IGII25 13292 Dedication of a structure in honour of Arcadius and Honorius

Dedication of a structure in honour of Arcadius and Honorius

IG II² 5 13292 Date: 396-402 AD

For the victory and salvation and undying endurance of the masters (despotōn) of the world (oikoumenēs),^[1] Flavius Arcadius and Flavius Honorius, the undefeated Augusti, the most brilliant proconsul of Greece Flavius Severus Aëtius built the – with its propylaea from its foundations. ^[2]

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References:

IG II² 5 13292 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 5205 (PHI)

SEG 29.199 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Epistyle

Inscription type: Building inscription

Findspot: South of the Panagia Gorgoepikoos Church, Athens (EM 11892)
Findspot: South of the Panagia Gorgoepikoos Church, Athens (EM 11893)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual note: A. Frantz Hesperia 48, 1979, 200-2 ( = SEG 29.199) proposes to restore the name of the building in l. 3 as τὸ Δ[ιογένειον, "the Diogeneion," see below.

This inscribed epistyle, which originally stood atop the projecting porch of a structure, is over five metres long and was found somewhere to the south of the Little Metropolis Church in Athens (i.e. north of the Acropolis and east of the Roman Agora). Stylistically, the epistyle dates to the mid-second century AD, but the inscription derives from the joint-reign of Arcadius and Honorius (395-402 AD, after which they were joined by Theodosius II). Presumably, the building had to be rebuilt following the Sack of Athens by Alaric the Goth in 396 AD. A set of milestones also date to this period (see IG II² 5, 13295 with notes) and IG II² 5, 13667, which has lettering very similar to this inscription, might belong to the same rebuilding programme. Unfortunately, the part of l. 3 which named the building it belonged to is damaged. A. Frantz tentatively proposes that it derives from the Diogeneion gymnasium, which is known to have been located in this area (Hesperia 48, 1979, 200-3, rejected by I. Baldini Lippolis, Ostraka 4, 1995, 178, followed by E.Sironen, The Late Roman and Early Byzantine Inscriptions of Athens and Attica, 1997, 112-14). (Re)construction of a gymnasium in the early fifth century AD would be a striking example of the continued cultivation of Classical Greek education and athletics in Athens, at a time when major athletic institutions like the Olympic Games were finally collapsing elsewhere (S. Remijsen, The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity, 2015, 167).

The first line of the inscription appears on the frieze, the second two lines on the architrave. On the underside, there are marks from two Corinthian capitals. At each end, there are dowel holes to connect the block to the epistyle blocks from the side of the porch. Two large holes on top attached the geison blocks above. At some point after the inscription was added, the block snapped at the middle, but it was repaired with two metal clamps (which cut through the inscription). A dowel hole in the bottom for another column also dates from this period. [2] Flavius Severus Aëtius might be identified with the man who was urban prefect of Constantinople ca. 418-421 AD, and Praetorian Prefect of the Eastern Roman Empire in 425 (J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II, 1980, 19-20, 30). He is certainly distinct from the famous, later Aëtius who opposed Attila the Hun in the 450s.

Added: 6 Mar 2026
Updated: 6 Mar 2026
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