Description: White marble sarcophagus, with lid (w: 2.13).

Text: Inscribed a. on the vertical projections of the lid, lines 1-2, and b. across the sarcophagus front, which is otherwise undecorated (w: 1.88 × h: 0.585), and broken to left.

Letters: Standard forms; a: 0.07; b: 0.025.

Date: Second to third centuries CE (lettering)

Findspot: Ata Eymir

Original location: Unknown

Last recorded location: Museum (1994)

Translation

a.They are alive.

b. The sarcophagus and the moulded base(?) and the ... (?) which have been prepared in the base were prepared and added(?) by Marcus Aurelius Athenagoras son of Eudamos (i.e. son of Eudamos son of Eudamos) the son of Philon, for himself and his wife Aurelia Meltine, daughter of Dionysios, son of Athenagoras the son of Eupolemos and for their children [ .. ? .. ] after the burial of himself and his wife in the sarcophagus there shall be prepared by his children by Meltine: Eudamus and Athenagoras, a slab which shall cover those buried in it and so his children by Meltine, Eudamos and Athenagoras, when they are deaad, shall be buried on /above the slab. But I wish no-one else to be buried in the sarcophagus but that it be consecrated as a heroon. In the ??? below the moulded base of the sarcophagus there shall be buried Aureliae Meltine and Meltine my daughters, but no-one shall have the right to bury anyone else in the sarcophagus other than those whom I have wished or to take out those buried in it, since he is to be impious and accursed and a tomb-breaker and in addition is to pay to the most sacred treasury 2500 denarii of which the third will be the prperty of the prosecutor. A copy of this inscription was deposited in the Property-archive when Attalis Apphion, daughter of Menekrates was stephanephorus for the thirteenth time, in the month Apellaion.

Commentary

It is probable that the Edict of Caracalla issued within the lifetime of the principals whose families, despite their élite names, were probably not Roman citizens before it. The stephanephorus was certainly holding office post mortem.The restorations are reasonably certain except in l.4 where possibilities are [μόνοι]ς (but it is a little short) or a word meaning male (but [ἀρρενικό]ς is too long), and in l.6, where there are many possibilities.The provision for the insertion of a panel in this sarcophagus, dividing the parents from the sons, is interesting, as also the exclusion of the daughters therefrom. Both daughters appear to be named Meltine, although both seem to be alive; there may have been a cutter's error here.

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