Inscribed Cinerarium Lid Fragment: Funerary Inscription for Herostratos, son of Herostratos

Date
Between 129 and 27 BC., Hellenistic
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 521
Museum Inventory No.
521
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
Manisa 521
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Cinerarium Lid, Inscription
Inscription Type
Funerary Inscription
Inscription language
Greek
Inscription Text
		Ἐπὶ ἱερέως τῆς [Ῥώμης    -  - ]
		τοῦ Μενεκράτου [	          ]
		μηνὸς ἐνβολίμο[υ	          ]
	4	Ἡρόστρατος Ἡροστ̣[ράτου      ].
Inscription Translation
“In the year when the priest of [Roma - - -], son of Menekrates, held office, [on the xth day] of the intercalated month [- - -], (died) Herostratos, son of Herost[ratos - -].”
Inscription Comment
Findspot
Probably from Sardis.
Description

Left part of a lid of a cinerarium of marble.

Dimensions
H. 0.095, W. 0.20, Th. 0.23, H. of letters 0.013.
Comments

1–2 Sardis VII 1, no. 118 (Malay, Researches, no. 241, pl. 178, fig. 245) is dated [ἐ]πὶ ἱερέω[ς] Μητροδώρου τοῦ Μενεκράτου; he may also have been the eponymous priest of the present inscription (Malay). Herrmann points to Metrodoros on the coin SNG Copenhagen V, Lydia 496 from the second–first century BC being possibly identical with this Metrodoros. Buckler and Robinson (Sardis VII 1) consider the possibility that his father Menekrates could be identical with Μενεκράτης Διοδώρου of OGI 437, 93 (see here Index Pers. Names s.v.); “if so, the year of office of his son Metrodoros might have been 75 B.C.”

2 At the end of the line stood perhaps another element of the name or an iteration, e.g., τὸ δεύτερον (Herrmann).

3 Either the month Xandikos or Hyperberetaios was intercalated before the calendar reform of 9 BC; see E. Gibson, ZPE 42 (1981), p. 216; and P. Thonemann, ZPE 196 (2015), p. 137.

See Also
Bibliography
Malay, Manisa Museum, p. 131, no. 449, pl. 62, fig. 167 (Herrmann, ms.).
Author
GP