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Inscribed Base (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Base (reused in N-S wall east of Synagogue): Honorific Inscription for Gaius Asinnius Nikomachos Frugianus
- Date
- Reign of Severus Alexander., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN82.016
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Statue Base, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Honorific Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
[Τῆς πρωτόχθονος καὶ ἱερᾶς] τῶν [θεῶν] [καὶ μητροπόλεως τῆς Ἀσία]ς καὶ Λ[υδίας] [ἁπάσης καὶ πρώτης Ἑλλά]δος καὶ πολ- 4 λάκις [νεωκόρου τῶ]ν Σεβαστῶν κατὰ τὰ̣ [δόγμα]τ̣α τῆς ἱερᾶς συγ- κλήτου, φίλης καὶ συμμάχου Ῥωμαίων καὶ οἰκείας τοῦ Σε- 8 βαστοῦ τῆς λαμπροτάτης Σαρδιανῶν πόλεως ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ δῆμος ἐτεί- μησεν 12 Γ. Ἀσίννιον Νεικόμαχον Φρου- γιανὸν τὸν ἀξιολογώτατον, ἄν- δρα ἐπίσημον καὶ πρώτου γένους, ἀγορανομήσαντα ἐνδόξως καὶ 16 φιλοτείμως, προτραπέντα ὑπὸ τῆς πατρίδος ἐν ἀναγ- καίῳ καιρῷ, μαρτυρηθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν κατὰ καιρὸν ἡγεμόνων ἐπὶ 20 τῇ τῆς ἀρχῆς εἰλικρινείᾳ, προέκ- γο[ν]ον Γαΐας Ἀσιννίας Ἰουλείνης διὰ β̣[ίου] σ̣[τεφαν]η̣φόρου, ἔγγονον δὲ Γαΐας [ . . . . . . . . ]ας Ἀσιννίας 24 Φρουγίλλη[ς . . . . . . . Ἀ]σ̣ινν. Φροῦγι ἀρχιερέως [τῆς Ἀσία]ς̣ καὶ πλεῖστα ἀναλώσαντ[ο]ς̣ ἐ̣[ν τῇ π]α̣τρίδι καὶ στρατηγήσαντος κα[τὰ ἐ]πιδημί- 28 [α]ν καὶ διοδείαν θεῶν [Μ. Ἀν]τ[ω]νί- [ν]ου καὶ Κομόδου, ἀδελφιδ[οῦν Γ]αΐ- [ω]ν Ἀσιννίων Ῥούφου Νεικομά[χου] [κ]αὶ Λεπίδου ὑπατικῶν, ὑῶν Γ. Ἀ̣[σιν]- 32 [νί]ου Νεικομάχου τοῦ τῆς ἀρ̣[ίσ]- [τη]ς μνήμης ὑπατικοῦ, θεί[ου πρὸς] [πατ]ρὸς τοῦ Νικομάχου, συνγε[νῆ ὄν?]- [τα κ]αὶ ἄλλων πολλῶν ὑπατικῶ̣[ν], 36 [υἱὸ]ν Γ. Ἀσιννίου Φροῦγι τοῦ ἀξ[ιολο]- [γω]τάτου καὶ Βηδίας Δομετια[νῆς?] Γλαβριωνιανῆς, [πρ]ονοησαμένου τῆς ἀναστά[σε]- 40 [ως] τ̣οῦ ἀνδριάντος Αὐρ. Νεικάν[ . ]- [ . . . ] Σερβειλίου βουλευτοῦ, τοῦ φί- [λου, κα]ὶ ἀναστήσαντος ἐν τοῖς ἰ- [δίοις α]ὐτοῦ καὶ προγονικοῖς ἔρ- 44 [γοις, ψ]η̣φισαμένης τῆς πατρί- [δος καὶ σ]τῆναι αὐτοῦ τὰς τιμὰς [ἐν τοῖς τέ]σ̣σαρσιν μ[α]κέλλοις.- Inscription Translation
- “The Council and the People of the city of the Sardians, [protochthonous and sacred] to the [gods and metropolis of Asia] and [of all] L[ydia and the first] of Hellas, and often (4) [keeper of Koinon temples of the] Augusti by virtue of the [decrees] of the sacred Senate, friend and ally of the Romans and relative of our lord the (8) Emperor honored (12) the very famous Gaius Asinnius Nikomachos Frugianus, a noble man of an excellent family who officiated as agoranomos gloriously and (16) zealously, being asked by his native city during a difficult time; he received recognition by the then governors for (20) the sincerity of his administration of the office. He is a great-grandson of the stephanephoros for life Gaia Asinnia Iulina; a grandson of Gaia [- - -]a Asinnia (24) Frugilla, [- - -] of Asinnius Frugi, high-priest [of Asia] who made very high expenses in his native city and officiated as strategos while (28) the gods Marcus Antoninus and Commodus stayed in and passed through her; a cousin of the men of consular rank Gaius Asinnius Rufus Nikomachos and Gaius Asinnius Lepidus, the sons (32) of the man of best remembrance and consular rank, Gaius Asinnius Nikomachos, the uncle from (his) father’s side of Nikomachos; the honoree is a relative of many other persons of consular rank and (36) the son of the very famous Gaius Asinnius Frugi and Vedia Domitia[na?] Glabrioniana. The erection (40) of the statue was provided for by the councilor Aurelius Nikan[- -] Servilius, his friend, who has also erected (statues) in the buildings of him (i.e., the honoree) and of his ancestors after the native city had decreed that his statues may [also] stand [in the] four markets.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- E Road
- B-Grid Coordinates
- ca. E130.8 / N2
- Findspot
- Road Trench, reused in north-south wall east of Synagogue.
