IGII25 13285 Statue erected by Emperor Theodosius II

Statue erected by Emperor Theodosius II

IG II² 5 13285 Date: 421-441 AD

On account of . . . [and] of Empress Eud[ocia] [Emperor] Theodosius stood [this] statue (agalma)^[1] most faithful . . . servant . . . ^[2] Theodosius . . . having (?) . . .

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References:

IG II² 5 13285 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 40.184

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (Emperor), Metrical (elegaic couplets)

Fr. a - Findspot: Agora, near the Stoa of Attalos (Ag. I 3558a)
Fr. b - Findspot: Agora, north of the Palace of the Giants (Ag. I 3558b)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This fragmentary set of elegiac couplets are inscribed inside a tabula ansata on a small columnar statue base. It records that it was erected by Emperor Theodosius II (r. 402-450 AD), making it the latest epigraphic evidence for the engagement of a Roman emperor with Athens. The statue might have been a depiction of the Empress Aelia Eudocia, whose erection had been managed by one or more most faithful male servants (E. Sironen, Hesperia 59, 1990, 371-74 = SEG 40.184), or a statue of a most faithful male servant that was erected thanks to the empress’ intercession [CdL].

Eudocia was born in Athens to the sophist Leontios, married Theodosius in Constantinople in 421 AD, and was raised to the status of empress in 423 AD (Socrates, Church History 7.21; Chronicon Paschale 423; Euagrios, Hist. Eccl. 1.20; on Leontios, cf. Olympiodoros F 28 in Blockley, Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire). This inscription should fall between this date and her permanent departure for Jerusalem in 441 AD (Marcellinus Comes, Chron. 440), where she remained until her death in 460 AD. She was a patron of Christianity and literary figure. Her major surviving work are the Homeric Centos, which recycle lines from the Iliad and Odyssey to recount the stories of Genesis and the Passion of Christ (see J. Burman in P. Castren, Post-Herulian Athens 1994, 63-87; A. Cameron, Wandering Poets and Other Essays, 2015, 65-80). The base was found near and might be linked to the vast Palace of the Giants, which was built in this period, perhaps by Eudocia and her family (G. Fowden, Journal of Roman Archaeology, 3, 1990, 497-500; on this structure, see H. A. Thompson in A. Frantz, Agora XXIV, pp. 95-116). [2] The identity of the servant appears not to have been discussed. Four men are known to have been associated with her: Asklepiodotos, her maternal uncle, was praetorian prefect 423-425 AD; her brothers Valerius and Gessius were respectively magister officiorum in 435 AD and prefect of Illyricum (which included Greece) at an uncertain date; and her friend Flavius Taurus Seleucus Cyrus was praetorian prefect 438-441 AD (J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II, 1980, 160, 336-39, 510-11, 1145).

Added: 6 Mar 2026
Updated: 6 Mar 2026
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ID: AIO_3673