AIUK14 no. 1 List of ephebic friends

List of ephebic friends

AIUK 14 (National Museums Scotland) no. 1 Date: 41-54 AD

Relief ^[1] In the archonship of Metrodoros, when the super- intendent (kosmēteuontos) was Diony- sodoros (son of Dionysodoros) of Phlya, (5)Attikos son of Philippos, having inscribed his own fellow ephebes (and) friends, dedicated (this).

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Aiolion^[2] Dionysas (10)Anthos Herakon Theogas Charopeinos Tryphon (15)Dorion Phidias Symmachos Athenion^[3] Antipas (20)Euodos Metrobios Hypsigonos Apollonides

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Hermas (25)Theophas (H?)elis Atlas Zopyros Euthiktos (30)Mousais Aneiketos Sekoundos uninscribed space Zosimos^[3] Primos (35)Dionys Eisigenes Sotas Androneikos.

Of Caesar.^[4]

Greek text

References:

AIUK 14 (National Museums Scotland) no. 1 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

Translation by: Peter Liddel, Chris de Lisle, Polly Low

Images: National Museums Scotland - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: List of names (ephebic)

Findspot: Unknown (NMS A.1956.368)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This small stele or plaque was donated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1887 or 1888 by Alexander Wood Inglis. There is currently no information on how he acquired it. Reference to it was discovered in the catalogues of the National Museums Scotland in the course of the AIUK project. It has never previously been published. The relief is worn, but appears to depict an oil amphora, alluding to the use of oil by the ephebes in the gymnasium (compare IG II³ 4, 406).

The inscription is a list of friends who went through the ephebate, a year of military and civic training for young men, together. It dates to the same year as another list of ephebic friends from Athens, AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 5. The archon (chief official of Athens, who gave his name to the year), superintendent (official in charge of the ephebes of a particular year), and many of the individual ephebes appear in both lists. The inscribing ephebe, Attikos son of Philippos, like the inscriber of AIUK 11, no. 5, is not otherwise attested. For more on the Athenian ephebate in the Roman period, see AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 10 and AIO Papers 12, and for its earlier history, see RO 89 and IG II² 1039. [2] The thirty-one ephebes included in this list are a subset of the total cohort, which is likely to have contained over a hundred young men. The ephebes are all referred to by their given name only, without patronymics or demotics, perhaps an egalitarian touch which obscures differences in social background. Unusually, several of the ephebes are named with shortened ("hypocoristic") forms of their names, such as Theogas and Dionysas for Theogenes and Dionysodoros (rather like "Pete", "Steve" or "Chris" in English). These forms may be used to indicate familiarity and camaraderie. Another aspect of the list reveals a hierarchy among the ephebes. Three of the first five ephebes - Aiolion, Herakon, and Theogas - are also named first (Theogas as "Theogenes"), within crowns, in AIUK 11, no. 5; they are known to have belonged to prominent families and had probably performed liturgies for their fellow ephebes during the year, by serving as competition directors (agonothetai) and/or gymnasiarchs (see AIO Papers 12, sect. 2.3). The second ephebe in the list, Dionysas, is probably the son of the superintendent. [3] The uninscribed space in the right column and the slightly larger than normal spacing between l. 17 and l. 18 at the parallel point in the left-hand column might mark off the ephebes below that point (ll. 18-23, 33-38) as non-citizen ephebes. Two of the ephebes in this section Euodos and Hypsigonos (ll. 20 & 22) have names that might indicate non-citizen status. The absence of a specific label in the list might be a diplomatic way of indicating a difference of status between citizen and non-citizen ephebes, while maintaining the idea of collegiality. On non-citizen ephebes in the Roman period, see IG II² 2017 n. 3. [4] The last line is written in larger letters than the rest of the inscription. We know from AIUK 11, no. 5 that "Caesar" is Tiberius Claudius Germanicus Caesar (i.e. the Emperor Claudius, reigned AD 41-54). The word is in the genitive, signifying that the dedication was made in his reign, but also more broadly under his tutelage. In the Roman period, many of the ephebes' activities emphasised veneration of the Roman emperor as a central part of Athenian identity (see AIO Papers 12, pp. 29-30, 40-42).

For a more detailed discussion of this inscription see AIUK 14 (National Museums, Scotland).

Added: 31 May 2022
Updated: 18 Jul 2022
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ID: AIO_2427