Description: White marble ossuary (w: 0.565 × h: 0.33 × d: 0.34), the front partly lost; reliefs of rams' heads, joined by a swag, on the front face, and blanks for the same on the sides.
Text: Inscribed above (line 1) and below (line 2) the swag on the front face, and presumably also within it, unless the text began on the lost lid.
Letters: Latin capitals; 0.02; simple stops on either side of figure
Date: First to second centuries CE (lettering, material context)
Findspot: Aphrodisias: Place of Palms/South Agora, Agora Gate/Propylon: found during demolition of a village house, re-used in the wall
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Museum (1983)
Apparatus
1: MAMA printed this line, discarded in IAph 2007, but read by Chaniotis
English translation
Translation source: Chaniotis, 2024
?L(ucius) [---] scout of the Gallic third legion.
English translation
Translation source: IAph2007
?L(ucius) [---] Scout of the third legion Gallicae.
Commentary
The rather naive style of the relief suggests the same time-period as the lettering (so Natalie de Chaisemartin).
Bibliography
Transcription: Calder, 1934; New York University expedition 83.66
Publication: MAMA 8 558 , whence McCabe, PHI, 1996 502 ; IAph2007 4.304; Chaniotis, 2024 36.
Images
Fig. 1. Face (M. Roueché, 1983)
Fig. 2. Face (M. Roueché, 1983)