AIUK2 no. 14 Funerary monument for a family from Marathon

Funerary monument for a family from Marathon

AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 14 Date: ca. 1-50 AD (reused ca. 180 AD)

(a) Upper moulding ⟦ . . . ⟧

(b) Left side of panel ⟦Popillius?⟧ ⟦Pius?⟧ ⟦of Marathon?⟧

Relief

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 14 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

SEG 50.254

Lambert, BSA Inscriptions E7

Byrne, RCA 413

SEMA 402a

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

AIO Images: 1 2

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary

Findspot: Unknown (BSA E7)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This funerary monument, on display in the entrance hall of the BSA, is a good example of the classicizing style of figurative monument that re-emerged, after a long pause following Demetrios of Phaleron’s funerary legislation of ca. 310 BC, in the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods (see von Moock). The style of the relief echoes classical models, including in the depiction of a couple shaking hands (dexiosis), observable on the 4th-century monument also on display in the BSA entrance hall (see IG II² 12221). There is a close parallel in another funerary relief of a man and wife, now in Munich, datable to the second quarter of the first century AD (von Moock no. 460 [ph.]). The pose of the figures is identical, as are many details, e.g. the positioning of the feet, the detailed carving of only the man’s foot, the cutting of the lower drapery of the woman, and the painted bird once perched on the man’s left forefinger. The monument is also not unusual in that it was re-used a century or more after it was originally set up, at which time the original inscription was erased and replaced with new name labels. Cf. e.g. von Moock no. 216 (Augustan reused in 2nd cent.), 261 (Julio-Claudian reused in Hadrianic period). The woman is now identified as Aristion. Her father, Neophilos of Marathon, is not otherwise known, but her husband, Popillius Pius of Marathon, is identifiable with the Popillius Pius whose Athenian citizenship qualifications were challenged and subsequently confirmed in a judgement of Marcus Aurelius of 174/5 AD (See RCA p. 413 Popillius 1; SEG 29.127 II, 30, 52, cf. SEG 46.145). In its re-use Popillius Pius’ name will presumably also have been inscribed above the male figure to the left, though this was subsequently itself erased (perhaps by his enemies, or iconoclasts), leaving only his demotic legible. It is tempting to interpret the appropriation and reinscription of this funerary monument of the Augustan/Julio-Claudian period, with its classicizing relief harking back to the 4th century BC, as a symbolic assertion in death of the quality of lineage which Popillios’ enemies had challenged when he was alive. For further discussion of private Attic funerary monuments, see AIUK 3 (Cambridge), section 3. For more detail on this monument see AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 14.

Added: 30 Apr 2018
Updated: 25 Oct 2025
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ID: AIO_1455