<rs type="textType">Funerary</rs> inscription for Marcus Aurelius Zenon

Joyce M. Reynolds2007

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Originally published in Reynolds and Isik (2007).

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Description of Monument

White marble garland sarcophagus whose decoration was roughed out, but not carved; see description at Isik 81.

Description of Text

Roughly inscribed on a recessed central tabella (0.25 × 0.34) which is only approximately rectangular and not parallel to the sides. The lower part of its surface damaged.

Letters

Poorly designed, cut and aligned, giving the effect of hand-written letters; ll. 1-2, ave. 0.015; ll. 3 ff., 0.025. Lunate epsilon, sigma, omega, near cursive lambda.

Date

Probably third century A.D. (lettering, nomenclature)

Edition ἡ σορός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ τόπος Μάρκου Αὐρηλίου Ζήνωνος τοῦ τοῦ Ζήνωνος τοῦ Ὀφελίου Χριστοῦ μνήμης χάριν
Apparatus

l. 6, the second lambda suggested on the analogy of 13.603 (=Isik 127)

l. 7, the name was deemed impossible by the editors of SEG, who suggested Χρήστου - but the iota seems clear here, and fairly clear also in 13.603 (=Isik 127)

l. 8, letters deciphered since the time of Tulay's publication.

Translation

The sarcophagus and the plot (on which it stands) belong to Marcus Aurelius Zenon son of Zenon the son of Ophellius Christos. In (his) memory.

Commentary

Lines 8-9 at least were presumably cut after the owner's death.

Another grandson of Ophellius Christos, Marcus Aurelius Atticus was the owner of 13.603 (=Sarcophagus 10), (the two were found in the same tomb). Atticus presumably died some years later than Zenon since he abbreviates his Roman nomen, which Zenon writes out in full. This might suggest a period when the superfluity of Marci Aurelii created by Caracalla's grant of Roman citizenship to most free persons in the Roman Empire, in 212, had reduced pride in the name; but the criterion is an uncertain one. It appears that both Zenon and Atticus belonged to a family in which at least one grandfather was already a Roman citizen in the second century. Neither makes the status of his father clear (could each of them have been a non-citizen who married a daughter of Ophellius?) Both seem to have stressed their status as derived from the Caracallan Edict. In so far as their status is discernible, it seems likely to be modest.

Locations

Necropolis, West: in 1989 near New Geyre, with 1442 and 13.604. Findspot Museum (1990)

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Excavated by the Aphrodisias Museum in 1989-90 (90.g, Sarcophagus catalogue 8)

Bibliography

Published by A. S. Tulay, 'Kabalar kurtama kasısı 1989', Müze Kurtama Kazıları Semineri I (Ankara 1990), 25-39, 28, whence SEG 1990.948, BullEp 1992.437; by Reynolds and Isik, no. 81

Photographs

Sarcophagus (1990)
Inscription (1990)