AIO 2847 Thyateira honours Hadrian

Thyateira honours Hadrian

AIO 2847 Date: 128-132 AD

Fragment a+c+d+f+g+i+j

For good fortune of the most divine Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, Since the city of the Thyateirans, [feeling gratitude for the benefactions (euergesiais) of the] greatest Emperor, Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, [saviour (sōtēros)] (5)and [benefactor (euergetou)], father of the fatherland, Pontifex Maximus, consul, [through] which [cities and] peoples (ethnē) of all Greece [have come into this most solemn] Panhellenion, [wishes] to inscribe on the Acropolis [in Athens] everything which it achieved [with Mettius Modestus' support?] and the gifts of the greatest of all kings ever, Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian (10)Olympios Panhellenios Zeus, for all of which the Council and People of the Thyateirans decided, for good fortune, that this decree shall be inscribed on a stone stele and stood on the Acropolis, [so that it may be] very clear to all the Greeks, how much (the city) has got from the greatest king, [because simultaneously] the king benefited (euergetēsen) all of the Greeks in common, having gathered that council (sunedrion) together from them, as a common source of honour (philoteimian), (15)in the most brilliant city of the Athenians, which is the benefactress (euergetin) that [gives] the fruit of the Mysteries to all alike, that is the [most awesome] Panhellenion, through what he decreed (epsēphisato) [the Romans] agreeing [through a decision (dogmati)] of the Senate, and individually [he gave] the peoples and cities [a share] of this [most honourable council], and it is also clear that [the king increases and benefits] our [city] conspicuously and often, . . . even the (20) . . . he benefitted . . . taking on behalf of . . . . . . from the . . . [the control (?)] of the waters . . . from . . . according to the - of all . . .

Fragment b+h

erasure (25)[ . . . incomes (prosodous) (?)] [ . . . not only having displayed] his munificence (megalophrosynēn) with two hundred thousand denarii for [the transport of grain and all kinds] of sustenance (trophōn) and [having provided] the greatest bounty regarding wheat (puron) . . . of the greatest king's love of giving, but also the . . . himself often acting kindly, at the time when (30)[ . . . and having made firm] for us forever our borders [unchangeable security (asphaleian)] [and the protection] of them [through] the king's forethought, and even . . . having entrusted [to the officials] who requested it from him, [ . . . money] left for another purpose [ . . . and he also wanted] the land taxes (gēs phorous) to be equitable (35) . . .

Fragment e

. . . [ . . . the following carried out embassies and delivered the] decree [of the Thyateirans: . . . ] [ . . . and Tiberius Claudius Menogenes Caecilianus, son of Tiberius Claudius Sokrates] (40)Sacerdotianus, [priest of Kathegemon Dionysos and high priest of the Augusti] and son of Julia [Menogenis, competition director (agōnothetidos) and crown-bearer (stephanēphorou) and prytanis.] The [inscription and erection of the stele on the Acropolis were managed by the high priest for life of the] Augusti [and priest of Kathegemon Dionysos and high priest of Asia and competition direction (agōnothetēs)] Tiberius Claudius Menogenes Caecilianus.

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Greek text

References:

AIO 2847 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 1090 (PHI)

IG II² 1087 (PHI)

IG II² 1088 (PHI)

SEG 41.67 (PHI)

SEG 47.163a (PHI)

SEG 47.163b (PHI)

Oliver, Marcus Aurelius 50

Ameling, Herodes Atticus II 218

TAM V,2 1180 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Other city, Thyateira)

