Funerary inscription for Marcus Aurelius Athenagoras
created: Transcription (Reynolds)
source date: Second to third centuries CE
language: en; grc
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may redistribute and reuse this content, including creation of derivative works and commercial content, but you must acknowledge the original authors. All reuse or distribution of this and derived works must link back to the URL http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/

Ζῶσιν

ἡ σορὸς καὶ ἡ σπειρα καὶ αἱ εἰς αὐτὴν τὴν σπειραν κατεσκευασμέναι εἰσωσται κατεσκευάσθησαν καὶ ἐπεσκευάσθησαν ὑπὸ Μάρκου Αὐρηλίου Ἀθηναγόρου τοῦ Εὐδάμου τρὶς τοῦ Φίλωνος αὑτῷ καὶ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ Αὐρηλία Μελτίνη Διονυσίου τοῦ Ἀθηναγόρου τοῦ Εὐπολέμου καὶ τέκνοις αὐτῶν [...]ς μετὰ τὸ αὑτὸν καὶ τὴν γυναικὰ αὐτοῦ ἐνκηδευθῆναι ἐν τῇ σορῷ κατασκευασθήσεται ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκ Μελτίνης τέκνων αὐτοῦ Εὐδάμου καὶ Ἀθηναγόρου ἀβακεῖον ὃ καλύψει τοὺς [...] ἐνκεκηδευμένους καὶ οὕτως ἐπὶ τὸ ἀβακεῖον μεταλλάξαντα τὰ ἐκ τῆς Μελτίνης τέκνα αὐτοῦ ἐνκηδευθήσεται Εὔδαμος καὶ Ἀθηναγόρας ἄλλον δὲ οὐδένα βούλομαι ἐνκηδευθῆναι ἐν τῇ σορῷ ἀλλὰ ἀφηρωῖσθαι αὐτὴν εἰς δὲ τὰς ὑποκειμένας τῇ σπειρῃ τῆς σοροῦ εἴσω ἐνκηδευθήσονται Αὐρηλίαι Μελτίνη καὶ Μελτίνη αἱ θυγάτερες μου οὐδεὶς δὲ ἕξει ἐξου- σιψ σίαν ἐνθάψαι τινα ἕτερον ἐν τῇ σορῷ ἢ οὓς ἐγω βεβούλημαι ἢ ἐκθάψαι τοὺς ἐνκεκηδευμένους ἐπεὶ ἔστω ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμβωρύχος καὶ προσαποτεισάτω εἰς τὸ ἱερώτατον ταμεῖον ἀργυρίου δηνάρια δισχείλια πεντακόσια ὧν τὸ τρίτον ἔσται τοῦ ἐκδικήσαντος ταύτης τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς ἀντίγραφον ἀπετέθη εἰς τὸ χρεοφυλάκιον ἐπί στεφανηφόρου τὸ τρισκαιδεκατον Ἀττάλιδος τῆς Μενεκράτους Ἀπφίου μηνὸς Ἀπελλαίου

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 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.

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 μόνοις (but it is a little short) or a word meaning male (but ἀρρενικός 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.

[...] Sarcophagus 419

[...] fig. 22 (photograph only), whence [...] 46.1556 ; [...] 13.203.