IGII2 3253-3256, 3284, 3829 Pandaites and Pasikles Monument / Honours for Augustus and his heirs

Pandaites and Pasikles Monument / Honours for Augustus and his heirs

IG II² 3253-3256, 3284, 3829 Date: A: ca. 360-320 BC. B: col. I-IV: 4 AD; col. V: 114 AD

Face A

col. 1

Lysippe, daughter of Alkibiades of Cholleidai, wife of Pandaites uninscribed space Pandaites son of Pasikles of Potamos, Pasikles son of Myron of Potamos dedicated it. (5) Sthennis made it.^[1]

col. 2

Myron son of Pasikles of Potamos (5) Sthennis made it.

col. 3

Pasikles son of Myron of Potamos (5) Leochares made it.

col. 4

Timostrate daughter of Pandaites of Prospalta, wife of Pasikles (5) Leochares made it

col. 5

Aristomache daughter of Pasikles of Potamos, wife of Echekles (5) [ - made it]

Face B

col. 1 (IG II2 3256)

The People (erected this statue of) Drusus.^[2]

col. 2 (IG II2 3254)

The People (erected this statue of) Tiberius Caesar.^[3]

col. 3 (IG II2 3253)

The People (erected this statue of) Augustus Caesar.^[4]

col. 4 (IG II2 3255)

The People (erected this statue of) Germanicus Caesar.^[5]

col. 5 (IG II2 3284)

(This statue of) Emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan Augustus Germanicus Dacicus the God, son of the God, the invincible (was erected by) the Council of the Areopagos and the Council of the 600 and the People of the (5) Athenians, for their own benefactor and the saviour of the world (oikoumenēs).^[6]

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References:

IG II² 3253-3256, 3284, 3829 (Translated text) (PHI) (PHI) (PHI) (PHI) (PHI) (PHI)

Löhr, Familienweihungen 161

Højte, Statue Bases Trajan 103

Højte, Statue Bases Tiberius 88

Højte, Statue Bases Augustus 130

DNO 2058

DNO 2281

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (private), Statue base (People), Statue base (Areopagos, Council, and People)

Findspot: Acropolis, west of the Parthenon (At findspot)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This long base stood on the Acropolis to the west of the Parthenon, near its current location. It is composed of multiple blocks, but the arrangement of them is certain because of the patterns of clamp cuttings. There are dowel holes on top of some of the blocks for attaching the crowning course which would have supported the actual statues. The monument was originally dedicated by Pandaites and Pasikles of Potamos in honour of their family members around 320 BC. The first three lines of text on each base label the individual depicted by the sculpture. The fourth line, running across all six bases, names Pandaites and Pasikles as the dedicators. A fifth line in smaller script identifies the sculptors responsible for each of the statues, Sthennis of Olynthos (DNO 2272-2281) and Leochares of Athens (DNO 2032-2068), who were active ca. 360-320 BC. The core of the family is formed by the married couple Pasikles (col. 3) and Timostrate (col. 4), who had three children: Pandaites (the first dedicator, no statue, also attested as an ephebe in 333/2 BC, I Rhamnous 453, l. 23), Myron (col. 2), and Aristomache (col. 5). It is unclear whether Lysippe is wife of Pandaites the dedicator or of Pandaites the father of Timostrate. The second dedicator might be the Pasikles of col. 3 or an otherwise unmentioned son of the Myron in col. 2. There is a space between col. 1 and 2, which might have been intended for an additional statue, depicting Pandaites the first dedicator. The monument may have been erected after 317 BC after Demetrios of Phaleron's legislation banned funerary sculptures, as an alternative way of commemorating the family group (S. Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens, 415). On different possible reconstructions of the family relationships, see J. K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families, 1971, pp. 23-24; Humphreys, 415. On family statue groups on the Acropolis in the late Classical and early Hellenistic Age, see C. M. Keesling in P. Schultz and R. von den Hoff, Early Hellenistic Portraiture, 2007, 142-46. Other examples include IG II³ 4, 231; IG II² 3205, 3834, 3850/4159, 4102. [2] In the early Imperial period, the monument was flipped around, reinscribed and new statues installed, depicting members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. From left to right, the honorands are: Drusus the Younger, son of the future emperor Tiberius; Tiberius himself (r. 14 – 37 AD); Augustus (r. 31 BC – 14 AD); Germanicus, who was Augustus' great-nephew. The final space may have originally been for a statue of Augustus' grandson Agrippa Postumus, who was murdered shortly after the death of Augustus in 14 AD, but was replaced with an image of the emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 AD) in 114 AD. The set was probably erected in 4 AD to commemorate Augustus' adoption of Tiberius and Agrippa Postumus as his heirs and Tiberius' simultaneous adoption of Germanicus as his own heir alongside his own son Drusus, who was expected to succeed Tiberius alongside Germanicus (Drusus is also honoured by IG II² 3257). Similar groups erected at this time are known from Ephesos (I Ephesos II.257) and Arsinoe in Egypt (C. B. Rose, Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the Julio-Claudian period, 1997, 188-89). [3] On Tiberius and Athens, see Agora XVIII 253 with notes [4] On Augustus and Athens, see SEG 29.168 with notes. [5] Germanicus predeceased Tiberius in 19 AD. His son Gaius "Caligula" and brother Claudius subsequently reigned from 37-41 AD and 41-54 AD respectively. For other statues of Germanicus at Athens, see IG II² 3258 with notes. [6] Trajan's titulature indicates a date between 102 and 114 AD, probably in 114 AD on the occasion of Trajan's visit to Athens on his way to invade Parthia, at which point the epithets deployed here and the erection of a monument on the Acropolis, with its connections to the Persian Wars, would be appropriate. The epithet "invincible" also recalls an epithet given to Alexander the Great in Hypereides Or. 5.32 (B. Martens, JRS 113, 2023, 153). On Trajan and Athens, see SEG 60.223 with notes.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
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ID: AIO_3831