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Painted inscription on side wall of tomb of Flavius Chrysanthios (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Painted Inscription on Side Wall of Tomb of Chrysanthios (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Sketch of painted inscription (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Painted Inscription on side wall of tomb of Flavius Chrysanthios
- Date
- 3rd–5th century AD., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN77.002
- Material
- Plaster
- Object Type
- Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Funerary Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Φλ(άβιος) Χρυσάν- θιος δουκη- νάριος ζωγρά- 4 φος φα̣βρικήσι- ος κατεσκεύα- σεν τὸν λεττεῖκα.
- Inscription Translation
- “Flavius Chrysanthios, ducenarius, painter and weaponsmith, built the tomb.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Nec
- Trench
- Tomb 76.1
- Locus
- Tomb 76.1 Walls
- Findspot
- Tomb 76.1, west wall, near north end.
- Description
Inscription painted within a square wreath on a side wall in the subterranean tomb mentioned in nos. 693 and 695.
- Dimensions
- H. of panel ca. 0.38, W. of panel 0.41, H. of letters 0.04–0.06.
- Comments
6 λεττεῖκα: the inscription; λεκτεῖκα Pleket.
In the commentary on SEG 29, 1206, Pleket refers to evidence from Late Antiquity that “seems to show that the combination of ‘painter’ and ‘director of the fabrica’ is not unpalatable for the social historian”; for fabrica and ducenarius cf. no. 696, 2 comm. According to G. M. A. Hanfmann, AJA 1981, pp. 87–88, the ζωγράφος was a “painter-specialist capable of painting…parade armor” (cf. SEG 31, 1047); when Chrysanthios “painted his mausoleum, he exercised the same skill that he was using in the Imperial factory” (cf. SEG 29, 1206 comm.). According to Blanc, Chrysanthios “was a professional military painter charged with the decoration of the barracks of the Roman army at Sardis” (SEG).
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Mentioned by C. H. Greenewalt, jr., BASOR 233 (1979), pp. 4–8, with drawings. N. Blanc in Peinture Murale Antique, ed. C. Allag (1990), pp. 95–96 (SEG 40, 1072). Edition of the text, transcribed from BASOR 233 by H. W. Pleket: SEG 29, 1206 (1). Sketch by D. G. Mitten in 1977 inscriptions book.
- Author
- GP