AIUK45 no. 24 Statue base of Piso

Statue base of Piso

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 24 Date: 173/4 AD

You look upon me, fire-bearer, servant of the god Asklepios, Piso, leader of the cavalry, who was eponymous archon of the Athenians^[1] (173/4 AD). uninscribed line With the sanction of the most august (5)councillors,^[2] in the priesthood-for-life of Agathopous of Phlya.^[3]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 24 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 3640 (PHI)

GIBM I 52

Translation by: Peter Liddel, Polly Low

AIO Images: 1

Monument type: Part of a small columnar monument

Inscription type: Statue base (Areopagos permits)

Findspot: Athens? (BM 1816,0610.271)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription was part of the Elgin Collection (cf. AIUK 4.1, no. 2). Its findspot is not recorded, but its content suggests that it stood in the Athenian Asklepieion on the south slope of the Acropolis, a flourishing sanctuary in the Roman imperial period. The marble column must have stood next to, or perhaps served as the base of, an image of Piso.

The first three lines of the inscription are a verse epigram, in iambic trimeters; the man who is the focus of the epigram is attested more fully elsewhere as Biesius Piso of Melite, who was archon of Athens in 173/4 AD (see IG II² 2103, l. 5; IG II² 1782, ll. 1-2). Piso was pyrphoros (fire-bearer) in the cult of Asklepios, an official responsible for providing fire from the Acropolis for use in the cult’s sacrifices. This official is first attested for the cult of Asklepios in 138/7 BC, but was initially referred to as the kleidouchos or kleidouchos kai pyrphoros; he was also responsible for a significant amount of day-to-day administration of the sanctuary (Aleshire, The Athenian Asklepieion, 89-90). By the imperial period, the job title had changed to pyrphoros, and it seems likely that the nature of the role had also shifted to being more honorific than administrative; certainly, it is a position which seems to be held by prominent citizens.

The second office which Piso held, referred to poetically as “leader of the cavalry”, might be a reference to a Roman office (e.g. praefectus equitum, commander of a regiment of auxiliary cavalry), emphasising Piso’s standing in both Roman and Athenian political circles, but this would presuppose that he had invested sufficiently in a military career to achieve high-ranking office in Rome. It is more likely that he had held the Athenian office of cavalry commander (hipparchos), which existed at the time (see IG II² 3404 = I Eleusis 482 of 163/4 AD). Piso had also served as archon eponymous, the most high-ranking magistracy in the city, and an office typically held at this period by extremely prominent and wealthy individuals.

[2] The "most august councillors" are the members of the Areopagos Council; they had approved the setting up of this monument. In this period, the Areopagos had the power to pass resolutions on behalf of the city, sometimes jointly with the Council of 500 or 600 and/or the Assembly. Cf. AIUK 4.5, no. 26 and in general on the Areopagos AIUK 4.3A, no. 10.

[3] Agathopous, who is not otherwise known, was the priest of Asklepios, holding a role which in the Classical and Hellenistic periods rotated annually, but which became a permanent position some time between 25 BC and 10 AD and remained so until the office ceased to exist in the third century AD (Aleshire, The Athenian Asklepieion, 85, see IG II² 1046 with notes). The reasons for this shift are not entirely clear, but perhaps reflect some combination of changes of cult practice and the increased potential which a lifetime office provided for both drawing on and contributing to the wealth and status of elite families in the city. The creation of life priesthoods at Athens also accorded with the tendency for institutional innovations of the Roman period to have an archaising aspect, in the sense that it alluded to a form of tenure associated in Athens with the ancient priesthoods supplied by the gene; moreover, given that it resembled the Roman practice of priesthoods for life it may be viewed as Romanising.

For fuller discussion of this inscription see AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications), no. 24.

Added: 15 Mar 2022
Updated: 27 Jun 2024
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