Description of Monument

Left side of a white marble garland sarcophagus; for full description see Isik 104.

Description of Text

Inscribed on the upper moulding (l.1) and within the tabella of which only the left side survives (0.15 x 0.39). The text must have begun on the lid.

Letters

Quite well-designed, cut and aligned in the second-to-fourth-century style, 0.02. Ligatured ΤΗ (l.4); small slanting stroke above the figure in l.7.

Date

Probably first half of the third century A.D. (lettering, stephanephoros).

Edition ἀποτείσει εἰς τὸ ἱερώτατον ταμεῖῳ δηνάρια καὶ τῇ θεᾷ Ἀφροδείτῃ δηνάρια ὧν τὸ τρίτον ἔσται τοῦ ἐκδικήσαντος τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς ἀπετέθη ἀντίγραφον εἰς τὸ χρεοφυλάκιον ἐπὶ στεφανηφόρου τὸ ζ Ὑψικλέους Ἀδράστοῦ το κορ μ ἐν δὲ τ ταφήσονται ειο τὸ ζ Ὑψικλέους Ἀδράστου τοῦ Ἀδράστου μήνος κορ μ ἐν δὲ ταῖς εἰσώσταις ταφήσονται οὓς ἂν ὁ ειος βουλήθη

Apparatus

ll. 1-6, 10-12 are supplemented exempli gratia by versions of the standard formula; the sense must be correct (even if the exact wording is not always so), and only the owner's name (ll. 11-12) remains uncertain

l. 7, the only name with initial Y which is at all common in Aphrodisian élite families is Hypsikles and the name of Hypsikles Adrastos son of Adrastos, could be fitted in here; he was a prominent Aphrodisian of the Hadrianic period who is known to have held the stephanephorate post mortem and indeed in the third century (for a date by his seventh tenure see 13.109). In 1447 either he or his father is credited with the additional name Hierax and although this figures only for his grandfather in earlier inscriptions of the family (12.26=MAMA 413, with 12.3 483, 12.308 484, 12.4 485), it may well have appeared, whether rightly or wrongly, in any text that named him in the third century. If we can suggest a cutter's error in the third letter of l. 9 (where I can make no likely sense of what stands on the stone)

ll. 6-9 could be supplemented ἐπὶ στεφανηφόρου]τὸ ζ´ Ὑψικλέους Ἀδράστου τοῦ Ἀδράστου Ἱέρακος μήνος. There can be no certainty that this is the man, but it has a certain plausibility.

Translation

... whover contravenes these provisions will pay to the most sacred] treasury [.. ? .. denarii and to the goddess ] Aphrodite [ .. ? .. denarii, of which one third] shall belong [ to the proecutor] A copy of the inscribed text [was deposited in the Property]-archive in the seventh stephanephorate of ?Hy[psikles son of Adras]tos son of [Adrastos ? in the month] KOR M [ .. ? .. ] And in the other burial places shall be buried whomsoever [ .....]eius (sc. the owner) wishes.

Commentary

The reconstruction of ll. 1-7 is fairly straightforward; from 8 on the conjectures are less certain.

The tomb was apparently a composite one, and of some pretensions as the double fine also suggests. The owner must have been a man of some substance.

Locations

Necropolis, North-east, near chamber tomb Unknown Museum.

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds).

History of Recording

Recorded by the NYU expedition in 1994 (Sarcophagus 433)

Bibliography

Published by Isik and Reynolds, no. 104

Photographs

Face (1994)

Face (1994)