Description of Monument

White marble sarcophagus complete with lid and an iron clamp repairing an ancient break; total (0.96 x 2.38 x 0.91); chest (0.73 x 2.38), lid (0.24 x 2.36). For a full description see Smith, l.c.

Description of Text

Line 1 is inscribed on the front moulding of the lid; line 2 along the upper front edge of the sarcophagus, but leaving a substantial area blank at the right-hand end, where the sarcophagus is damaged; lines 3-19 in the area between the two busts, from which an earlier inscription has been erased; line 20 on the flange below.

Letters

Reasonably good examples of the second-to-fourth-century style, a little uneven in height, 0.015-0.025. Ligatured ΗΜ (ll. 1, 4), ΜΗΝ (ll. 2, 19), ΝΗ (ll. 1, 3, 5, 7, 18). Star for denarius. Slanting stroke before the figure in l.14, after it in l.18.

Date

Late third century A.D. (hairstyles)nomenclature, lettering).

Edition ἡ σορός ἐστιν Αἰμιλίου Ἀριστέου παρακεχωρημένη αὐτῷ ὑπὸ Φλαβίων Ἀντωνίων Πυθέου καὶ Διογένους υἱῶν Ἀπολλωνίου ἀρχιερέως διὰ τοῦ χρεοφυλακίου ἐπὶ Διογένους Δομετείνου καὶ μηνὸς Γορπιαίου ἐν ᾗ σορῷ τεθάπται Καρμινία Φιλημάτιον ἡ γυνὴ τοῦ Ἀριστέου ἐνταφήσεται δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἀριστέας καὶ Αὐρηλία Ἰασόνη ἕτερος δὲ οὐχ ἕξει ἐξουσίαν οὔτε ἐνθάψαι οὔτε ἐκθάψαι ἐπεὶ ὁ παρὰ ταῦτά τι ποιήσας ἔστω ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ προσαποτεισάτω θεᾷ Ἀφροδείτῃ δηνάρια ΒΦ ὧν τὸ τρίτον ἔστω τοῦ ἐγδικήσαντος τούτου ἀντίγραφον ἀ πετέθη καὶ εἰς τὸ χρεοφυλάκιον ἐπὶ στεφανηφόρου το ζ Διογένους Δομετείνου μηνὸς Κλαυδιήου

Apparatus

l. 2, Ἀπολλωνίου, SEG wrongly

l. 6, Ἀριστ, SEG wrongly.

Translation

The sarcophagus is the property of Aemilius Aristeas, ceded to him by Flavius Antonius Pytheas and Flavius Antonius Diogenes, sons of Apollonios the high-priest, a transaction registered in the civic archive in the year of Diogenes Dometinos, month Gorpiaios. In this sarcophagus Carminia Philemation wife of Aristeas has been buried, and Aristeas and Aurelia Iasone will be buried; but no-one else shall have the right to place (a body) in it or to remove (a body) from it, since whoever acts in any way contrary to these provisions is to be (considered) sacrilegious and accursed and furthermore is to pay to the goddess Aphrodite 2500 denarii, of which one third is to belong to the prosecutor. A copy of this (text) was also deposited in the civic archive in the seventh stephanephorate of Diogenes Dometinos, in the month Claudieios.

Commentary

There is no indication that Aristeas owned more than the sarcophagus, which may, therefore, have been located in a funerary area which did not belong to him (see Introduction). The comparatively small funerary fine would accord with this.

The sarcophagus was not bought by Aristeas from the workshop, but was ceded to him by its previous owners. Since it was damaged when the inscription was cut, it may be that the previous owners had let him have it (?cheaply) for that reason; but it is also possible that the damage was done when it was moved from its original position, or in the course of adaptation for its new owner, or at the funeral of Carminia Philemation.The year of registration of the two documents is, no doubt, the same; Gorpiaos, the month of the first was the eleventh month of the year, Claudieos, the month of the second should then be the twelfth; so one month (or less) intervened between the two.

Of the persons mentioned

1. Pytheas and Diogenes, being sons of a high-priest at Aphrodisias (the chief-priest of the imperial cult for a year), were members of the élite class, as is suggested by their Roman nomina, which indicate that the family had received Roman citizenship already in the first century A.D., when it was rare in the city.

2. Aristeas bears a personal name which appears in the élite nomenclature of the city, and his nomen again suggests a family enfranchised in the first or second centuries. His wife has the nomen of a family (belonging to the city of Attouda as well as to Aphrodisias), which actually achieved Roman senatorial rank in the later second century (c.f. also on no. 175). That Aristeas and Philemation are not themselves grandees, however, is clear from the comparative modesty of their funerary property. They were perhaps of a dependent family, possibly derived from freed slaves of élite families. It should be remembered, however, that although the sarcophagus was acquired second-hand, Aristeas spent good money on remodelling its decoration.

3. Aurelia Iasone's connection with the owner is not explained.

4. Diogenes Dometinos, stephanephoros for the seventh time, is known from a number of other inscriptions of this type, and is almost certainly to be identified with the L. Antonius Claudius Diogenes Dometinos, an eminent figure in the city in the second to early third century. If this inscription is rightly dated it shows him to have held post-mortem stephanephorates, no doubt in virtue of a fund for the purpose bequeathed by his will.

Locations

Necropolis, West: excavated during repair work on the road from the site to the village of new Geyre. Found with 13.602 (S.8) and 13.603 (10). Findspot Museum (1990) (museum inv. no. 5624)

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds); publications.

History of Recording

Excavated by the Aphrodisias Museum in 1989 (Sarcophagus catalogue 11)

Bibliography

Published by C. P. Jones and R. R. R. Smith, 'Two inscribed monuments of Aphrodisias', Arch. Anz. (1994), 455-72, 461-72, whence BullEp 1995.514, SEG 1994.866; by Reynolds and Isik, no. 6

Photographs

Face (1990)