IGII2 3257 Honours for Drusus the Younger

Honours for Drusus the Younger

IG II² 3257 Date: ca. 20 AD

The Council and the People (erected this statue of) Drusus Caesar, son of the God, the new God Ares.^[1]

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References:

IG II² 3257 (Translated text) (PHI)

Ehrenburg and Jones, Augustus and Tiberius 136

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (Council and People)

Findspot: Athens (Athens Ephoria Θ - (in the Agora))

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This large square base supported a statue of Drusus the Younger, son and heir of the Emperor Tiberius, who died before his father in 23 AD. It was perhaps erected to commemorate Drusus' victory over the Illyrians in 20 AD (Schmalz, p. 101). Drusus was also honoured in the statue group on the Acropolis commemorating Tiberius' adoption as heir of Augustus (IG II² 3256 with notes) and the head from a statue of him was found near the Roman Agora (NAMA 2661, with images on Commons). Augustus' erstwhile heir, Gaius Caesar had earlier been named as "the new Ares" in IG II² 3250. It is tempting to link the veneration of these princes as Ares with the new Temple of Ares erected in the Athenian Agora in the reign of Augustus, but there is no explicit evidence supporting this (A. J. S. Spawforth, in M. C. Hoff and S. I. Rotroff, Romanization of Athens, 1997, 186-88). For the identification of Julio-Claudians as "new" versions of Olympian gods, see SEG 29.167 with notes. The base was found on Odos Sophokleous in north central Athens, where it had been incorporated into a tower of the city wall (Kyparisses Arch. Delt. 11B, 1927/8, 51 n. 160) and is now located in a pile west of the Temple of Hephaistos within the Agora excavations.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
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ID: AIO_3814