13.151. Funerary inscription for Marcus Aurelius Menandros and his wife's family
- Description:
- White marble garland sarcophagus; see Isik 162 for description.
- Text:
- The text must have begun on the lid. ll.1-12 within the tabella, ll.13-15 probably on its lower moulding, perhaps also on a prepared space below it (illegible on the xerox of the photograph), the remainder on the lower moulding of the chest. The text must have begun on the lid and/or the upper rim of the chest, and there may have been one more line below what survives, where the photograph suggests that the lower edge has been broken away.
- Letters:
- Reasonably well designed, cut and aligned in the second-to-fourth-century style. Unconventional spelling in l.5.
- Date:
- Perhaps first half of the third century (lettering, spelling, nomenclature).
- Findspot:
- Necropolis, North-east: '15 minutes east of Aphrodisias' (K&R)
- Original Location:
- Unknown
- Last recorded location:
- Findspot
- History of discovery:
- Copied by Kubitschek (K V.2; Abklatsch 60); recorded by Isik, but not seen by Reynolds.
- Bibliography:
- The text published from K's notebook (v.2) by Cormack, ABSA 59, 1964, 24-25, no. 32, whence comment by L. Robert, AntClass 1966, 385-6, BE 1967:545; McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 455 ; monument published by Isik and Reynolds, no. 162, with photograph.
- Text constituted from:
- Publication; notebook; photograph. This edition Reynolds (2007).
- 0 [·· ? ·· αὐ]-
- 1τοῦ κ[αὶ] Μᾶ̣ρ̣κος
- 2 Αὐρήλιος [Μ]έναν -
- 3δρος Ἀθη[ναγόρ]ου
- 4 τοῦ Ἀθηνα[γόρο]υ
- 5 τετράκι τοῦ Μ[ε]ν̣-
- 6άνδρου [ὁ ἀ]νὴρ̣
- 7 τῆς Ἀπφίου ἕτε -
- 8ρος [δὲ] οὐδεὶς ἕ -
- 9ξει ἐξουσίαν ἐν -
- 10θάψαι τινὰ ἐν τῇ
- 11 σορῷ ἢ ἐκθάψαι
- 12 τοὺς προγεγραμ -
- 13[μένους ? οὐδὲ ἐπα] -
- 14[?λλοτριῶσαι αὐτὴν]
- 15[?διὰ ψηφίσματος]
- 16 ἢ ἐντεύξεως ἡγεμονικῆς ἐπεὶ ὁ παρὰ ταῦτά τι ποιήσας ἔστω [ἀσεβὴς καὶ]
- 19 ἐπάρατος [καὶ τ]υμβωρ[ύ]χος καὶ
- 20 ἀποτεισάτω εἰς τὸ ἱερώτατον ταμεῖον ἀργυρίου δηνάρια ἑξα[κισχίλια ὧν τ]ὸ
- 21 τρίτον ἔσται τοῦ ἐγδικήσαν̣[τος]
- 0[ - - - ··]
- 1ΤΟΥΚ[··]Μ··ΚΟΣ
- 2ΑΥΡΗΛΙΟΣ[·]ΕΝΑΝ
- 3ΔΡΟΣΑΘΗ[·····]ΟΥ
- 4ΤΟΥΑΘΗΝΑ[····]Υ
- 5ΤΕΤΡΑΚΙΤΟΥΜ[·]·
- 6ΑΝΔΡΟΥ[··]ΝΗ·
- 7ΤΗΣΑΠΦΙΟΥΕΤΕ
- 8ΡΟΣ[··]ΟΥΔΕΙΣΕ
- 9ΞΕΙΕΞΟΥΣΙΑΝΕΝ
- 10ΘΑΨΑΙΤΙΝΑΕΝΤΗ
- 11ΣΟΡΩΗΕΚΘΑΨΑΙ
- 12ΤΟΥΣΠΡΟΓΕΓΡΑΜ
- 13[······ ·······]
- 14[···············]
- 15[·············]
- 16ΗΕΝΤΕΥΞΕΩΣΗΓΕΜΟΝΙΚΗΣΕΠΕΙΟΠΑΡΑΤΑΥΤΑΤΙΠΟΙΗΣΑΣΕΣΤΩ[·········]
- 19ΕΠΑΡΑΤΟΣ[····]ΥΜΒΩΡ[·]ΧΟΣΚΑΙ
- 20ΑΠΟΤΕΙΣΑΤΩΕΙΣΤΟΙΕΡΩΤΑΤΟΝΤΑΜΕΙΟΝΑΡΓΥΡΙΟΥΔΗΝΑΡΙΑΕΞΑ[···········]Ο
- 21ΤΡΙΤΟΝΕΣΤΑΙΤΟΥΕΓΔΙΚΗΣΑ·[···]
Translation:
- - - ? in the sarcophagus there have been (or shall be) buried the owner ?and his wife and Apphion] his [daughter] and Marcus Aurelius Menandros, son of Athenagoras the son of Athenagoras who was fourth of the name from Menandros, the husband of Apphion; [but] no one else shall have the right to bury anyone in the sarcophagus or to remove the afore-named [or to alienate the tomb on the strength of either a civic decree] or of a Roman official's intervention, since whoever acts contrary to these provisions is to be (considered) [sacrilegious and] accursed and a tomb-breaker, and is to pay to the most sacred treasury (at Rome) six [thousand] silver denarii [of which] one third is to belong to the prosecutor.
Commentary:
The only name to survive in full here is that of the owner's son-in-law (Apphion must surely have been his daughter) who is an Aurelius with a genealogy of names cited in the Greek manner - all of them names common among the Aphrodisian élite but also used outside it. The size of the fine, and the concern to prevent alienation of the tomb authorised by civic decree or Roman official intervention (which is paralleled in 12.1107 [=MAMA 554]) perhaps suggests that this is a family of local significance; although all funerary rights might be officially overruled when their stones were needed to build or repair a defensive city wall. This certainly happened at Aphrodisias in the fourth century; it may have seemed a more likely prospect in the third than we are aware.
- Photographs:
- none.
Representations:
- Kubitschek notebook V, 2
-
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