SEG 21.702 Honours for Gaius Caesar the new Ares

Honours for Gaius Caesar the new Ares

SEG 21.702 Date: ca. 1 BC – 4 AD

The People (erected this statue of) Gaius Caesar, son of Augustus, the new Ares.^[1]

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References:

SEG 21.702 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 3250 (PHI)

Ehrenburg and Jones, Augustus and Tiberius 64

Schmalz 129

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (People)

Findspot: Theatre of Dionysos

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Gaius Caesar (20 BC – 4 AD) was the oldest grandson of the emperor Augustus, the son of his daughter Julia the Elder and his son-in-law Marcus Agrippa. In 17 BC, Augustus adopted Gaius and his younger brother Lucius, declaring them principes iuventutis (leaders of the youth) and his heirs. Gaius visited Athens in 2/1 BC on his way east to lead a war in Armenia, won a major victory in that war in 2 AD, and died in Armenia in 4 AD. This base was likely erected to commemorate one of these events. A possible portrait head of Gaius has been found at Athens (NAMA 3606: images on Commons) and he is also commemorated in I Délos 1594 and a relief from Athens (NAMA 3665). His deputies in the war, Marcus Lollius and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus also seem to have been honoured at Athens at this time (IG II² 4139-4140, 4144). IG II² 2119, l. 229 may indicate that an ephebic festival was also established in Gaius' honour. Gaius' younger brother Lucius Caesar was also honoured at Athens (IG II² 3251-3252). On the honours for Gaius and Lucius in Athens and Greece, see M. Kantiréa, Les dieux et les dieux augustes, 2007, 56-58.

On the veneration of Julio-Claudians as "new" versions of Olympian gods, see SEG 29.167 with notes. A generation after Gaius, Emperor Tiberius' heir, Drusus the Younger, was also commemorated at Athens as the New God Ares (IG II² 3257). It is tempting to link the veneration of these princes with the new Temple of Ares erected in the Athenian Agora in the reign of Augustus, but there is no evidence supporting this (A. J. S. Spawforth, in M. C. Hoff and S. I. Rotroff, Romanization of Athens, 1997, 186-88).

The inscription was found sometime before 1947 in the Theatre of Dionysos (M. Levensohn and E. Levensohn, Hesperia 16, 1947, 68-69) and seems to be identical with one seen by Cyriacus of Ancona in the fifteenth century.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
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ID: AIO_3817