Description of Monument

White marble garland sarcophagus (2.40 × 0.99 × 1.20) with tabella ansata; for full description see Isik 84.

Description of Text

Inscribed within the tabella and on its lower moulding (ll. 20, 21); the text must have begun on the lid.

Letters

Quite well designed in the second-to-fourth-century style, but uneven in height, 0.02-0.0225. Ligatured ΜΗ (l.2), ΜΗΝ (l.21), ΝΗ (l.20), ΤΗ (ll.13, 17). Star for denarius. Slant stroke before both figures (incorrectly in l. 20). Erasures at the end of l. 2 and beginning of l. 3.

Date

Mid third century (lettering, stephanephoros).

Edition ἐν ᾗ κεκήδευται αὐτὸς ὁΜένιππος καὶ κηδευθήσεται καὶ Μένιππος Μενίππου τοῦ τειμητοῦ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ κληρονόμος τοῦ Μενίππου καὶ οὓς ἂν βουληθῇ Μένιππος ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Μενίππου ἕτερος δὲ οὐδεὶς ἕξει ἐξουσίαν ἐνθάψαι τινὰ ἢ ἐκθάψαι ἐπεὶ ὁ παρὰ ταῦτά τι ποιήσας ἔστω ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμβωρύχος καὶ προσαποτεισάτω τῇ θεῷ Ἀφροδείτῃ καὶ τοῖς χρυσοφόροις νεοποιοῖς ἀργυρίου δηνάρια γ ὧν τὸ τρίτον ἔσται τοῦ ἐγδικήσαντος τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς ἀπετέθη ἀντίγραφον εἰς τὸ χρεοφυλάκιον ἐπὶ στεφανηφόρου τὸ ςι´ Ἀτταλίδος τῆς Μενεκράτους μηνὸς Καίσαρος

Apparatus

ll. 2, 3, nothing seems legible in the erasures, which presumably removed a mistake

l. 20, the slanting stroke before the figure, which should indicate that what follows is in the thousands, is clearly an error.

Translation

[E.g. The sarcophagus belongs to Menippos .. ? .. the censor and .. ? .. and Menippos his son; in it Menippos himself has already been buried] and Menippos the son of Menippos the censor, his son and heir, will be so, and anyone whom Menippos the son of Menippos may wish. No one else shall have the right to bury a body in it or to remove one from it, since whoever acts contrary to these provisions is to be (considered) sacrilegious, accursed and a tomb-robber, and moreover is to pay to the goddess Aphrodite and to the Neopoioi, wearers of gold, 3000 silver denarii, of which one third shall belong to the prosecutor. A copy of the inscribed text was deposited in the civic property-archive in the sixteenth stephanephorate of Attalis daughter of Menekrates, month of Caesar.

Commentary

The sarcophagus belonged to a father and son, possibly also to the mother. The title of the deceased father should mean that he revised the membership of the city's council, so that this was an élite family. Since we do not have the full names of Menippos and his son, we do not know for certain whether or not they were Roman citizens and if so whether they became citizens under the Edict of Caracalla in A.D. 212, but if the date proposed is correct they may well have done so.The Neopoioi (treasurers of the funds of Aphrodite) figure occasionally as recipients of funerary fines (e.g. in 12.526=CIG 2826); their importance in civic life is symbolised by the wearing of gold, although this is not always mentioned. The inscriptions which reckon the fine in terms not simply of denarii but of silver denarii may show a reaction to a severely debased coinage, but this cannot be regarded as certain (see further Reynolds, loc. cit below). The stephanephoros died in the first century, probably in the reign of the emperor Vespasian, but held the office post mortem on a number of occasions.

Locations

Necropolis, North-east: 'Bagharassi, dans les vignes, extra muros' (Gaudin); 'in a field 10 min. east of the Heraclean Gate' (MAMA) Unknown Museum (1978)

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds); publications

History of Recording

Recorded by Gaudin (149); by the MAMA expedition; by the NYU expedition (Sarcophagus catalogue 4).

Bibliography

Published from Gaudin's squeeze, Reinach, REG 19 (1906), 274-276, no. 169 (l.3 discussed by L.Robert, BCH 1928, 411); from the MAMA records, Cormack, MAMA 8. 555, whence McCabe 509; Reynolds and Isik 84

Photographs

Face (1973)

Face (1978)

[[ JMR.1.66.29]]