AIUK11 Appendix 1 Honorific dedication for Rufius Festus (early modern forgery)

Honorific dedication for Rufius Festus (early modern forgery)

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) Appendix 1 Date: 1679-1695 AD?

τὸν λαμπρότατον ἀνθύπατον τῆς Ἑλλάδος Ρούφιον Φῆστον καὶ Ἀρεο- παγείτην ἡ ἐξ Ἀρέου πάγου (5)βουλὴ καὶ ἡ βουλὴ τῶν τριακοσίων καὶ ὁ δῆμος ὁ Ἀθηναίων εὐνο- ίας ἕνεκα καὶ εὐεργε- σίας τῆς περὶ τὴν πόλιν (10)ἀνέστησεν προνοοῦντος Φλαβίου Πρυλαδου.

Next - AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 2
Translated text

References:

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) Appendix 1 (Translated text) (AIO) (AIUK)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

AIO Images: 1

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Forgery of honorific inscription

Findspot: Unknown (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford AN 1951.476)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscribed plaque is an early modern forgery based on a corrupted record of IG II² 5, 13274, a late fourth century AD honorific inscription for Rufius Festus, governor of Greece. That inscription was transcribed, with some errors, by Cyriacus of Ancona in 1436 and then included in early printed collections of inscriptions, which introduced further errors. The text on this plaque is the version presented in J. Gruter, Inscriptiones antiquae (1602-1603). The forgery was one of three plaques of similar dimensions, all inscribed in the same lettering, which resembles that of the Classical period (anachronistic given their Imperial subject matter). The other two plaques were based on IG II² 5902 and 6419. The last of these texts to be published in western Europe was IG II² 5902 in 1679; the plaques must have been created after this date. All three are first attested in 1720 in the collection of John Kemp, and were probably acquired (or manufactured?) by one Jean Gailhard on the Grand Tour before 1695. Forgeries of Latin inscriptions are already attested in the mid-sixteenth century, but this is very early for the creation of forgeries of Greek texts. For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 11, Appendix.

Added: 14 Jan 2021
Updated: 9 Jul 2021
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