<rs type="textType">Funerary</rs> inscription for Marcus Aurelius Alexandros and Aurelia Tatia

Joyce M. Reynolds2007

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Originally published in Reynolds and Isik (2007).

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Description of Monument

White marble sarcophagus, with lid, (2.00); for description see Isik 178.

Description of Text

a. ll. 1-2 inscribed on the lower moulding of the lid, excluding the projections, ll. 3-21 on the tabella impinging on all mouldings, ll. 22-23 on the lower moulding of the sarcophagus. Text b. is on the projections on the lid.

Letters

Quite well-designed, cut and aligned in the second-to-fourth-century style; a l.1, 0.022; l.2, 0.025; l.3, 0.02, ll.4 ff, 0.018-0.02. b, 0.06. Ligatured ΤΗ (ll. 3, 21), ΝΗ (l. 4), ΜΗΝ (l. 23), ΜΜ (l.7). Star for denarius; slanting stroke before the figure in l. 22 and after it in l. 23.

Date

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

Edition
ἠ σορός ἐστιν Μάρκου Αὐρηλίου Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Ἑκαταίου τοῦ Διονυσίου τοῦ Ζήνωνος τρὶς τοῦ Ἑκαταίου Χάρμου καὶ Αὐρηλίας Τατίας τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ ἐν ᾗ σορῷ ταφήσονται Ἀλέξανδραος καὶ Τατία οἱ προγεγραμμένοι καὶ Αὐρήλιοι Ἀλέξανδρος καὶἈλεξάνδρα οἱ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Ἑ καταίου τὰ τέκνα αὐτῶν ἕτερον δὲ οὐ δεὶς ἕξει ἐξουσίαν ἐνθάψαι ἢ ἐκθάψαι τοὺς προδηλουμένους ἐπεὶ ὁ τοιοῦτό τι τολμήσας ἔστω ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμβωρύχος καὶ προσαποτεισάτω τῇ θεῷ Ἀφροδείτῃ εἰς χρυσιακὸν κόσμον ἀργυρίου δηνάρια αφ τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς ταύτης ἀπετέθη ἀντίγραφον εἰς τὸ χρεοφυλάκιον ἐπί στεφανηφόρου τὸ ζ Ὑψικλέους τοῦ Ἀδράστου Ἱέρακος μηνὸς Λώου Ἁδριανοῦ
Ζῶσιν
Apparatus

l. 6, ΑΛΕΞΑΔΡΑ lapis, but there can be no doubt that the two owners were meant.

Translation

a. The sarcophagus is the property of Marcus Aurelius Alexandros, son of Hekataios the son of Dionysios the son of Zenon third from son of Zenon son of Zenon son of Hekataios Charmos, and of Aurelia Tatia, daughter of Alexandros, his wife; in which tomb there shall be buried Alexandros and Tatia the afore-mentioned, and Aurelii Alexandros and Alexandra the children of Alexandros son of Hekataios, their children; but no-one else will have a right to bury in it or to remove those named above. Since whoever dares to do anything of the kind is to be held sacrilegious, accursed and a tomb-breaker, and in addition is to pay to the goddess Aphrodite to provide her golden adornments 1500 silver denarii. A copy of this inscribed text was deposited in the Property-Archive when Hypsikles son of Adrastos Hierax was stephanephorus for the seventh time in the month Loos, which is the month of Hadrian.

b. They are still living

Commentary

The sarcophagus was found in a chamber-tomb along with 13.111, 13.108, 13.110 and another (13.101) of a different type, and should belong to approximately the same period as they do. All are surely of the third century and perhaps of its first half. The male owner gives a long genealogy, but nothing suggests that he is a member of the Aphrodisian élite. It is probable that he was the first of his family to receive Roman citizenship and did so as a result of the Edict of Caracalla in A.D. 212.

The funerary formulae contain some variants from the standard, notably in omitting the provision for payment of the prosecutor and in specifying the purpose for which the treasurers of Aphrodite should use the fine; cf. also 2.309 (=no. 100). For the possibility that the specification of silver denarii may indicate a date when the coinage was being seriously debased see Introduction.The stephanephoros, who came of a family very prominent in Aphrodisian public life in the first and second centuries A.D., may also have appeared in 13.149 (=no. 104).

Locations

Necropolis, North-east in chamber tomb, with 13.111 (=410), 13.108 (=411), 13.110 (=414), 13.101 (=415). Findspot Museum (1994)

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Recorded by the NYU expedition (Sarcophagus catalogue 412)

Bibliography

Published by Reynolds and Isik, no. 178

Photographs

Sarcophagus (1994)
Sarcophagus (1994)