and the East Road, and inscribed. It served as keystone of the east face of the main arch. L. 1 of the inscription stands on the top fascia which slants out.

Cf. the similar text no. 445.

2 Perhaps [θεὸν(?) Προ]φ̣ύλακα Ἡρακλέα: cf. F. Berti in L’indagine e la rima: scritti per Lorenzo Braccesi, ed. F. Raviola et al., Hesperìa 30 (2013), pp. 209–20, dealing with a dedication from Iasos, “Ἡρακλεῖ Προφύλακι θεῷ ἐπηκόῳ” (Julio-Claudian period), which was found in the western stoa of the agora, “al centro del principale accesso alla città” (p. 214). The dedication consisted of coating or painting and decorating his temple and of erecting an altar. IGSK 28, 1 (Iasos), no. 108 is a dedication by the athlete Titus Flavius Metrobios to Ἡρακλῆς Προφύλαξ. W. R. Paton, CR 3 (1889), p. 333, concluded from the epitheton that the deity’s cult took place “outside the walls, or at the gate”; a relief showing Herakles was found near the “Porta Est” of Iasos (Berti, pp. 209–10). The monumental Sardian gate, upon which the statues of Herakles and Dionysos (no. 445) were erected, would have been an appropriate place for the tutelary god Ἡρακλῆς Προφύλαξ. Cf. a boundary stone in Amorgos of the sanctuary Ἀπόλλωνος / Προφύλακος (IG XII 7, 419), and the inscription on a base in Andros [ ] προφύλακι, where Th. Sauciuc restored [ἥρωι] Προφύλακι; F. Hiller v. Gaertringen [Ἀπόλλωνι] Προφύλακι; A. Chaniotis [- -] προφυλακὴ̣[ν τῆς πόλεως?] (IG XII 5 Suppl. 269 and SEG 60, 904, p. 259).

Here, another possible restoration is [θεὸν(?) ῾Οπλο]φ̣ύλακα Ἡρακλέα, see IGSK 24, 1 (Smyrna), nos. 770 and 771: two dedications from the mid-second century, each made by a στρατηγὸς ἐπὶ τῶν ὅπλων; no. 770 of a statue of θεὸς Ἡρακλῆς Ὁπλοφύλαξ, and no. 771 of a statue dedicated to Ἡρακλῆς Ὁπλοφύλαξ; cf. C. P. Jones, AJN 2 (1990), pp. 65–76 (SEG 40, 1027). For the function of a “keeper of the weapons” (ὁπλοφύλαξ and armorum custos), cf. IGRR IV 733 (cf. SEG 45, 1744) and 736 (Eumeneia, Phrygia). The restoration of Sardis VII 1, no. 140, 3–5 cu[ram]/custod(iae) [armo]/rum should be emended to cu[ram]/custod[ia]rum; M. Speidel, Roman Army Studies I (1984), 288 (AE 1984, 838).

Dots: ·ΗΡΑΚΛΕΑ· The first “A” in the name is the only one in that inscription with a broken cross-bar; elsewhere it is straight.

2–3 Α̣[ὐρ. Μ- - -]ς (the last visible letter of l. 2 could also have been a Λ): An Aur(elius) M[- - -] is on record in no. 445, 2 as supervisor of the [building (i.e., the gate)]; there, the erection of a statue of Dionysos, paid by him, is mentioned. It seems a probable assumption that he also spent the money for the Herakles statue mentioned here.

3 Dot: -]Σ·Ο - ὁ ἐπιστάτης το[ῦ ἔργου]? The “building” (ἔργον) would probably be the monumental gate.

4 ἑαυτο[ῦ]: The mason had first written EAT, corrected the T to Y and then continued with TO[Y]. For the frequent writing ἑατ- instead of ἑαυτ- (e.g., no. 641, 3), see J. Wackernagel, Kl. Schr. I, pp. 683–87; K. Dieterich, Unters. Gesch. griech. Sprache, pp. 78–79; Gignac, Grammar I, pp. 187–88; L. Threatte, Grammar Attic Inscr. I, pp. 383–84, § 24.01; and C. P. Jones, ZPE 200 (2016), pp. 131–32.

5 [ἀνέ]στησεν: or [ἀποκατέ]στησεν.

Date: (see the Aur[elius] mentioned in the similar text no. 445, 2).