SEG 17.68 The Donor's Monument

The Donor's Monument

SEG 17.68 Date: 14-37 AD

The Council of the Areopagos [and the] People and the Council [of the] Six Hundred (dedicated this) to Tiberius [Caesar] the Saviour God, benefactor of the city.^[1]

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References:

SEG 17.68 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 4209 (PHI)

Schmalz 133

Agora XVIII 253

Leone, Polis, Platz und Porträt 37

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)
Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Pillar

Inscription type: Statue base (Areopagos, Council, People)

Findspot: Agora, in front of the Stoa of Attalos (Ag. I 6120-6120b)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription spans three blocks on the "Donor's Monument," the base of a pillar located in the Athenian Agora in front of the Stoa of Attalos and behind the Bema from which Roman magistrates and envoys addressed the Athenian public. The pillar, which was about 8.5 m high and supported a bronze chariot group, was presumably originally erected for Attalos II, King of Pergamon (r. 159-138 BC), to commemorate his donation of the Stoa, but this inscription rededicated it to the emperor Tiberius (r. 14 – 37 AD). Two similar Attalid monuments on the Acropolis were also rededicated to Julio-Claudian figures (IG II² 4122 and 3272). The blocks of the monument were incorporated into a tower of the Post-Herulian wall in Late Antiquity.

The emperor Tiberius was the stepson of Augustus. Agora XVIII 252 mentions that Tiberius' ancestors, the Claudii Nerones and Claudii Pulchri had ties to Athens. Additionally, his first wife, Vipsania, was the granddaughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, long-time resident and benefactor of Athens (cf. I Eleusis 291, col. ii). While Tiberius was initially advanced by Augustus as a potential successor, he retired from public life in favour of Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius Caesar in 6 BC and retreated to Rhodes, where he remained until 2 AD. Nearly half of all monuments for him at Athens date to this 'Rhodian exile' or earlier, reflecting his efforts to develop ties with Athens and other Greek cities in this period (IG II² 3244-3247, Agora XVIII 252, and perhaps IG II² 3248; S. Zoumbaki, in Y. Perrin, Neronia VII, 2007, 158-169). After the death of Gaius and Lucius, he once more became the heir and was adopted as heir by Augustus in 4 AD. This adoption is commemorated by a monument on the Acropolis (IG II² 3253-3256). The present inscription, which is the largest monument in his honour at Athens and the only one which calls him a Saviour God, perhaps commemorates his succession in 14 AD (E. Vanderpool, Hesperia 28, 1959, 89-90 = SEG 17.68; Schmalz). Other monuments from his reign are IG II² 3264-3265, I Eleusis 331, 334, and perhaps 332. Statues of him have been found in Athens (NAMA 910, Berlin Pergamonmuseum inv. SK 392) and at Eleusis (Eleusis inv. 5268). A structure at Eleusis dedicated to Augustan Justice is probably also linked to Tiberius' succession (see I Eleusis 341 with notes). Although Tiberius declines divine honours in a contemporary letter to Gytheion (Oliver, Constitutions 15, ii, ll. 17-20), he is referred to as a god here, as in IG II² 3257 and 3264-3265. A priest dedicated to his ruler cult is mentioned in I Eleusis 336 and a high priest in I Eleusis 344. On the development of the ruler cult in Greece under Tiberius, see M. Kantiréa, Les dieux et les dieux augustes, 2007, 60-61, 65-71. His name was also added to an altar of Augustus (IG II² 3228). It has been suggested that the double annex built into the back of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios may have been a pair of temples for Tiberius and Livia (K. Clinton in M. C. Hoff and S. I. Rotroff, Romanization of Athens, 1997, 168-69).

At his accession, Tiberius' mother Livia became Julia Augusta and several monuments commemorating her under that name may belong to this period or to her deification by Tiberius' nephew Claudius in 42 AD (IG II² 3239, Agora XVIII 254, I Eleusis 335). For the commemoration of Tiberius' original heirs, Germanicus and Drusus, both of whom predeceased him, see IG II² 3258 and 3249 respectively.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
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ID: AIO_3806