<rs type="textType">Letter</rs> of Traianus Decius and Herennius Etruscus to Aphrodisias

Joyce M. Reynolds1982

Creative Commons licence Attribution 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/

Originally published in Reynolds (1982).

 English French German Ancient Greek Transliterated Greek Modern Greek Italian Latin Spanish Turkish 2007-04-02Charlotte Tupmanhand tidiedGBhand tidied 2007-03-15Elliott HallBatch converted Word2XML
Description of Monument

White marble block (1.61 x 0.78 x 0.33)

Description of Text

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

Third century, ave 0.025. Ligatures ΗΜ, ll.5, 7, 11 ΗΝ l.8 (twice), ΤΗ, ll.8, 9, 10, ΤΗΝ ll.9, 12 (twice), ΝΗ l.9. Bars above the figures, ll. 3; arabesques twice in l.7, once in l.16.

Date

December 250- January 251 (reign, titulature, lettering)

Edition αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ Γάϊος Μέσσιος Κόϊντος Τραϊανὸς Δέκιος Εὐσεβὴς Εὐτυχὴς Σεβαστός δημαρχικῆς ἐξουσίας τὸ γ ὕπατος τὸ β ἀποδεδειγμένος τὸ τρίτον πατὴρ πατρίδος ἀνθύπατος καὶ Κόϊντος Ἑρέννιος Ἐτροῦσκος Μέσσιος Δέκιος ἀρχιερεὺς μέγιστος δημαρχικῆς ἐξουσίας τὸ πρῶτον ὕπατος ἀποδεδειγμένος Ἀφροδεισιέων τοῖς ἄρχουσιν καὶ τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ χαίρειν εἰκὸς ἦν ὑμᾶς καὶ διὰ τὴν ἐπώνυμον τῆς πόλεως θεὸν καὶ διὰ τὴν πρὸς Ῥωμαίους οἰκειότητά τε καὶ πίστιν ἡσθῆναι μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ καταστάσει τῆς βασιλείας τῆς ἡμετέρας θυσίας δὲ καὶ εὐχὰς ἀποδοῦναι δικαίας καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ τήν τε ἐλευθερίαν ὑμεῖν φυλάττομεν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα δὲ σύνπαντα δίκαια ὁπόσων παρὰ τῶν πρὸ ἡμῶν αὐτοκρατόρων τετυχήκατε συναύξειν ἑτοίμως ἔχοντες ὑμῶν καὶ τὰς πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἐλπίδας ἐπρέσβευον Αὐρήλιοι Θεόδωρος καὶ Ὀνήσιμος εὐτυχεῖτε
Apparatus

l. l. The first two letters seen in the eighteenth century (Sherard, Wood) but not later.

ll. 1-2. The erased imperial name was supplied by Waddington where Boeckh and all others after him had restored the name of Diocletian.

l.2. Fellows failed to see ΡΧΙ.

l.3. ΤΡΙΤΟΝ seen by all copyists up to and including Waddington, ΤΡΙΤΟ by the MAMA expedition.

l. 4. εὐεργέτης after καί in the copy transmitted by Raoul-Rochette was rightly omitted in CIG.

ll.4 and 5. The erased prince's name supplied by Waddίngton (but in the form Ἑρρέννιος Τραιανὸς Δέκιος Καίσαρ), where Boeckh had restored the name of Maxιmian.

1.8. ΚΑΙ seen by all copyists up to and including Waddington, ΚΑ[Ι] MAMA.

l.10. ΤΗΙ, A. aηd J.

l.13. σύmπαντα Waddington, σύνπαντα Reinach, final Η recorded by all copyists except Wood and the MAMA expedition - it is very cramped; ΧΟΝΤΕΣ Wood, Fellows, ΕΧΟΝΤΕΣ all other copyists.

l.16. ΕΠΡΕΣΒΕΥΟΝ ΑΥΡΗΛΙΟΣ, all copyists before Fellows, who gave the correct text.

Translation

Imperator Caesar [[C. Messius Q. Traianus Decius]], Pius, Felix, Augustus, holding tribunician power for the third time, consul for the second time, designated for the third, father of his country, proconsul, and [[Q. Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius]], Pontifex Maximus, holding the tribunician power for the first time, consul designate to the Magistrates, Council and People of the Aphrodisians, greetings.

It was to be expected, both because of the goddess for whom your city is named and because of your relationship with the Romans and loyalty to them, that you rejoiced at the establishment of our kingship and made the proper sacrifice and prayers. We preserve your existing freedom and all the other rights which you have received from the emperors who preceded us, being willing also to give fulfilment to your hopes for the future.

Aurelius Theodoros and Aurelius Onesimos carried out the duties of ambassadors. Farewell.

Commentary

See Aphrodisias and Rome, 141-143.

Locations

Walls, South (west part). Theatre: north parodos wall Findspot

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Copied by Picenini in 1705 (10102, 30v), whence Sherard (10101, 41); by Wood (14, f45v); by Fellows; by Raoul-Rochette. Perhaps by Bailie; copied by Loew; by Waddington; recorded by Gaudin (142); by the MAMA expedition; by the NYU expedition in 1965.

Bibliography

Published by Boeckh from Sherard and Raoul-Rochette, CIG 2743 and, from Fellows, p. 1109; by Fellows, p. 302. no. 16; from these, Texier, As. Min. iii 154. by Bailie, ? from these, Fasc. ii 14-16 and 269-272, no. 44; by Franz, from Loew, no. a.9; by Waddington, LBW 1624; by Reinach, from Gaudin, no. 2, whence Abbott & Johnson no. 145; by Cormack, from the MAMA records, MAMA 8.424; Published by Reynolds, Aphrodisias & Rome, doc. 25, whence SEG 1982.1097, BE 1983.384 AnnEpig 1984.877, McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 61 . Discussed: Millar, Emperor in the Roman World, 417

Photographs

Face (1973)

Representations

Wood notebook 14, page 45v
Deering notebook, page 8