Description of Monument

White marble sarcophagus, with lid, with garlands surrounding the busts of a woman (left) and a man. For a fuller description see bibliography.

Description of Text

Inscribed on the central tabella (0.44 x 0.48), l.1, on the upper moulding, ll. 2 ff. in the tabella impinging on all its mouldings. The lower moulding of the sarcophagus has been damaged, and may once have carried the concluding phrases of the funerary formulae which are missing here.

Letters

Reasonably well designed and aligned, in the second-to-fourth-century style; l. 1, 0.015-0.02; ll. 2 ff., ave. 0.02. Ligatured ΗΜΗ (l. 5); ΤΗ (ll. 2, 8, 13); ΤΗΡ (l. 8). Unconventional spelling in ll. 9, 10, 11, 12; slanting line before the figure in l. 14.

Date

Probably first half of the third century (lettering, nomenclature, spelling).

Edition ἡ σορός ἐστιν Αὐρηλίας Ζωτικῆς τῆς καὶ Ζωτικοῦ τοῦ Πανκράτου τοῦ καὶ Δημητρίου εἰς ἣν ταφήσεται αὑτὴ καὶ Αὐρήλιος Ζωτικὸς ὁ πάτηρ αὐτῆς ἕταιρος δὲ οὐδὶς ἕξι ἐξουσίαν ἐνθάψε τινὰ ἢ ἐχθάψεν ἐπὶ αεπι ἀποτίσει τῇ θεῷ Ἀφροδίτῃ δηνάρια ε ὧν τὸ τρίτον ἔστω τοῦ ἐκδικήσαντος

Translation

The sarcophagus is the property of Aurelia Zotike also called daughter of Zotikos son of Pankrates who was also called Demetrios, in which she shall be buried herself and Aurelius Zotikos her father; but no-one else shall have the right to bury anyone in it or to remove anyone since (if he does) he will pay the goddess Aphrodite 5000 denarii, of which one third is to belong to the prosecutor.

Commentary

It is virtually certain that one line has dropped out between ll. 2 and 3, so that Zotike's second name and the beginning of her father's gentile name have been omitted. In l. 12 letters 4-7 probably show a misunderstanding or mistranscription of the phrase ἐπεὶ ἐσται ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμβωρύχος καὶ ἀποτείσει.The father looks likely to have been the first Roman citizen in the family, no doubt obtaining citizenship in 212. The names suggest a comparatively modest social status. Nothing is said of anything but the sarcophagus, but the funerary fine is a little above average.

The sarcophagus was found in a chamber-tomb along with 13.111, 13.109, 13.110 and another (13.101) of a different type. The inscriptions ought to be of approximately the same period; they are certainly all of the third century, probably all of its first half. The owner's father was perhaps the first of the family to obtain Roman citizenship, doing so under the Edict of Caracalla in A.D. 212. That is the obvious explanation for her alternative nomenclature, which is that of a non-citizen. Despite her genealogy the family sounds of comparatively modest status.

Locations

In Necropolis, North-east chamber tomb, with 13.111 (=410), 13.109 (=412), 13.110 (=414), 13.101 (=415). Findspot Museum

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Recorded by the NYU expedition in 1994 (Sarcophagus catalogue 411)

Bibliography

Published by Smith, , Sarcophagus 12, by Reynolds and Isik, no. 179

Photographs

Sarcophagus (1994)