Description: White marble sarcophagus (w: 2.14 × h: 0.90 × d: 0.90) and lid .
Text: Inscribed in the moulded central tabella.
Letters: Quite well-designed, but only moderately well-aligned, not easy to date but perhaps of the first half of the third century, 0.025-0.03; Ϲ for sigma, W for omega; unconventional spelling in lines 1, 3.
Date: Middle to late third century CE , but this inscription is probably secondary, since the sarcophagus was certainly intended for a husband and wife. (lettering, nomenclature)
Findspot: Aphrodisias: Necropolis, North-east: 'Bagharassi, extra muros' (Gaudin); 'In a field 10 min east of the Heraclean gate' (MAMA)
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location: Museum
Apparatus
1: ἐστιν Reinach, 1906
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds, 2007
The sarcophagus and the plot on which it stands belong to Marcus Aurelius Papias, also called Meliton.
Bibliography
Transcription: Gaudin, 1904 169; Calder, 1934; New York University expedition Sarcophagus 45
Publication: Reinach, 1906 171; MAMA 8 556c , whence McCabe, PHI, 1996 459 ; Reynolds, 2007 106 ; IAph2007 13.155.
Images
Fig. 1. Face (Reynolds, 1966)
Fig. 2. Face (M. Roueché, 1973)
Fig. 3. View (M. Roueché, 1980)