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Inscribed Slab Fragment (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Slab Fragment: Funerary Inscription for Annion, a weaponsmith and ducenarius
- Date
- 4th–6th century AD., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN64.003
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Funerary Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Λεκτὶξ διαφέρων Ἀνίονος φαβρικ- [η]σ̣ίου καὶ δουκη- 4 [να]ρίου.
- Inscription Translation
- “Tomb belonging to the weaponsmith and ducenarius An(n)ion.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- HoB
- Trench
- MTW
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W6 / S203 *116.50
- Findspot
- House of Bronzes sector, Middle Terrace West.
- Description
Fragment of a slab of marble; broken at left and right.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.175, W. 0.32, Th. 0.07, H. of letters 0.015–0.04.
- Comments
1 (ὁ) λεκτίξ (lapis; λεκτίς Foss [edd.]): see no. 693, 5–6 comm. - διαφέρων: no. 704, 2–3 comm.
2 Ἀνίονος, probably = Ἀννίονος: my reading; for the name “of Semitic origin” see SEG 45, 2106 (the reference Ἀννίων in LGPN IV has to be corrected to Φαννίων, SEG 63, 609). [Π]ανίονος Foss (edd.; [Π]ανίου erroneously J. and L. Robert).
φαβρικήσιος, -σίου = Latin fabricensis, -is. See Foss, ZPE 35 (1979), pp. 279–83, on the fabrica, the imperial factory of shields and weapons, in Late Antiquity. “…it seems possible that ducenarius is here to be taken as the honorary title of a high-ranking member of the equestrian order, so called from his salary of 200,000 denarii” (Foss, ZPE 35 [1979], p. 283); J.-M. Carrié, ZPE 35 (1979), p. 218: “le ducénariat…ne représente cependant plus qu’un rang relativement modeste dans la hiérarchie des fonctions impériales.”
- See Also
- Bibliography
- C. Foss, M4, p. 106, no. 2 (SEG 26, 1314; J. and L. Robert, BE 1977, 453); Foss, ZPE 35 (1979), p. 279; Herrmann, ms.
- Author
- GP