13.101. Funerary inscription for Aurelia Tate, also called Epithymia
- Description:
- White marble sarcophagus, with lid, (length W. 2.13). On either side of the central tabella (W. 0.80-0.73 × H. 0.41) are standing draped figures of a woman (left) and a man. Below the tabella are two roughish downward projections at either side and, between them, a relief scene in which two men sit on either side of what appears to be an oven. The left-hand man holds something rectangular and flat which appears to be fed into the 'oven'; the right-hand one holds a tubular object up to his face and down to the 'oven' perhaps a glass-blower's tube (? or a bellows).
- Text:
- Inscribed on the lid (lines 1-2), on the upper rim (l. 3), on the tabella including its upper and lower mouldings (lines 4 ff). An erased area beside the relief of the woman could have contained an additional short text (perhaps ζῇ, which might have been erased when she died).
- Letters:
- standard forms; l. 1-3, ave. 0.03; ll. 4 ff., very poorly aligned and well below the standard of the sculpture. Line 2 is interrupted by the vertical projections on the lid. Ligatures: l. 1 ΗΝ, l. 2, ΝΗ, ΝΗ, l. 8 ΤΗ, l. 9, ΜΗ, l. 14, ΤΗ, l. 16, ΜΗ. Diairesis in ll. 5, 11, 16
- Date:
- Second to third centuries A.D. (lettering)
- Findspot:
- Necropolis, North-east: chamber tomb, with 13.111 (=410), 13.108 (=411), 13.109 (=412), 13.110 (=414).
- Original Location:
- Findspot
- Last recorded location:
- Museum (1994)
- History of discovery:
- Recorded by the NYU expedition in 1994 (Sarcophagus catalogue 415)
- Bibliography:
- Inscription unpublished; sarcophagus published by Smith, Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias, Sarcophagus 6.
- Text constituted from:
- Transcription (Reynolds) This edition Reynolds (2007).
- 1 ἡ σορός ἐστιν καὶ ἡ περὶ αὐτὴν τόπος v. Αὐρ(ηλίας) Τάτης τῆς καὶ Ἐπιθυμίας vac. ἐν ᾗ σορῷ τέ projection θαπται Αὐρ(ήλιος) Ἀκυλεινὸς Πολυ projection χρονίου τοῦ
- 2 Κλαδέου ὁ γενόμενος ἀνὴρ αὐτῆς κηδευθήσεται δὲ καὶ Αὐρ̣(ηλία) [Τά]τ̣η
- 3 ἣ̣ καὶ Ἐπιθυμία καὶ Αὐρ(ήλιος) Ἀκυλει-
- 4νος Ἀκυλεινοῦ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτῆς
- 5 καὶ Αὐρ(ηλία) Ἀπφία Ἀπολλωνίου ἡ θυγά-
- 6τηρ αὐτῆς ἕτερος δὲ οὐδεὶς ἕξει
- 7 ἐξουσίαν ἐ<ν>θάψαι τινα ἐν τῇ σορῷ ἢ
- 8 ἐκθάψαι ἐπεὶ ὁ τοιοῦτό τι τολμήσας
- 9 ἔστω ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμ-
- 10βωρύχος καὶ προσαποτεισάτω ἱερὰ
- 11 Ἀφροδείτῃ ἀργυρίου (δηνάρια) ͵γ ὧν τὸ τρίτον
- 12 ἔσται τοῦ ἐκδικήσαντος τῆς ἐπιγρα-