Original location: Acropolis

fr. a - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 8383)
fr. b - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 9485)
fr. c - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 4944)
fr. d - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 9486)
fr. e - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 5832)
fr. f - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 9490)
fr. g - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 8381-2)
fr. h - Findspot: Acropolis, north slope, near Asklepeion (EM 4237)
fr. i - Findspot: Unknown (EM 2284)
fr. j - Findspot: Unknown (EM 5919)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This decree of Thyateira is one of four inscriptions set up on the Athenian Acropolis by various communities to commemorate their admission to the Penhellenion following its creation in 131/2 AD (see Sardes et Synnada 2 for a full list; on the Panhellenion, see IG II³ 4, 215 with notes). Thyateira (modern Akhisar, Turkey) was a prosperous mid-level city on the Lykos river in Lydia, within the Roman province of Asia, but it received no honorific titles or special administrative functions until the third century AD. Unlike the other decrees, Thyateira focuses completely on the benefactions it had received from Hadrian (and perhaps another, see n. 2), making no reference to mythical kinship ties with the Greek mainland or past services to Rome, perhaps because, as a minor Macedonian foundation of the mid-Hellenistic period (Strabo 13.4.4), there was little that could be said. [2] If l. 7 is correctly restored as a name, which is uncertain, it might refer to Gaius Trebonius Proculus Mettius Modestus, suffect consul in 103 AD and proconsul of Asia in 119/20 (CIL III, 7003; I Eph. 1486) or his nephew Mettius Modestus, governor of Lycia in 130/1 AD (TAM II 421). Peppas-Delmousou and Follet suggest that the latter is thanked for supporting Thyateira’s application to the Panhellenion. Jones objects that Thyateira was not in Lycia and proposes that the decree took advantage of Thyateira’s admission to honour the elder Mettius for his acts as governor of Asia (see textual note). [3] That membership of the Panhellenion was a source of honour for communities is shown by decrees like this and by IRCyr. C 163, in which Cyrene contests the membership of a rival city before the emperor. The Panhellenion also offered opportunities for honour to individual Greeks through participation in the Panhellenia Games (see IG II³ 4, 613, 614, 628, 629, 630) and through service as one of their city's delegates to the Panhellenion (cf. OGIS 504-507 and Sardis VII 2, 319-320). [4] The Eleusinian Mysteries were one of the main sources of Athenian prestige in the Imperial period (cf. Aelius Aristides Panath. 128, 230, 257) and the Panhellenion was closely associated with the Eleusinian cult (see IG II³ 4, 215-218, I Eleusis 489). [5] Ll. 14-18 are the fullest account of the procedure by which the Panhellenion was established. The initiative is attributed to Hadrian, who then gets the assent of the Senate (cf. A. J. S. Spawforth, Chiron 29, 1999, 339–344). This contrasts with the briefer, later account of Cassius Dio, in which Hadrian “permitted the Greeks” to establish the Panhellenion (69.16.2). According to l. 14, the purpose of the Panhellenion was to be a source of honour (philotimia) shared by all Greeks. [6] Aside from his benefaction to the whole Greek world through the establishment of the Panhellenion (ll. 11-18), the decree praises Hadrian for benefitting Thyateira specifically (ll. 18-35). Similar praise appears in the decree of Synnada (Sardes et Synnada no. 2, ll. 7-16) and, in vaguer terms, in the decrees of Sardis and Magnesia (Sardes et Synnada no. 1, ll. 2-11; IG II² 1091, ll. 9-11). Hadrian has ordered works of water management (l. 21), made gifts in money and kind to secure the food supply (ll. 26-28), secured or settled Thyateira’s borders (ll. 30-31), allowed the Thyateirans to vary the terms of an endowment they had received (ll. 32-33, cf. I Eleusis 489 for a later parallel at Athens), and ordered a revision of the provincial land tax (ll. 34-35). Jones sees a shift at l. 28 from benefactions from Hadrian himself to acts carried out by Mettius Modestus on his behalf (see n. 2 and textual note). [7] The final lines are reconstructed as a clause naming the citizen responsible for erecting the stele (cf. Sardes et Synnada no. 1, ll. 12-14; Sardes et Synnada no. 2, ll. 42-45). Tiberius Claudius Menogenes Caecilianus belonged to a prominent Thyateiran family, honoured in several inscriptions (TAM V 2 976, 978-980); he may have erected this stele as Thyateira’s delegate to the Panhellenion. Dionysos Kathegemon ("the guider"), originally a Pergamene god, was the chief deity of Thyateira. High priests oversaw cults of the emperors; Menogenes held both the life-long high priesthood of Thyateira and the annual high priesthood of the province of Asia. Menogenes' mother had held several offices at Thyateira that primarily involved the expenditure of money (l. 41); it was common for women to do this in many Greek cities in the Imperial period (R. van Bremen, Limits of Participation, 1996), although not in Athens.

Textual note: AIO largely follows the text of C. Jones Chiron 29 (1999), 1-20 (= SEG 47.163b), which modifies D. Peppas-Delmouzou and S. Follet, BCH 121 (1997), 291-309 (= SEG 47.163a), but at ll. 26-31, AIO retains the more conservative text of Peppas-Delmouzou and Follet, where Jones proposes: ἐκδηλοτάτην ποιούμενος τ]ὴ̣ν μεγ[αλοφροσύνη]ν 𐆖 μυριάδας εἴκοσιν χάριν |[σειτωνίας ἐχαρίσατο τῇ πόλει, ὡς ἄλλω]ν̣ τροφῶ[ν καὶ πλείσ]την τὴν περὶ τὸν πυρὸν ἀφθο|[νίαν περιγενέσθαι ἡμεῖν διὰ τῆ]ς τοῦ μ[εγίστου βα]σ̣ιλέως φιλοδωρίας· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ||[αὐτὴν εὔνοιαν Μέττιος Μόδεστος ἐπέδειξ]ε̣ν, εὐ[μεν]ῶς αὐτὸς σχὼν πολλάκις, ἡνίκα |[αἰτιῶν τινων ἐπενεχθεισῶν ἀδί]κ̣ως [ἐφ’ ἡ]μ̣ῖν εἰς ἀεὶ τὴν τῶν ὅρων ἀμε|[τάθετον διάθεσιν ἐβεβαίωσε διαι]τ̣ῶν [ἐκ τ]ῆς τοῦ βασιλέως προνοίας ("making most clear his munificence, Hadrian donated] a hundred and twenty thousand denarii for [the grain fund (seitōnias) to the city, so that we had, of other] provisions [and especially] regarding wheat, abundance, [through] the greatest king's love of giving (philodōrias), but also the [same good will (eunoian) Mettius Modestus displayed], himself acting kindly many times, at the time when, [some charges having been laid unjustly against] us, [he made firm] forever our borders' [unchangeable arrangement, mediating from] the king's foresight").

Added: 21 Jan 2024
Updated: 21 Jan 2024
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ID: AIO_2847