11.507. Gladiator memorial for familia of Zenon Hypsikles
- Description:
- A white marble block with a decoration of three simple acroteria above a recessed panel within a simple moulding.
- Text:
- Inscribed on panel, and on lower moulding (l.8). It is not clear where the last line would have been inscribed.
- Letters:
- standard first/second-century forms, c. 0.02; ligature, HN l.1
- Date:
- ?Late first/ early second century (lettering, prosopography)
- Findspot:
- City, North-west: 'on the north side of the city' (Fellows); Stray find in 1976.
- Original Location:
- Unknown
- Last recorded location:
- Museum
- History of discovery:
- Copied by Fellows; recorded by the NYU expedition (excavation inventory no. 76.192)
- Bibliography:
- Published by Fellows, no. 20, whence CIG 2759b, Liermann, Analecta 5, Robert, Gladiateurs no. 157; discussed by Baunack, RM 38 (1883), 299, Robert, 'Πυκτεύειν', RA 30 (1929), 24-41, 28 (= OMS I, 691-708, 695). Published by Roueché, PPA 14.
- Text constituted from:
- Publications; transcriptions (Reynolds, Roueché) This edition Roueché (2007).
- 1 Φαμιλία Ζήνων[ος]
- 2 τοῦ Ὑψικλέους
- 3 τοῦ Ὑψικλέους
- 4 τοῦ φύσει Ζήνω-
- 5 νος Ὑψικλέους
- 6 ἀρχιερέως μονο-
- 7 μάχων καὶ κατα-
- 8 δίκων καὶ ταυροκα-
- 9[?θαπτῶν ·· ? ··]
- 1ΦΑΜΙΛΙΑΖΗΝΩΝ[··]
- 2ΤΟΥΥΨΙΚΛΕΟΥΣ
- 3ΤΟΥΥΨΙΚΛΕΟΥΣ
- 4ΤΟΥΦΥΣΕΙΖΗΝΩ
- 5ΝΟΣΥΨΙΚΛΕΟΥΣ
- 6ΑΡΧΙΕΡΕΩΣΜΟΝΟ
- 7ΜΑΧΩΝΚΑΙΚΑΤΑ
- 8ΔΙΚΩΝΚΑΙΤΑΥΡΟΚΑ
- 9[······ - - - ]
Translation:
Of Zenon Hypsikles, son of Hypsikles, son of Hypsikles the natural son of Zenon, high-priest, the familia of single combatants and convicts and bull-catchers [...]
Commentary:
The owner of this troupe is perhaps mentioned in one other text, 11.22 (=MAMA VIII.500 ); his sister, Ammia Hypsiklis, occurs in another, put up by her grandson, 12.712 (=Reinach 29). He was identified by Liermann with a Zenon son of Hypsikles active in the mid first century: 12.803 (=LBW 1611), but both names are very common at Aphrodisias; the text put up by his sister's grandson should perhaps be dated to the late second century, since the next generation of his family was apparently active after 212: 12.523 (=MAMA VIII.559) with a similar, unpublished, text). This therefore suggests a date for this inscription in the late first or early second century.
The familia includes the same elements as that in 4.104, together with 'bull-catchers', whose special skill was to pursue the bulls, initially on horseback, and then to mount the bulls themselves (Robert, Gladiateurs, 318-9).
For further discussion see Roueché, PPA, loc. cit.
Photographs:
- Face (1977)
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