IGII34 556 Building dedication and choregic dedication of Dionysodoros for Asklepios

Building dedication and choregic dedication of Dionysodoros for Asklepios

IG II³ 4 556 Date: A: 9 BC – 14 AD; B: ca. 80 AD

Inscription A [To Asklepios] and Health (Hugeia) and Augustus Caesar ⟦ erasure ⟧ ⟦ erasure ⟧, when the archon and priest of Drusus the Consul was Polycharmos, son of Polykritos of Azenia. [when the Priest for] life was Zenon son of Leukios of Rhamnous.^[1] Inscription B Column 1 Dionysodoros was archon, when Dexikles took me as the prize for victory with a chorus of youths (ēitheōn).^[2] Column 1 Archon Dionysodoros dedicated me, glory (kudos) of all Eukarpos' comic, tragic, and choral skill, (5) the dithyrambic tripod, to Asklepios.

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References:

IG II³ 4 556 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 3120 (PHI)

Follet and Peppas Delmousou, Dedicaces chorégiques 14

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Epistyle

Inscription type: Dedication (Asklepios), Dedication (choregic), Dedication (archon)

Original location: Asklepieion

Findspot: Asklepieion (Athens Ephoria NK 36)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription straddles two blocks from an Ionic epistyle which formed part of a stoa on the south slope of the Acropolis in or near the Asklepieion (S. Walker, ABSA 74, 1979, 243-44). It bears two inscriptions from the late first century BC and first century AD. Inscription A, the earlier of the two inscriptions, is the dedication of the stoa to Asklepios, Health, and Augustus. The name of the dedicator has been erased. The date must fall between the creation of the priesthood of Drusus in 9/8 BC and the death of Augustus in AD 14 (Follet and Peppas-Delmousou). Polycharmos was also honoured, along with his daughter, with a statue at Eleusis (I Eleusis 329-330). His family is attested from the late second century BC and became prominent in the first century BC (S. Byrne, Roman Citizens of Athens, 436-7 and stemma V). His son, Gaius Silius Polykrates was archon and hoplite general under Caligula (IG II² 3266). Zenon was the first priest of Asklepios to serve for life, as a result of a reform of Athenian priesthoods during the reign of Augustus (S. Aleshire in R. Osborne and S. Hornblower, Ritual, Finance, Politics, 1994, 337). Two other building inscriptions survive from the Asklepieion during his tenure (IG II³ 4, 797 B, IG II² 4308). [2] Inscription B, the later of the two inscriptions, is located above Inscription A. It is a choregic dedication, commemorating the victory of a dithyrambic chorus with two epigrams in iambic trimeters. On choregic dedications in the Roman period, see IG II³ 4, 558. Dionysodoros was probably archon around 80 AD (Follet and Peppas-Delmousou), making this one of the first choregic monuments to be erected in the Roman period, along with IG II³ 4, 557-559. Dexikles appears to have been the sponsor (choregos). Eukarpos was the director (didaskalos), who apparently wrote comedies and tragedies as well as dithyrambs. Unusually, the archon rather than the sponsor erected the monument and the tribe of the victorious chorus is not named (cf. IG II³ 4, 559). The decision to dedicate the tripod to Asklepios is perhaps due to the location of his sanctuary next to the Theatre of Dionysos. Another monument erected in the Asklepieion in the Roman period (IG II³ 4, 849-851 ) may also commemorate a choral victory.

Added: 30 Sep 2022
Updated: 30 Sep 2022
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ID: AIO_2563