<rs type="textType">Letter</rs> of Severus and Caracalla to Aphrodisias

Joyce M. Reynolds1982

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Originally published in Reynolds (1982).

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Description of Monument

Archive wall, column 5, third course. The left side, covering one and a half blocks, is complete except for the upper right corner of the second block, but on the right side one block is broken and partly lost and the right end is wholly lost ; fragments of the lost areas have been found fallen in front of the wall.

Description of Text

Inscribed area 1.56 x 0.18; l. 1 outspaced.

Letters

Second to third cent. A.D.: av. 0.018 ; ligatured ΗΝ, ΝΗ in 1. 5 ; apex in l. 2; star stop at the end of 1. 5.

Date

Inscription: second to third centuries A.D. (lettering, context). Document: A.D. 198 (titulature).

Edition αὐτοκράτορες Σεουῆρος καὶ Ἀντωνεῖνος Ἀφροδεισιέων τοῖς ἄρχουσι καὶ τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ χαίρειν ἡσθέντας ὑμᾶς ἐπὶ τῷ τοὺς θρασυνομένους βαρβάρους νενεικῆσθαι καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν εἰρήνῃ γεγενῆσ θαι σφόδρα ἔπρεπεν εὐφρανθῆναι τῆς πατρῴας κοινωνίας εἰς ἐμὲ Ἀντωνεῖνον ἡκούσης ὄντας καλοὺς κἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας καὶ τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ μᾶλλον ἄλλων προσήκοντας διὰ τὴν προκαθημένην τῆς πόλεως ὑμῶν θεόν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν ὑμεῖν πολειτείαν καὶ τοὺς ἐπ’ αὐτῇ νόμους τοὺς μέχρι τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀρχῆς ἀκεινήτους μεμενηκότας φυλάττομεν εὐτυχεῖτε
Translation

The Emperors Severus and Antoninus to the [Magistrates) and the [Council and People] of the Aphrodisians, greetings.

It was most appropriate that you, who rejoiced at the conquest of the insolent barbarians and [?the establishment of peace in] all [?the inhabited world], celebrated the coming of joint rule shared with my father to me, Antoninus, [.. ? .. for you are ? good and noble men and] more closely related than others to the empire of the Romans because of [the goddess] who presides over your city. Your existing polity and its laws which have survived unchanged up to our reign [we preserve. ?Farewell].

Commentary

See Aphrodisias and Rome, 127-129.

Locations

Theatre: north parodos wall Theatre: north parodos wall Findspot; fragments in Museum

Text Constituted From

transcription (Reynolds)This edition: Reynolds (2007)

History of Recording

Recorded by the NYU expedition in 1967; and fragments found over subsequent years (inventory nos. 67.310 , 67.454, 69.310, 69.458, 69.459, 69.463, 69.469)

Bibliography

Published by Reynolds, A&R 18 whence BE 1983.379, McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 55 . Discussed by Millar, ERW 416.

Photographs

Left end in situ, view below 8.35, 8.36, above 8.99, 8.103 (1977)
Left end in situ, view below 8.35, 8.36 (1977)
Left end in situ, view below 8.36, above 8.99, 8.103 (1977)
Archive Wall view (1994)