- 13φῆς ἀπετέθη ἀντίγραφον εἰς τὸ χρε
- 14 οφυλάκιον ἐπί Ὑψικλέους τοῦ Ἀδρά-
- 15στου Ἱέρακος τὸ ζ´ μη(νὸς) Πανημου scroll
- 1ΗΣΟΡΟΣΕΣΤΙΝΚΑΙΗΠΕΡΙΑΥΤΗΝΤΟΠΟΣ ΑΥΡΤΑΤΗΣΤΗΣΚΑΙΕΠΙΘΥΜΙΑΣ ΕΝΗΣΟΡΩΤΕ projection ΘΑΠΤΑΙΑΥΡΑΚΥΛΕΙΝΟΣΠΟΛΥ projection ΧΡΟΝΙΟΥΤΟΥ
- 2ΚΛΑΔΕΟΥΟΓΕΝΟΜΕΝΟΣΑΝΗΡΑΥΤΗΣΚΗΔΕΥΘΗΣΕΤΑΙΔΕΚΑΙΑΥ·[··]·Η
- 3·ΚΑΙΕΠΙΘΥΜΙΑΚΑΙΑΥΡΑΚΥΛΕΙ
- 4ΝΟΣΑΚΥΛΕΙΝΟΥΟΥΙΟΣΑΥΤΗΣ
- 5ΚΑΙΑΥΡΑΠΦΙΑΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΟΥΗΘΥΓΑ
- 6ΤΗΡΑΥΤΗΣΕΤΕΡΟΣΔΕΟΥΔΕΙΣΕΞΕΙ
- 7ΕΞΟΥΣΙΑΝΕΘΑΨΑΙΤΙΝΑΕΝΤΗΣΟΡΩΗ
- 8ΕΚΘΑΨΑΙΕΠΕΙΟΤΟΙΟΥΤΟΤΙΤΟΛΜΗΣΑΣ
- 9ΕΣΤΩΑΣΕΒΗΣΚΑΙΕΠΑΡΑΤΟΣΚΑΙΤΥΜ
- 10ΒΩΡΥΧΟΣΚΑΙΠΡΟΣΑΠΟΤΕΙΣΑΤΩΙΕΡΑ
- 11ΑΦΡΟΔΕΙΤΗΑΡΓΥΡΙΟΥ denarius ΓΩΝΤΟΤΡΙΤΟΝ
- 12ΕΣΤΑΙΤΟΥΕΚΔΙΚΗΣΑΝΤΟΣΤΗΣΕΠΙΓΡΑ
- 13ΦΗΣΑΠΕΤΕΘΗΑΝΤΙΓΡΑΦΟΝΕΙΣΤΟΧΡΕ
- 14ΟΦΥΛΑΚΙΟΝΕΠΙΥΨΙΚΛΕΟΥΣΤΟΥΑΔΡΑ
- 15ΣΤΟΥΙΕΡΑΚΟΣΤΟΖΜΗΠΑΝΗΜΟΥ scroll
Apparatus
l. 15, ΑΤΡΑ lapis
Translation:
The sarcophagus and the area around it is the property of Aurelia Tate, also called Epithymia, in which sarcophagus Aurelius Aquilinos son of Polychronios and grandson of Kladaios who was her husband has been buried, and there shall be buried Aurelia Tate, also called Epithymia and Aurelius Aquilinos son of Aquilinos, her son and Aurelia Apphia daughter of Apollonios, her daughter. No-one else shall have the right to bury anyone in the sarcophagus or to take anyone out of it, since whoever dares to do such a thing is to be sacrilegious, accursed and a tomb-breaker, and in addition to pay as moneys sacred to Aphrodite 3000 denarii, of which the third part will belong to the prosecutor. A copy of the inscription was placed in the Record office in the seventh year of Hypsikles, son of Adrastos Hierax, month of Panemos.
Commentary:
The nomenclature suggests that the Edict of Caracalla on citizenship fell within the lifetime of the principals here, after the death of Apollonios (l.6) who must have been Aurelia Tate's first husband. It would be a reasonable conjecture that she commissioned the tomb on the death of her second husband Aurelius Aquilinos (ll.2-3), by which time she had a son by him (ll. 4-5); but there is no way of estimating how long after 212 that will have been. The stephanephorus in whose year a copy of the document was deposited in the Record-Office was certainly holding office post mortem and gives no clue to the date.
The relief may be interpreted as a scene of glass-blowing: on this see see E. Sironen, Horos 8/9 (1990-91), 83-5
Photographs:
- Sarcophagus (1994)
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- Sarcophagus (1994)
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