- Description
Rectangular base of white marble with moldings above and below; partly damaged. On the upper surface are anathyrosis and a lifting hole. Ll. 1–3 of the inscription are on the upper molding, and ll. 4ff. are in a recessed field.
- Dimensions
- H. 1.66, W. 0.72, Th. 0.56, H. of letters 0.017–0.02.
- Comments
Many dots between elements of names and phrases; trema on the I in forms of Γαΐα and Γάιος (ll. 21, 23, and 29) and above Y at the beginning of words (ll. 17–18, 31, 33, and 35).
Herrmann has given a detailed commentary, a stemma of the family (p. 255), and a prosopographical discussion. No. 402 is a fragment of another, probably contemporaneous, honorific inscription for a member of that outstanding Sardian family. An Asinnius Rufus, mentioned in no. 318 (f) (dated early in the reign of Antoninus Pius), may also have belonged to it.
2–3 [μητροπόλεως τῆς Ἀσία]ς καὶ Λ[υδίας ἁπάσης καὶ πρώτης Ἑλλά]δος: cf. RPC VII 1, 244: Σάρδις Ἀσίας, Λυδίας, Ἑλλάδος (πρώτη) μητρόπολις. On Sardis’s claim to be the first metropolis of Hellas, see Herrmann, Chiron 23 (1993), pp. 240–43; A. Heller, Les bêtises des Grecs… (2006 = Scripta Antiqua 17), pp. 301–5, 340.
3–4 The unique formula πολλάκις [νεωκόρου τῶ]ν Σεβαστῶν may have to be explained by the fact that Severus Alexander withdrew Sardis’s third neokorate (Herrmann, p. 252 and Burrell, Neokoroi, pp. 111–12); see no. 397, 5 comm.
12–13 The honoree is also on record as an archon on coins of Severus Alexander and Mamaea and probably also in Sardis VII 1, no. 17, 21–22 (Herrmann, pp. 252–53).
24 Φρουγίλλη[ς]: P. Herrmann, Arkeoloji Dergisi 4 (1996), p. 175 n. 2 (= Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, p. 169), after M. Kajava, Roman Female Praenomina (1994), p. 147 (AE 1993, 1506 [p. 447]); Φροῦγι κ̣α̣ί Chiron 23 (AE 1993, 1506 [text]).
24–29 For the honoree’s grandfather, Asinnius Frugi, as provincial high-priest see D. Campanile, Studi Ellenistici 19 (2006), pp. 533–35, no. 207. He was strategos when Marcus Aurelius and Commodus visited Sardis in 176 AD on their way to Rome after their victory over Avidius Cassius.
37 Domitiana or Domitia; her family was probably related to the Vedii and the Acilii Glabriones, which suggests that she came from Ephesos.
39–46 It is unclear whether one or four statues (l. 40: ἀνδριάς, l. 45: τιμαί) were erected. J. Bousquet, BE 1994, 506: τιμαί = copies of the honorific inscription?
40–41 Either Νεικάν[ο/ρος] or Νεικάν[δ/ρου].
44–45 [καὶ σ]τῆναι: P. Herrmann, Arkeoloji Dergisi 4 (1996), p. 175 n. 4 (= Herrmann, Ausgew. Schriften, p. 169), (cf. SEG 46, 1526); [ἀνασ]τῆναι Chiron 23 (SEG 43; AE 1993, 1506).
46 Four macella is an exceptionally high number for one city. For the possible location of one of them see no. 402 comm.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- P. Herrmann, Chiron 23 (1993), pp. 248–63, 265–66 (photographs) (SEG 43, 865; AE 1993, 1506).
- Author
- GP