IGII34 797 Dedication to Asklepios, Hygieia, and Augustus

Dedication to Asklepios, Hygieia, and Augustus

IG II³ 4 797 Date: 1st century BC (A); 9/8 BC – 14 AD (B)

Face A

. . . and Metr- . . . -nios and . . . -cenus (dedicated this).^[1]

Face B

To Asklepios and Hygieia and Augustus Caesar, when the archon and priest of Drusus the Consul was Demochares of Azenia, and the priest (of Asklepios) for life was Zenon of Rhamnous.^[2]

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References:

IG II³ 4 797 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 3176 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Epistyle

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Asklepios), Dedication (private, Hygieia), Dedication (private, Augustus)

Original location: Asklepieion

Findspot: Asklepieion, in Doric Stoa (Athens Ephoria ΝΚ 44)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This epistyle block was dedicated in the Asklepieion on the south slope of the Acropolis (on which, see IG II³ 4, 665 with notes). It was originally dedicated in the first century BC and inscribed on Face A. The names of the dedicators are mostly lost, but the last named in l. 3 seems to have been a Roman (e.g. Lucenus or Pacenus). Later it was flipped around and rededicated with the inscription on Face B. The central section of the inscription on Face A was erased in the process. This rededication must have taken place between the death of Drusus in 9/8 BC and the death of Augustus in 14 AD, but the exact date is uncertain (cf. Schmalz, Augustan and Julio-Claudian Athens, 247-248). [2] Zenon was the first priest of Asklepios to serve for life. Previously, the priests had been selected annually, a 'democratic' model with roots in the fourth century BC (see IG II³ 1, 359 with notes and IG I³ 35 on these ‘democratic priesthoods’ in general). The last evidence for this annual system is IG II³ 4, 792 from the mid-20s BC. The introduction of life-time tenure seems to have been part of religious reforms at Athens ca. 21 BC, which apparently remodelled the system of gene, so that all Athenian citizens were members of at least one (religious clans, on which see RO 37 with notes and IG II² 2338), instituted life-time tenure for all 'democratic' priesthoods on the model of the older gene-priesthoods (cf. S. B. Aleshire and S. D. Lambert in J. H. Richardson and F. Santangelo, Priests and State in the Roman World, 2011, 553-75; A. J. S. Spawforth, Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution, 2011, 192-204). Other examples of annual priesthoods that were converted to life-time tenure in this period are the priesthood of Kalliste (cf. IG II³ 1, 1028, 1339, IG II³ 4, 964, and Agora XVIII 369) and the priesthood of Apollo Delios (cf. Aleshire and Lambert 2011, 565 n. 74). It seems that these priests continued to be selected by means of a lottery (IG II² 3579). Two other building inscriptions survive from the Asklepieion during Zenon's tenure: a statue base (IG II² 4308) and an epistyle which was also dedicated to Asklepios, Hygieia, and Augustus (IG II³ 4 556A), although in a different year from this one.

Added: 15 May 2025
Updated: 15 May 2025
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