IGII2 3299 Laodikeia-by-the-Sea honours Hadrian

Laodikeia-by-the-Sea honours Hadrian

IG II² 3299 Date: ca. 132 AD

(This statue of) Emperor Caesar, son of the God Trajan, grandson of the God Nerva, Trajan Hadrian Augustus Olympios (was erected by) the city of the Julians who are also Laodikeians by the Sea , sacred and inviolable (asulou) and autonomous, (5) ship-ruler (nauarchidos), kin, friend, ally, partner (koinōnou) of the People of the Romans, exceptionally honoured with gifts,^[1] as the tablets in the Capitolium record,^[2] (erected) through the managers (epimelētōn) and envoys Archelaos son of Teimarchos and Marcus Visellius son of Gaius of tribe Collina Priscus and Gaius Cornelius son of Gaius of tribe Quirina (10) Maximus and Apollonios son of Diognetos who is also called Gaios.

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References:

IG II² 3299 (Translated text) (PHI)

OGIS 603

Højte, Statue Bases 218

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Column drum

Inscription type: Statue base (Other city)

Findspot: Olympieion (At findspot)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of over fifty statue bases for the Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD) attested from Athens. It is part of a group erected in the precinct of the Temple of Olympian Zeus by delegations from cities throughout the Roman Empire to celebrate Hadrian's consecration of the temple in 132 AD (see IG II² 3290 with notes). On epigraphic evidence for Hadrian at Athens, see IG II² 5185 with notes.

The dedicator of this statue, Laodikeia by the Sea (modern-day Latakia), was the major port of the province of Syria. This inscription gives the fullest list of the titles claimed by the city. Like the cities of Asia Minor, Syrian cities competed with one another for prestige through titles that emphasised their heritage and close relationship with Roman authority (see IG II² 3297 with notes), but the titles claimed are very different. The titles of “sacred,” “inviolable,” and “autonomous” are Hellenistic ones granted in 81/0 BC by Tigranes the Great during his rule of Syria, “Julians” was granted by Julius Caesar in 48/7 BC (M. Kajava, Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 78, 2005-6, 527-41). The other titles are not otherwise attested. “Ship-ruler” might be connected with the city’s lighthouse, depicted on its coinage (e.g. RPC II 2035A). The base is a recycled column drum from the unfinished Peisistratid temple of Olympian Zeus. There are two holes on top for the feet of a colossal bronze statue. [2] Around three thousand bronze tablets recording treaties and other important grants issued by the Roman Senate and People in the Republican Period were stored in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill in Rome (cf. Polybius 3.26; Josephus, Ant. Jud. 12.10.6). Although the originals were destroyed when the temple burnt down in AD 69, Vespasian had them restored from other records (Suetonius, Vespasian 8.5). Evidence of early friendship with the Romans was an important source of civic prestige in the Imperial Period (cf. Oliver, Marcus Aurelius 5 with notes).

Added: 17 Aug 2024
Updated: 17 Aug 2024
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