IEleus 624 Statue base for Marcus Aurelius Prosdektos

Statue base for Marcus Aurelius Prosdektos

I Eleusis 624 Date: ca. 200 AD

To Demeter and the Girl, the Sacred Gerousia (dedicated this statue of) Marcus Aurelius bearer of the sacred stone (lithophoron) Prosdektos son of Pistokrates of Kephale,^[1] (5) having served as envoy at his own expense, and been honoured by the God Commodus with Roman citizenship,^[2] having been archon of the genos of the Kerykes, having been archon (10) of the Sacred Gerousia, on account of his piety. Attikos son of Eudoxos of Sphettos made it.^[3]

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References:

I Eleusis 624 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 3658 (PHI)

DNO 4174

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (Gerousia)

Findspot: Eleusis (Eleusis Museum E 807)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Only a small fragment of ll. 5-10 now survives, but Jacob Spon and George Wheler saw and recorded the inscription, then fully intact, in the area of the Telesterion at Eleusis in 1678. The erection of this statue base around 200 AD, is the only attested action of the Sacred Gerousia ("council of elders"), which was established in Athens in the mid-second century AD (S. Follet, Athènes, 1976, 140-41). Appointment as a gerousiast was one of many achievements for which members of the association of the Iobakchoi were obliged to offer a libation in 164/5 AD (IG II² 1368, l. 133). I Eleusis 503, erected between 176 and 180 AD, honours Lucius Memmius the altar priest for embassies to the emperor regarding the Gerousia and several letters from Marcus Aurelius and Commodus deal with issues relating to it (Oliver, Greek Constitutions, 1989, no. 193-203). Gerousiasts are also mentioned in prytany lists from ca. 220 and ca. 255 AD (Agora XV 467, l. 17 and 466, ll. 5-7). The Gerousia's meeting-chamber (synedrion) is mentioned in SEG 30.82, l. 4, ca. 230 AD. These texts give little indication of the Gerousia's function. Councils of the same name attested elsewhere (notably at Ephesos) were involved in organising processions and ceremonies; the role of the Gerousia was at Athens probably the same (J. H. Oliver, The Sacred Gerusia, 1941, 21-28). This is supported by a set of 475 tokens found in and around the Stoa of Attalos, all issued and countermarked by a single authority in the mid-third century AD (Agora X L299-L331). Nine of these are inscribed "Clodius of the sacred Gerousia" (Agora X L310, with image). These appear to be festival tokens, which grated holders the right to admission or to a share of distributions. The imagery on the tokens recalls Athena, Theseus, Herakles, Sarapis, Dionysos, Poseidon, Asklepios, and others, suggesting that the Gerousia was involved in the Panathenaia, Theseia, Dionysia, Asklepieia, and ephebic festivals (Cf. M. Gkikaki, in Z. Newby, Material Dynamics of Festivals, 2023, 106-112). However, the tokens do not depict Demeter and Persephone and the Gerousia does not appear in either of the surviving decrees from the Imperial period dealing with the Eleusinian Mysteries (I Eleusis 489; AIUK 4.2 (BM, decrees), 17), so these may have been outside their purview.

Prosdektos was the bearer of the sacred stone (lithophoros), a minor Eleusinian priesthood held by the genos of the Kerykes, otherwise only known from I Eleusis 300, ll. 15-16 and a seat in the Theatre of Dionysos (IG II³ 4, 1885; see K. Clinton, Sacred Officials, 1974, 98). The reference to Commodus as a god in l. 6 indicates a date after his deification in 197 AD (cf. IG II² 2119 with note), but probably not long after, since Prosdektos had been a prytanis in 167/8 and would have been fairly elderly by the 190s (Agora XV 371, l. 50). The practice of hieronymy (i.e. use of his title instead of his personal name) is not observed; this may mean that the priesthood was not hieronymous or that Prosdektos was already dead when the base was erected (Clinton in I Eleusis). [2] This is the only explicit reference from Athens to an Emperor granting someone citizenship. As expected, Prosdektos receives the praenomen and nomen (Marcus Aurelius) of the emperor who made the grant. For the presentation of Roman citizenship as an honour, cf. IG IV² 1, 82-84, ll. 33-34. [3] Attikos is not the sculptor, but the one who organised and funded the erection of the statue. He was a member of the genos of the Eumolpidai, presumably a gerousiast himself, and also oversaw the erection of I Eleusis 623.

Added: 28 Jul 2023
Updated: 3 Jul 2024
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ID: AIO_2757