Rectangular stele of white marble, cut on the right and lower sides in order to serve as a lid for a late tomb.

3–4 ψήφισμ[α ]/μενον: ψήφισμ[α γενό]/μενον, Herrmann; ψήφισμ[α κεκυρω]/μένον, Ph. Gauthier, BE 1997, 516 (“si l’association des négociants du statarion s’est chargée de l’exécution des honneurs, c’est qu’elle en a eu l’initiative et que le peuple, en assemblée plénière, a ensuite ratifié la proposition”).

4–5 ἐν ἐκ̣[κλησίᾳ] πανδήμῳ: “It is unclear whether this term…refers to a specific characteristic of the ekklesia (e.g., a quorum required…),” SEG after Herrmann. See A. Chaniotis, “Political Culture in the Cities of the Northern Black Sea Region in the ‘Long Hellenistic Age.’ The Epigraphic Evidence,” in The Northern Black Sea in Antiquity: Networks, Connectivity, and Cultural Interactions, ed. V. Kozlovskaya (2017), pp. 141–66, at p. 155, in favor of interpreting ekklesia pandemos as an assembly in which the participation of all citizens was allowed, to be distinguished from an assembly that was only attended by some.

5–7 Τ̣[ . . . . . . ] (probably Τ[ιβέριον]; see no. 689, 3–4; Herrmann considers also, e.g., Τ[ίτον]?) Ἰούλιον Λέπι[δον . . . ]γενιανόν ([Διο-, Θεο-, Ἰσι-, Νεο]γενιανόν, Herrmann): probably identical with the ἀρχιερεύς honored in Sardis VII 1, no. 46 (SEG 46, 1523). One may wonder whether he is also identical with the Tiberius Iulius Lepidus of no. 689, where neither the cognomen -genianus nor the title of a high-priest occur. Herrmann discusses the relationship of the Sardian Lepidus and M. Antonius Attalus Lepidus, M. Antonius Lepidus and C. Iulius Lepidus from Thyateira (stemma: TAM V 2, p. 343); for the provincial high-priest Cl(audius) Anto(nius) Lepidus, see no. 378, 3–4.

7–9 The honorand was high-priest of the imperial cult of Sardis and of the province of Asia; see, after Herrmann, D. Campanile, Studi Ellenistici 19 (2006), p. 546.

9 φιλόκαισαρ: see Herrmann, p. 179, with n. 20, and Petzl, EpAnat 30 (1998), p. 26, with n. 35.

10 πρῶτος τῆς πόλεως: see Sardis VII 1, no. 22, 5; TAM V 3, 1835, 2–3.

11 φιλοδοξία: “…mot grec, que son évolution propre, dans la vie de la cité grecque à l’époque hellénistique et impériale, avait amené à un sens…de ‘libéralité coûteuse d’un magistrat ou d’un citoyen envers sa patrie’” (L. Robert, Gladiateurs, p. 279); see also J.-L. Ferrary, Philhellénisme et impérialisme (1988), p. 116, with n. 235; and Herrmann, p. 180, with n. 23.

15 ἡ τιμή: perhaps “the statue”; the present stele may have formed part of a larger monument.

15–17 οἱ ἐν τῷ σταταρίῳ (for στατάριον, statarium, “slave-market,” see TAM V 2, 932 = OGI 524) πραγματευόμενοι: “the character of this and similar corporations (local or regional; ad hoc or permanent; proportion of Romans or Italici) is unclear; the corporation perhaps continues (some of) the activities of the Ἰταλικοὶ οἱ ἐν Σάρδεσιν πραγματευόμενοι on record in the inscription [no. 327].” “The Sardian statarium cannot be localized; four markets (μάκελλοι) are on record in [no. 401]” (SEG, summary of Herrmann’s commentary). Cf. SEG 59, 1368; R. Descat in Tout vendre, tout acheter…, ed. V. Chankowski and P. Karvonis (2012 = Scripta Antiqua 42), pp. 203–11, on the word στατάριον.