SEG 33.179 Ephesos honours Hadrian

Ephesos honours Hadrian

SEG 33.179 Date: c. 132 AD

(This statue of) Emperor Caesar [Trajan Hadrian] Augustus Olympios [Panhellenios, saviour] (was dedicated by) the mother-city (mētropolis), [first of all and greatest] of Asia, and twice temple-warden (neokoros) [of the Augusti], (5)the city of the [Ephesians], for their own [founder (ktistēn) and benefactor,^[1] through] the manager (epimelētou) Marcus Tigellius [Lupus?], in the priesthood of Tiberius Claudius [Atticus].^[2]

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References:

SEG 33.179 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 3297 (PHI)

Ameling, Herodes Atticus II 42

Højte, Statue Bases 216

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (other city)

Findspot: Olympieion (At findspot)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This statue base is part of a group erected for Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD) in the precinct of the Temple of Olympian Zeus by delegations from cities throughout the Roman Empire to celebrate Hadrian's consecration of the temple in 132 AD (see IG II² 3290 with notes). If the title "Panhellenios" is correctly restored in l. 2, this might be a reference to the establishment of the Panhellenion on the same occasion (see IG II³ 4 215 with notes). On epigraphic evidence for Hadrian at Athens, see IG II² 5185 with notes.

The dedicator of this statue, Ephesos, was the capital of the Roman province of Asia and one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire. The Ephesians outline Hadrian’s benefactions to them most fully in Inschriften von Ephesos 274, probably of 129 AD, in which they honour him for granting financial privileges to the city’s sanctuary of Artemis, supplying Egyptian grain to the city, repairing the harbour, and dredging the river Kaÿstros. As here, they name him “their own founder and saviour.” Most of this inscription is taken up with the city's official titulature. The Greek cities of Asia Minor competed fiercely against one another regarding these titles in the Imperial period (cf. É. Guerber, Les Cités grecques dans l’Empire romain, 2009, 328-331; M. Hallmannsecker, Roman Ionia, 2022, 53-59). The seriousness of this competition is shown by Inschriften von Ephesos 1489-1490, in which the Ephesians appeal to the emperor because their rival cities of Smyrna, and Pergamon had not addressed them with their proper titles. Ephesos, Smyrna, and Pergamon all claimed to be "mother-city" and "first" in slightly different formulations. Temple-warden (neokoros) was a special status granted to a city, allowing it to dedicate a temple to the provincial Imperial cult. Initially, emperors only granted the status to one city per province per reign. Ephesos first received the status from Nero or the Flavians and had been granted a second temple by Hadrian in 131 AD, very shortly before this statue was erected (B. Burrell, Neokoroi 2004, 59-85, cf. Inschriften von Ephesos 428). In the statue bases erected in the Olympieion, the status of mother-city is also claimed by Miletos (IG II² 3300), Pompeiopolis (IG II² 3298), and Koropissos (IG II² 3307), while Laodikeia-by-the-Sea in Syria claims a very different but equally grandiose string of titles (IG II² 3299). [2] Marcus Tigellius Lupus and his family are attested in civic roles at Ephesos (D. Knibbe, R. Merkelbach, ZPE 33, 1979, 124-25), but he also seems to have received Athenian citizenship and served as herald of the Council and People at Athens (SEG 28.183+32.199, l. 6). Such dual citizenship was common in the Imperial period, cf. SEG 69.89, with note on Claudius Attalos Andragathos of Synnada. For Claudius Attikos, first priest of the Olympieion and also high priest of the imperial cult at Athens, see Agora XV 322.

Added: 17 Aug 2024
Updated: 14 Apr 2025
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