IGII25 13265 Honours for Diocletian

Honours for Diocletian

IG II² 5 13265 Date: 285-286 AD?

To Emperor Caesar Gaius Valerius Diocletian pious, lucky,^[1] unconquered Augustus, strongest and above all previous emperors (principes)^[2] most pious Augustus, (5)Lucius Turrianus Gratianus, most brilliant man (vir clarissimus), corrector of the province of Achaia, devoted to his spirit (numini) and majesty (maiestati), (erected this).^[3]

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References:

IG II² 5 13265 (Translated text) (PHI)

CIL III 6103 (EDH)

SIA VI 20 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base?

Inscription type: Statue base (governor)

Findspot: Between the Roman Agora and the Library of Hadrian (Lost)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This Latin inscription honoured Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305 AD), after he defeated his rival Carinus in 285 and before he appointed his friend Maximian as his co-ruler in April 286. The two were commemorated together at Athens in monuments (IG II² 5, 13266 and 13267) and milestones (IG II² 5, 13296 and 13297). A copy of Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices, issued in 301 AD, was inscribed in the Roman Agora (IG II² 5, 13248). The inscription was reported by P. Eustratides in 1870 near the Roman Agora, but has not been seen since (Arch. Eph. 1870, 377). It was presumably a statue base. A similar set of bases were erected for Constantine I and his heirs in the same area (see IG II² 5, 13269 with notes). [2] On this formula, most strongly associated with Caracalla and Diocletian, see A. Scheithauer, ZPE 72, 1988, 155-77. [3] The governor, Turrianus Gratianus, was later Urban Prefect of Rome in 290/1 (CIL VI 1128; A. H. M. Jones, J. R. Martindale, and J. Morris, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. I, 1971, 402) He probably chose to inscribe the text in Latin to emphasise that he was acting in his official role as a Roman magistrate.

Added: 6 Mar 2026
Updated: 6 Mar 2026
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ID: AIO_3674