Description:
A large white marble lintel block (H. 0.87 × W. 4.20 × D. 0.50) broken in two diagonally across the face (as it probably was when Sherard saw it, and certainly when Bailie did) and broken away at the bottom (where no earlier visitor could read any more than we could).
Text:
Inscribed on the face.
Letters:
Letters: 0.075; elongated and decorated; square sigma and epsilon; diacritical dots over Υ in l. 2 (twice); scroll for abbreviation marks and for stops.
Date:
A.D. 355-360, dependent on dating of Caesar (see commentary).
Findspot:
Walls, West Gate: found by us in the same position, and in virtually the same condition, as by the earlier visitors, cut on the large lintel over the west gate in the city wall, on the outer (west) face. The gate itself is decorated with a considerable amount of re-used relief sculpture. .
Original Location:
Walls, West Gate
Last recorded location:
Findspot (1991).
History of discovery:
This inscription, which confronted every traveller who arrived at Aphrodisias before the construction of the new road to Tavas in the late 1960s, is one of the most frequently published from the site. It was copied by Sherard in 1705 (BM Add 10101 f.9); by von Richter; by Fellows ; the first four lines were copied by Wood in 1750. Bailie copied the inscription and checked it later; from this he produced a new and inaccurate distribution of the lines, which he presented with pride as an improvement on the text of Boeckh (Researches, 35-42); by Waddington. Recorded by Gaudin (180); by the MAMA expedition; recorded and restored by the NYU expedition.
Bibliography:
Published by •Francke, 73, from von Richter; by •Boeckh, 2744, from Sherard and von Richter; by •Fellows, no. 18, whence CIG add. p. 1109; from these Texier, no. 1; by •Bailie, 46; by •Waddington, LBW 1626; mentioned by Reinach, 137, from Gaudin; by •Jacopi, p. 170; published by •Cormack, from the MAMA records, MAMA 8, 426 ; by •L. Robert, Hellenica 13, 158-167 whence BE 1966.393, BE 1968.507; by •Roueché, Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity no. 19 whence McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 607.
Text constituted from:
Transcription (Roueché); Publications; Wood. This edition Roueché (2007).
1 v. Ἀγαθῇ scroll Τύχῃ scroll
2ὑπὲρ ὑγιείας καὶ σωτηρίας καὶ [τύ]χης καὶ νίκης scroll
3καὶ αἰωνίου διαμονῆς τῶν δεσποτ̣ῶν ἡμῶν stop
4 Φλ(αουίου) Ἰουλ(ίου) Κωνσταντίου εὐσεβοῦς ἀηττ̣ή̣του Σεβαστοῦ stop καὶ dash
5 [[[Φλ(αουίου) Κλ(αυδίου) Ἰουλια]ν̣ο̣ῦ̣]] ἐπιφανεστάτου καὶ γενναιοτάτ̣[ο]υ Καίσαρος stop
6 Φλ(άουιος) Κυιντ(ίλιος) Ἔρως Μονάξιος stop ὁ διασημότατος ἡγεμ̣ὼ̣ν̣ stop
7καὶ ἀπὸ Κρητάρχων τὸν Π̣ [·· c. 8 ··] [ἐκ θ]ε̣μ̣ε̣λ̣ί̣ων̣ τῇ λ[αμ]π̣ρᾷ stop
8καὶ συγγενεῖ Κρητῶν [μητροπόλει τῶν Ἀφροδεισιέων stop ]
9 v. κα̣τε̣σ̣κε̣ύ̣[ασεν ·· c. 12 ··] ?vac.
1 ΑΓΑΘΗ scroll ΤΥΧΗ scroll
2ΥΠΕΡΥΓΙΕΙΑΣΚΑΙΣΩΤΗΡΙΑΣΚΑΙ[··]ΧΗΣΚΑΙΝΙΚΗΣ scroll
3ΚΑΙΑΙΩΝΙΟΥΔΙΑΜΟΝΗΣΤΩΝΔΕΣΠΟ·ΩΝΗΜΩΝ stop
4ΦΛΙΟΥΛ scroll ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΟΥΕΥΣΕΒΟΥΣΑΗΤ··ΤΟΥΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΥ stop ΚΑΙ dash
5 [[[·······················]···]]ΕΠΙΦΑΝΕΣΤΑΤΟΥΚΑΙΓΕΝΝΑΙΟΤΑ·[·]ΥΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ stop
6ΦΛ scroll ΚΥΙΝΤ scroll ΕΡΩΣΜΟΝΑΞΙΟΣ stop ΟΔΙΑΣΗΜΟΤΑΤΟΣΗΓΕ··· stop
7ΚΑΙΑΠΟΚΡΗΤΑΡΧΩΝΤΟΝ·[········][···]·····Ω·ΤΗΛ[··]·ΡΑ stop
8ΚΑΙΣΥΓΓΕΝΕΙΚΡΗΤΩΝ[·····························]
9 Κ·Τ··Κ··[···· ············]   
<ab>
<lb n="1" />
<space extent="1" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
Ἀγαθῇ
<g type="scroll" />
Τύχῃ
<g type="scroll" />
<lb n="2" />
ὑπὲρ
ὑγιείας
καὶ
σωτηρίας
καὶ
<supplied reason="lost" >
τύ
</supplied>
χης
καὶ
νίκης
<g type="scroll" />
<lb n="3" />
καὶ
αἰωνίου
διαμονῆς
τῶν
δεσπο
<unclear reason="damage" >
τ
</unclear>
ῶν
ἡμῶν
<g type="stop" />
<lb n="4" />
<expan>
<abbr>
Φλ
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
αουίου
</supplied>
</expan>
<expan>
<abbr>
Ἰουλ
<orig >
<g type="scroll" />
</orig>
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
ίου
</supplied>
</expan>
Κωνσταντίου
εὐσεβοῦς
ἀητ
<unclear reason="damage" >
τή
</unclear>
του
Σεβαστοῦ
<g type="stop" />
καὶ
<g type="dash" />
<lb n="5" />
<del>
<supplied reason="lost" >
<expan>
<abbr>
Φλ
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
αουίου
</supplied>
</expan>
<expan>
<abbr>
Κλ
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
αυδίου
</supplied>
</expan>
</supplied>
<supplied reason="lost" >
Ἰουλια
</supplied>
<unclear reason="damage" >
νοῦ
</unclear>
</del>
ἐπιφανεστάτου
καὶ
γενναιοτά
<unclear reason="damage" >
τ
</unclear>
<supplied reason="lost" >
ο
</supplied>
υ
Καίσαρος
<g type="stop" />
<lb n="6" />
<expan>
<abbr>
Φλ
<orig >
<g type="scroll" />
</orig>
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
άουιος
</supplied>
</expan>
<expan>
<abbr>
Κυιντ
<orig >
<g type="scroll" />
</orig>
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
ίλιος
</supplied>
</expan>
Ἔρως
Μονάξιος
<g type="stop" />
διασημότατος
ἡγε
<unclear reason="damage" >
μὼν
</unclear>
<g type="stop" />
<lb n="7" />
καὶ
ἀπὸ
Κρητάρχων
τὸν
<orig n="unresolved" >
<unclear reason="damage" >
π
</unclear>
</orig>
<gap reason="lost" extent="8" unit="character" dim="internal" />
<supplied reason="lost" >
ἐκ
</supplied>
<supplied reason="lost" >
θ
</supplied>
<unclear reason="damage" >
εμελί
</unclear>
ω
<unclear reason="damage" >
ν
</unclear>
τῇ
λ
<supplied reason="lost" >
αμ
</supplied>
<unclear reason="damage" >
π
</unclear>
ρᾷ
<g type="stop" />
<lb n="8" />
καὶ
συγγενεῖ
Κρητῶν
<supplied reason="lost" >
μητροπόλει
τῶν
Ἀφροδεισιέων
<g type="stop" />
</supplied>
<lb n="9" />
<space extent="1" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
κ
<unclear reason="damage" >
α
</unclear>
τ
<unclear reason="damage" >
εσ
</unclear>
κ
<unclear reason="damage" >
εύ
</unclear>
<supplied reason="lost" >
ασεν
</supplied>
<gap reason="lost" extent="12" unit="character" dim="internal" />
<space extent="unknown" unit="character" id="space3" dim="horizontal" />
</ab>

