IGII2 3258 Honours for Germanicus

Honours for Germanicus

IG II² 3258 Date: 18-19 AD?

The Areopagos Council and the People (erected this statue of) Germanicus Caesar.^[1]

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References:

IG II² 3258 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 34.178

Schmalz 139

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (Areopagos and People)

Findspot: Athens (Oliveriano)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is a statue base for Germanicus Caesar, who was adopted by his uncle, the future emperor Tiberius in 4 AD. He visited Athens in 18 AD on his way east to Syria (Tac. Ann. 2.53.3), where he died unexpectedly in 19 AD. On his interactions with the Greek world generally, see M. Kaplan, Greeks and the Imperial Court, 1990, 258-62. His son Gaius "Caligula" and younger brother Claudius would subsequently reign as emperors (37-41 and 41-54 AD respectively). Either the visit or his death might have prompted the erection of this statue. Germanicus is also commemorated in IG II² 3255 (probably erected on his adoption), and IG II² 3259-3260. The ephebes commemorated him with a festival called the Germanikeia, which is first attested in 45/6 AD (IG II² 1969, ll. 24-25) and continued to be celebrated into the mid-third century AD. This may have been established immediately after his death or early in the reign of Claudius.

Similar text appeared on IG II² 3259 (now lost) and M. L. Lazzarini proposes that both texts were inscribed on different sides of the same base (Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica 13, 1985, 36-37). The inscription is now in the Museo Oliveriano in Pesaro, but was seen on the Acropolis by Richard Chandler and Johan David Åkerblad in the late eighteenth century.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
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ID: AIO_3794