Description of Monument

Block broken in two but now recomposed and substantially complete (W. 1.53 x H. 0.72 x D. 0.72).

Description of Text

The inscription was cut in an especially prepared area, around which the unpolished surface survives and forms a frame. The first word of l. 9 is cut in the margin and appears to be an afterthought.

Letters

second--third cent. A.D.: 0.025 ; apices in ll. 10, 11 ; circular stop in l. 8.

Date

238-244 A.D. (reign, lettering)

Edition αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ Μᾶρκος Ἀντώνιος Γορδιανὸς Εὐσεβὴς Εὐτυχὴς Σεβαστὸς Αὐρηλίῳ Ἐπαφρᾷ χαίρειν εἴ τι περὶ τῶν τῆς πατρίδος σου νόμων τῇ τε ἱερωτάτῃ συνκλήτῳ βουλῇ ἔδοξε καὶ τοῖς ἐν θεοῖς τῶν αὐτοκρατόρων τοῦτο κἀμοὶ πρέποι ἂν ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν φυλάττειν ὅρων τῇ πατρίδι τῇ σῇ εἰ τοίνυν προσιών τις τῷ φίλῳ μου καὶ ἐπάρχῳ τῆς πατρίδος τῆς ἐμῆς Φλαβίῳ Λατρωνιανῷ ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐνέγραψας διδάσκοις τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἔθος ἀναπέμψαι προνοήσεται τὴν περὶ τοῦ Πολυδώρου κρίσιν τῷ οἰκείῳ δικαστηρίῳ ἔρρωσο

Apparatus

1.1, [Αύτοκράτωρ] Ε/R; 1.3, χαίρε Ε/R, χαίρε[ιν] Robb.; 1.5, σuνγκλήτῳ Ε/R, συνκλήτῳ, Ο.

Translation

Imperator Caesar M. A[ntonius] Gordianus, Pius, Felix, Au[gustus], to Aurelius Epaphras, greetings.

Any decision about the laws of your native city that has been made by the reverend council of the Senate and those of the emperors who have been deified it would be proper for me too to preserve for your native city on the same terms. If, therefore, you/someone were to go to my friend Flavius Latronianus, who is prefect of my own native city, about the matters on which you wrote, and would explain to him the original tradition, he will arrange to remit the decision in the matter of Polydoros to the proper court. Farewell.

Commentary

Unlike all the letters inscribed on the archive wall itself, this one, cut on the north analemma, is addressed to a private person, undoubtedly an eminent citizen of Aphrodisias. Its bearing on Aphrodisian privileges is so obvious that its association with the archive hardly needs explanation, and there may even have been some attempt to underline the fact that its implications were general and not simply particular (see on l. 9). Nevertheless, since we do not know its exact date and therefore its chronological relation to the second letter of Gordian inscribed on the wall (8.103; it is presumably later than Gordian's accession confirmation of rights, 8.102), we must allow that it may have been cut on a nearby wall not because there was no space for it on the archive wall at the time of its receipt but because it belonged in a slightly different category from that of the other imperial documents in this archive.

See further , 136-139.

Locations

Theatre: north analemma: the lower half found in the north analemma, the upper fallen forward into the parodos. Theatre: north analemma. Since there is evidence of some repair to the analemma it cannot be quite excluded that the block was re-used there, but much more probably this was its original position Findspot

Text Constituted From

transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Recorded by the NYU expedition in 1967.

Bibliography

Published by Erim and Reynolds, JRS 59, 1969, 56-58 , whence AnnEpig 1969, 599, BE 1970.536, Oliver, GRBS 11, 1970, 137-138, W. Seston, XIII Congrès international des Sciences historiques (Moscow, 1970), M. Wörrle, Chiron 1 (1971), 333, BE 1971.612, Wieling, ZRG 91, 1974, 364; republished by Reynolds, A&R 22 whence SEG 32, 1982.1097, BE 1983.383, AnnEpig 1984,876, McCabe 57 .

Photographs

Face (1976)

Face (2005)