Apparatus

The words highlighted have been erased.

l.2. Sherard read ΤΗΜΗΣ. Waddington Τ·ΧΗΣ, but the tau was not copied by any other witnesses, or by us.

l.5. No earlier visitors copied anything in this rasura; we have (with some difficulty) examined it closely, and taken a squeeze.

l.6. After ἡγεμών Sherard read το, seen by no other witnesses, but reproduced as τε by Cormack.

l.7. At the end [·· ? ··]ΝΤΗΛ[··]ΠΡΑ was read by most witnesses, but misleadingly set out in CIG, whence it was misunderstood by Cormack (see Robert, loc.cit., 162). We took a squeeze of this line. After τόν there is a trace of a cross-bar. The restoration [ἐκ θ]ε̣μ̣ε̣λ̣ί̣ων, from the traces which we discerned, is that of Robert; the phrase appears again in the closely contemporary 8.405.

Translation:

With Good Fortune. For the health and safety and fortune and victory and eternal endurance of our masters, Flavius Julius Constantius, pious unvanquished Augustus, and [[Flavius Claudius ?Iulianus]]. the most renowned and most noble Caesar, Flavius Quintilius Eros Monaxios, perfectissimus praeses and former Cretarch, built [?the gate] from the foundations for the splendid [metropolis of ?the Aphrodisians], kin to the Cretans [·· ? ··

Commentary:

See discussion at ala2004 III.4

Photographs:

Front face in situ (1973)
 Front face in situ (1973)
Front face in situ (1973)
 Front face in situ (1973)
Front face restored (1991)
 Front face restored (1991)
Front face restored (1991)
 Front face restored (1991)
Left end (1972)
 Left end (1972)
Left end (1991)
 Left end (1991)
Right end (1972)
 Right end (1972)

Representations:

Wood's notebook, page 46
 Wood's notebook, page 46
Squeeze of erasure, line 6 (1981)
 Squeeze of erasure, line 6 (1981)
Squeeze of erasure, line 6 (1981)
 Squeeze of erasure, line 6 (1981)

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