FDIII3 67 Statue base for Regilla at Delphi

Statue base for Regilla at Delphi

F.Delphes III 3 67 Date: 143-177 AD (around 153 AD?)

[By decree] of the City of the Delphians,^[1] [Claudius] [Atticus Herodes] the consul^[2] (dedicated this statue of) Appia Annia [Regilla] [Atilia Caucidia Ter]tulla,^[3] daughter of Appius Gallus, [the consul, uninscribed space the husband for his] wife.

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References:

F.Delphes III 3 67 (Translated text) (PHI)

Syll.³ 859e

Ameling, Herodes Atticus II 104

Choix de Delphes 257

Translation by: Hannes Freitag

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (private)

Original location: Delphi

fr. a - Findspot: Delphi, behind the Athenian Treasury (Delphi Museum 996)
fr. b - Findspot: Delphi, on the site of the Athenian Treasury (Delphi Museum 223)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is a statue base for Regilla set up by her husband Herodes Atticus in the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios at Delphi. It was inscribed across two adjacent grey limestone blocks forming a cornice and survives in two fragments which belonged to two separate blocks of the same monument. The smaller, right fragment (inv. 223) does not fit directly onto the larger, left fragment (inv. 996). The latter has the first letters of our inscription near the right hand edge; further to the left it conserves the right part of a statue base erected by the City of the Delphians to Herodes Atticus (Choix de Delphes 256 = F.Delphes III 3 66). The stone is trimmed for joins on its left and right sides; the dedication to Herodes apparently began on another block to the left which is now lost. On Herodes Atticus, see AIUK 11 (Ashmolean) no. 15 with notes; on Regilla, see I Eleusis 476 with notes; on Attic inscriptions at Delphi, see IG II³ 4, 17 with notes.

This limestone cornice supported a statuary group, consisting of the aforementioned statue of Herodes erected by the Delphians along with statues of his wife Regilla on the right (this inscription) and their daughter Elpinike on the left side (258; Elpinike’s inscription is 75 cm long (indicating she was depicted as an adult). Further children, Athenais (259) and Regillus (260), were added on two separate limestone bases of different types and of smaller size (49 and 43 cm wide respectively), possibly at a later date. Alone among Herodes’ children, his son Bradua is not named on any base, either because his base is lost (J. Tobin, Herodes Attikos, 1997, 305), because he was the youngest child and the monument had been completed before he was of age (Ameling, Herodes Atticus II, p. 19), or because he was deliberately excluded (H. Rutledge, CJ 56, 1960, 97-109). Herodes was not on good terms with Bradua (see Philostr. Vit. Soph. 558), but he was included in the family monument in Olympia (IvO 623) and was awarded a statue at Eleusis as hearth-initiate (I.Eleusis 477). There is at least one block missing from the monument which could have held Bradua's statue. On the children of Herodes and Regilla, see Byrne, Roman Citizens of Athens, 2003, Claudius no. 11-14.

The family monument was identified as an “exedra of Herodes Atticus” by É. Bourguet (REG 25, 1912, 12-13) and associated with a poorly preserved semi-circular brick structure (diameter: 6.30 m) found behind the Athenian Treasury near the southwest corner of the Polygonal Wall (plan in F.Delphes III 3, p. 50), which was supposed to be an exedra, albeit a much more humble one than the grand exedra dedicated by Regilla at Olympia in 153 AD (IvO 610). This theory was invalidated by the 1938 excavations (see A. Jacquemin, Offrandes monumentales, 1999, 131 and 290; F. Bommelaer, Guide de Delphes. Le site² [GDS], 2015, p. 276-77). The family monument was probably located near the Athenian Treasury, as most of the texts were discovered in that area, but its precise shape and location remain unclear.

M. Galli, Lebenswelt eines Sophisten, 2004, pp. 220-22 proposed to locate the statuary dedication a bit further west in the Asklepieion (on which, see Paus. 10.2.6 and GDS, p. 278-79 nos. 343 and 339-41). This is possible, but the Athenian Treasury itself might have had an even greater appeal for Herodes Atticus: it was the most important Athenian lieu de mémoire at Delphi where his ancestors had been commemorated as well and where most Delphic decrees for Athenians during the Imperial period (14 out of 17) were inscribed. Herodes’ contemporary Pausanias described it as a monument dedicated from the spoils of the Battle of Marathon (Paus. 10.11.5), although in fact this was probably only the case for the statuary dedication in front of it (see Choix de Delphes 15 with notes). Herodes’ attitude to this battle has been aptly described as “Marathon-mania” (S. Nevin, Idea of Marathon, 2022, 167).

Herodes Atticus had family ties to Delphi and Apollo Pythios that went back to the late second century BC. These were intermittent rather than permanent and often skip a generation, but could be reactivated when this seemed beneficial. His ancestor Eukles (III) son of Herodes (I) participated as commander of a cavalry contingent (phylarch) in the Pythais of 106/5 BC (F.Delphes III.2 28, ll. 12-13). In the late first century BC, Eukles (IV) repeatedly travelled to Delphi on a sacred delegation (theoria), as the Athenian priest of Apollo Pythios, probably for the Pythian Games (see F.Delphes III 2 57 with notes) and participated in the Dodekais (see F.Delphes III 2 59 with notes). Herodes’ grandfather Hipparchos presided over the Dodekais as Athenian priest of Apollo Pythios under Domitian, but did not travel to Delphi himself to perform the sacrifice (see F.Delphes III 2 65 with notes). Herodes Atticus himself attended the Pythian Games at least once (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 559) and renovated the stadium at Delphi (Vit. Soph. 551; Paus. 10.32.1; cf. Tobin, 306-309). The Delphian statuary dedication for Herodes could be linked to either or both events. As opposed to his ancestors who are always attested at Delphi as representatives of Athens, Herodes Atticus appears as a private benefactor who is honoured by the Delphians and then sets up his own dynastic monument.

Beside this family monument, Herodes’ family also appears in four other inscriptions from Delphi: Council and People of the Delphians dedicate a statue of Regilla (Choix de Delphes 261); Regilla dedicates a statue of an unknown (262); Herodes dedicates a statue of his ward Polydeukion (263); the Delphians dedicate a statue of Polydeukion (264). [2] Herodes Atticus was ordinary consul in 143 AD, the first Athenian to hold this prestigious position (his father Atticus had served as suffect consul in 133 AD). This gives a terminus post quem for this inscription, the statue of Herodes, and for the statue of Elpinike (Choix de Delphes 258), which were probably erected at the same time. The birth-order of Herodes’ children is uncertain and does not much help with dating (cf. T. D. Barnes, Latomus 27, 1968, 581-86), but the fact that Elpinike was presented as an adult would seem to indicate a date at least twelve years after the marriage of Herodes and Regilla in or after 138 AD. The terminus ante quem is the death of Herodes about 177 AD. Thus, the monument might date to a similar time as the exedra dedicated at Olympia in 153 AD. [3] On Regilla (PIR² A 720), see I Eleusis 476 with notes; S. Pomeroy, Murder of Regilla, 2007. At Delphi, she was also honoured by the Delphian Council and People (Choix de Delphes 261), which describes Regilla in language more typical of Athenian honorific inscriptions than Dellphian ones. This suggests that Herodes played a role in shaping the monument. Regilla also erected the statue base Choix de Delphes 262, possibly for Herodes.

The description of Regilla as wife to a consul and daughter to a consul closely resembles I Eleusis 476 and IvO 612 (but the order is inverted).

Added: 6 Mar 2026
Updated: 6 Mar 2026
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