Inscribed Stele: Verse Funerary Inscription for Stratonikos, physician of Tiberius Iulius Lepidus
- Date
- 1st century AD? (letter shape)., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- Uninv. M14 No.689
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Stele, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Funerary Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
[ ] ̣ Στρατονείκου, Τιβερίου Ἰουλίου 4 Λεπίδου ἰατροῦ. twig Ἔζησας, Στρατόνεικε, καλῶς ἀπὸ σῆς διανοίας, | γει̣[ν]ώσκων, ὅτι δεῖ πάντα λιπόντα μύσαι. | δισθανέες δ᾿ ἄλλοι 8 μὴ γνόντες τοῦθ᾿, ὃ σὺ προῖκα | ἐρχόμε- νος σεαυτῷ πρὸς φθιμένους ἔλαβες. νοῦσον δ᾿ ὀφθαλμῶν εἰῶ μόνος οὐ φιλοκερδῶς ἐνπείρῳ δὲ λίην ἁπτόμενος παλάμῃ. 12 ζῇς δ᾿ ἔτι τοιοῦτον βιοτῇ σὸν παῖδ᾿ ἀπολείψας εἶσον· πᾶς, ἃ τέχνης, ἔστ᾿ ἄκρος εὐστοχίῃ(?). The poem (ll. 5–13): vs. 1 Ἔζησας, Στρατόνεικε, καλῶς ἀπὸ σῆς διανοίας, γει̣[ν]ώσκων, ὅτι δεῖ πάντα λιπόντα μύσαι. vs. 3 δισθανέες δ᾿ ἄλλοι μὴ γνόντες τοῦθ᾿, ὃ σὺ προῖκα ἐρχόμενος σεαυτῷ πρὸς φθιμένους ἔλαβες. vs. 5 νοῦσον δ᾿ ὀφθαλμῶν εἰῶ μόνος οὐ φιλοκερδῶς ἐνπείρῳ δὲ λίην ἁπτόμενος παλάμῃ. vs. 7 ζῇς δ᾿ ἔτι τοιοῦτον βιοτῇ σὸν παῖδ᾿ ἀπολείψας εἶσον· πᾶς, ἃ τέχνης, ἔστ᾿ ἄκρος εὐστοχίῃ(?).
- Inscription Translation
- “[Tomb] of Stratonikos, physician of Tiberius Iulius Lepidus. - You, Stratonikos, have lived a good life (guided) by your insight and knowing that one has, leaving everything, to shut (one’s eyes). Twice dead are others if they have not realized that what you got as a free gift for yourself when you went to the deceased men. You were unique in healing eye disease without being greedy of gain, by touching (the eyes) with your exceedingly experienced hand. You are still living as you have left behind in his life your son who resembles you. Wholly is he, as far as art is concerned, a top man by his sagacity.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Çaltılı
- Findspot
- Brought to the Manisa Museum in 1999.
- Description
Stele of white marble; the upper part is broken off. The inscription (very ornate letters) is mostly standing in a recess; some lines extend onto the protruding molding.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.56, W. 0.54, Th. 0.08, H. of letters ll. 1–4 0.03; ll. 5–13 0.012.
- Comments
The commentary of the edd. prr. summarized:
1 After the lower part of a vertical stroke, the only trace of a letter, follows vacat. [(τὸ) μνημεῖο]ν̣?, edd. prr.
3–4 Τιβερίου: TI·BEPIOY, with a horizontal stroke above TI. It seems that the mason first wanted to write the name in the abbreviated form Τι(βερίου) but then continued writing it out; for two alternatives both reproduced by the mason, see no. 605, 2 comm.; and G. Petzl, ZPE 202 (2017), pp. 163–64, and ZPE 206 (2018), p. 142.
4 Dot between -ΔΟΥ and ΙΑ.
Tiberius Iulius Lepidus, presumably related to a famous family (see no. 347, 5–7 comm.; D. Campanile, Studi Ellenistici 19 [2006], p. 546), was probably the patronus of his ophthalmologist Stratonikos; cf. TAM II 1, no. 178, Ἐπάγαθος ἰατρὸς ἀκκῆσ[σ]ος τοῦ ἰδίου [πάτρωνος]; likewise no. 184. Malay, Manisa Museum, no. 244, 3–4, mentions Ὀνήσιμος Ἰουλίου Λεπίδου (“Onesimos was possibly a slave of Iulius Lepidus”).
5–13 The poem consists of four elegiac distichs; the ends of the verses are marked in ll. 6–8 by dots (here: “|”). From l. 9 onward they coincide with the lines’ ends.
5–7 As a physician Stratonikos was also a philosopher: an ancient ideal; cf. no. 394, 5–7 comm.
7 μύσαι: see Homer Ω 637: οὐ γάρ πω μύσαν ὄσσε ὑπὸ βλεφάροισιν ἐμοῖσιν.
7–9 δισθανέες: see Homer μ 21–22 (Circe to Odysseus): σχέτλιοι, οἳ ζώοντες ὑπήλθετε δῶμ᾿ Ἀίδαο, δισθάνεες, ὅτε τ᾿ ἄλλοι ἅπαξ θνῄσκουσ᾿ ἄνθρωποι. Cf. Diog. Oinoand. NF 209 (SEG 62, 1476), 3–6: ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν δὶς ἀποθανεῖν, οὕτως οὐδὲ δὶς ζῆσαι (J. Hammerstaedt and M. F. Smith, EpAnat 45 [2012], pp. 19–22).
Further proposals for the difficult phrase: “Zweimal tot dagegen sind andere, wenn sie dies nicht erkannt haben, wofür du eine Mitgift (bzw. was du als Mitgift, sc. in Form des Grabes) für dich erhalten hast, da du zu den Verstorbenen gingst.” People who do not get (like Stratonikos did) a memorial suffer from a twofold death: the physical one and the fading memory. “Those who do not have this knowledge—which you took for free to the underworld, having come to your own aid—die twice” (A. Chaniotis, EBGR 2010, no. 181 and SEG 60)
10 εἰῶ: read ἰῶ.
13 εἶσον: read ἶσον (on the first syllable’s quantity, see LSJ s.v. ἴσος).
ἃ τέχνης: sc. ἐστίν. - πᾶς ἀτεχνής ἐστ᾿ ἄκρος εὐστοχίῃ(?), “Gänzlich (noch) unausgebildet, ist er (i.e., the son) (schon) herausragend in seinem Scharfsinn(?),” Staab and Petzl (cf. J. Y. Strasser and S. Follet, AE: “ignorant (encore) tout de l’art médical, il est (déjà) au sommet pour le diagnostic”); Staab and Petzl (p. 14), mention the alternative taken here in the text.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- G. Staab and G. Petzl, ZPE 174 (2010), pp. 9–14, no. 4, with photograph (AE 2010, 1552; SEG 60, 1304); G. Staab, Gebrochener Glanz: Klassische Tradition und Alltagswelt im Spiegel neuer und alter Grabepigramme des griechischen Ostens (2018), pp. 276–85, no. *04/02/14.
- Author
- GP