Description: Fragment from a white marble
sarcophagus front w: 0.65 × h: 0.51 × d: 0.125, with the right side of a panel
(w: 0.29 × h: 0.37) supported by a winged putto.
Text: Inscribed line 1 on what survives of the rim, lines 2-13 within the tabella, of
which only part of the right side survives. If the standard formulae were completed the text was probably concluded on the
lower moulding of the chest.
Letters: Quite well designed, cut and aligned in the second-to-fourth-century style, 0.02; unconventional spelling in lines 8-12.
Date: Third quarter of the third century CE (material context)
Findspot: Aphrodisias:
City, South-west: 'In a field west of the Acropolis' (MAMA); stray find by the NYU expedition.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Museum
Interpretive
[---] ΑΓ̣Ι̣ΣΗ̣Α̣Υ̣[---]
[c. 5]ς̣ Νεικοπόλε-
[ως αὐ]τ̣εξουσίου γε-
[c. 3 - 4]Ι̣ τέκνων εἰς ἣν
5[αὐτ]ὴ ταφήσεται μό-
[νη μ]ηδενὸς ἔχον-
[τος ἑ]τέρου ἐξουσί-
[αν ἐν]θάψαι τινὰ ἐπεὶ
[ὁ ἐπιχ]ειρήσας καὶ
10[ἐνθάψ]ας ἀποτείσει
[τῷ ἱερωτ]άτῳ ταμεί-
[ῳ (δηνάρια) c. 4 χ]είλια ὧν
[τὸ τρίτον ἔ]σται τοῦ
[ἐκδικήσαν]τ̣ο̣ς̣ ( vac. 1)
Diplomatic
[---]Α..Σ...[---]
[·····].ΝΕΙΚΟΠΟΛΕ
[....].ΕΞΟΥΣΙΟΥΓΕ
[c. 3 - 4].ΤΕΚΝΩΝΕΙΣΗΝ
5[...]ΗΤΑΦΗΣΕΤΑΙΜΟ
[...]ΗΔΕΝΟΣΕΧΟΝ
[....]ΤΕΡΟΥΕΞΟΥΣΙ
[....]ΘΑΨΑΙΤΙΝΑΕΠΕΙ
[.....]ΕΙΡΗΣΑΣΚΑΙ
10[.....]ΑΣΑΠΟΤΕΙΣΕΙ
[.......]ΑΤΩΤΑΜΕΙ
[.····.]ΕΙΛΙΑΩΝ
[.........]ΣΤΑΙΤΟΥ
[.........]...
Apparatus
1: omitted MAMA 8 ; perhaps ἡ αὐτοῦ γύνη
3: [νομένου κα]ὶ MAMA 8 but a woman is being described and in any case this gives too long a line
5: [σορὸν αὐτ]ὴ MAMA 8 which gives too long a line
12: [τρισχ] MAMA 8
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds, 2007
[? The sarcophagus belongs to - - -] Neikopolis (scil. who is) sui iuris [?having the ius] liberorum (alternatively [ . ? . and her] children). In it she alone shall be buried, no one else having the right to bury anyone [in
it], since [whoever undertakes that] and [buries in it] will pay to [the most sacred] treasury (i.e. at Rome) [ . ? . ] thousand
[denarii] of which [a third] shall belong to the [prosecutor].
Bibliography
Transcription: Calder, 1934; New York University expedition before 1966
Publication: MAMA 8 542 , whence McCabe, PHI, 1996 543 (both omitting line 1); Reynolds, 2007 155 ; IAph2007 11.413.
