Inscribed Roof-Shaped Cinerarium Lid: Funerary Inscription for Apollonios Skordeis, son of Artemidoros

Date
First half of the 1st century AD (Herrmann)., Roman
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 440
Museum Inventory No.
440
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
Manisa 440
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Cinerarium Lid, Inscription
Inscription Type
Funerary Inscription
Inscription language
Greek
Inscription Text
		Ἐπὶ στεφανηφόρου Μηνογένου τοῦ Δημη-
		τρίου νομοθέτου, μηνὸς Ξανδικοῦ η´·
		Ἀπολλώνιος Ἀρτεμιδώρου Σκορδεις
	4	ἐτῶν νδ´.
Inscription Translation
“In the year when the stephanephoros Menogenes, son of the nomothetes Demetrios, held office, on the eighth day of the month Xandikos, (died) Apollonios Skordeis, son of Artemidoros, aged fifty-four years.”
Inscription Comment
Site
Sardis
Description

Roof-shaped cinerarium lid of marble.

Dimensions
H. 0.08, W. 0.46, Th. 0.37, H. of letters 0.01–0.015.
Comments

1–2 Herrmann has pointed out that Menogenes (there in the form Tiberius Iulius Menogenes; he had received the Roman citizenship under Tiberius) and his father Demetrios (there it is clear that the qualification νομοθέτης belongs to him) occur in I.Didyma, no. 148, 6–8. Herrmann deals with other testimonies for members of the prominent Sardian family to which they belonged (inter alia the legend of a coin Δημήτριος Μηνογέν[ους], see F. Imhoof-Blumer, SNR 14 [1908], p. 18 = id., Zur griech. u. röm. Münzkunde, 2. Abt., p. 130, ‘Sardeis,’ no. 2), and assumes that in Didyma, Ti. Iulius Menogenes may have officiated in a provinicial function. He also deals with the still-unclear function of nomothetai of the Imperial period.

The inscription shows that it was not always the priest of Roma who was used as a reference point for dating after the foundation of the province of Asia (Herrmann).

3 Σκορδεις: Herrmann (p. 58 n. 16 [= Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 624–25]) gives references for the group of personal names belonging to the word σκόρ(ο)δον, “garlic.”

See Also
Bibliography
Malay, Manisa Museum, p. 129, no. 438, pl. 61, fig. 166 (P. Herrmann, EpAnat 27 [1996], pp. 57–61 = Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, pp. 623–28 [AE 1996, 1451]).
Author
GP