IGII34 10 Dedicatory inscription on the temple of Roma and Augustus

Dedicatory inscription on the temple of Roma and Augustus

IG II³ 4 10 Date: After 27 BC

The People (dedicated this temple)^[1] to the Goddess Roma and ⟦Augustus Soter⟧«Augustus Caesar»,^[2] when the hoplite general was Pammenes son of Zenon of Marathon,^[3] priest of the Goddess Roma and Augustus Soter on the Acropolis,^[4] when the priestess of Athena Polias was Megiste daughter of Asklepiades of Halai,^[5] (5) in the archonship of Areios son of Dorion of Paiania.^[6]

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References:

IG II³ 4 10 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 3173 (PHI)

Schmalz 103

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1, 2, 3)

Monument type: Epistyle

Inscription type: Dedication (People), Dedication (Roma), Dedication (Augustus)

Original location: Acropolis, Temple of Roma and Augustus

Findspot: Acropolis, east of the Parthenon (Acropolis Museum 13157)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The inscription comes from the architrave of the temple of Roma and Augustus, which was located on the Acropolis, on the large square foundation 23 metres due east of the Parthenon, on its east-west axis. It was the centre of the cult of Augustus at Athens (on which see Agora XVI 336 with notes) and remained the hub of the Imperial cult at Athens into the third century AD (cf. Agora XVI 341, ll. 41-42, which calls it "the altar of the Augusti"). The last significant structure to be built on the Acropolis in ancient times, it was a small circular building, with 9 columns, and a diameter of 8.6 metres. Parallels have been drawn with the round hero shrines (tholoi) found in several Greek sanctuaries, particularly the Philippeion at Olympia. Roman parallels have also been suggested: the (hypothetical) round temple of Mars Ultor on the Capitoline Hill in Rome and the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum. On the temple building, see Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary, 494; Stefanidou-Tiveriou, “Tradition and Romanization in the Monumental Landscape of Athens” in S. Vlizos ed., Athens During the Roman Period (2008), 21-23; M. C. Monaco, in Topografia di Atene I (2010), 115-16. For the commemoration of other emperors and their relatives on the Acropolis, see IG II² 4122 (Agrippa), IG II² 3260 (Germanicus), IG II² 3277 (Nero), IG II² 3311, 3314 and Raubitschek Hadrian 1 (Hadrian), Agora XVI 340-341 (Julia Domna and the Severans); S. Aneziri in R. Krumeich and C. Witschel, Die Akropolis von Athen im Hellenismus und in der römischen Kaiserzeit, 2010, 281. [2] In line 1, the stonecutter first wrote "Augustus Soter" (Augustus the Saviour), as in line 3, but this was erased and replaced with "Augustus Caesar". Kajava in Salomies, The Greek East in the Roman Context (2001) 80 n. 40 suggests this change was made after Augustus’ death in AD 14, on the grounds that ‘Soter’ was reserved for living emperors, but the fact that the revised text is in the same style as the rest of the inscription might suggest that the change was made at the time of original inscription as a result of a mason’s error (Schmalz, Augustan and Julio-Claudian Athens, 2009, 81). [3] A leading figure of the period, who belonged “to a larger family group deeply implicated in the restoration of Athenian religion in the late first century BC” (A. Spawforth, Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution, 2012, 145; cf. [Aleshire and] Lambert, in F. Santangelo and J. Richardson eds., Priests and State in the Roman World, 2011, 570 with n. 91). In the early first century AD, after Pammenes' death, the priesthood was held by Demostratos of Pallene (I Rhamnous 156) and then evolved into the high priesthood of the Imperial cult. [4] Cf. IG II³ 4, 11. Suet. Aug. 52 notes that Augustus accepted the foundation of cults to him in the Roman provinces only if conjoined with the name of Rome. [5] Blok and Lambert, ZPE 169, 2009, 107 priestess of Athena Polias no. 13, also perhaps attested on IG II³ 4, 39. On the ambiguous connotation of the naming of the holder of this prestigious ancient Athenian priesthood alongside the priest of the novel cult of Roma and Augustus see [Aleshire and] Lambert, 570-71. [6] The date of Areios’ archonship is unknown, but the inscription must postdate Octavian’s receipt of the title of Augustus in 27 BC and probably predates 17/6-11/0 BC, whose archons are known from IG II² 1713, 25-31 (though Areios is a possible alterative reading for Apolexis of the archon for 17/6, l. 25). Cf. [Aleshire] and Lambert, 570 n. 88; Schmalz, 21-23 n. 13.

Added: 13 Mar 2018
Updated: 17 Aug 2024
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ID: AIO_1412