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Dedication of an image of Zeus Baradates, detail of inscription. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Dedication of an image of Zeus Baradates, view of back. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Dedication of an Image of Zeus Baradates
- Date
- Original date 367-366 BC, 39th year of Artaxerxes II Mnemon., Late Lydian (Persian)
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN74.001
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Sculpture, Statue Base, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Sculpture Type
- Inscription of lost statue
- Inscription Text
Ἐτέων τριήκοντα ἐννέα Ἀρτα- ξέρξεω βασιλεύοντος τὸν ἀν- δριάντα Δροαφέρνης 4 Βαρ‹ά›κεω Λυδίης ὕπαρχος Βαρα- δατεω Διί. (leaf) Προστάσσει τοῖς εἰσπορευομένοις εἰς τὸ ἄδυ- τον νεωκόροις v θεραπευ-vv 8 ταῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ στεφανοῦσι τὸν θε- ὸν μὴ μετέχειν μυστηρίων Σαβα- ζίου τῶν τὰ ἔνπυρα βασταζόν- leaf των καὶ Ἀνγδίστεως καὶ Μᾶς. Προσ- 12 τάσσουσι δὲ Δορατῃ τῷ νεωκόρῳ τού- των τῶν μυστηρίων ἀπέχεσθαι. leaf
- Inscription Translation
- “In the thirty-ninth year of king Artaxerxes’s [II ?] reign Droaphernes, son of Barakes, hyparchos of Lydia, (consecrated) the statue to Zeus Baradateo. - He orders the (god’s) servants, who, as temple-wardens, are admitted to the innermost sanctuary and who adorn the god with a wreath, not to take part in Sabazios’s mysteries of those who bear the braziers(?), and of Angdistis and of Ma. They order the temple-warden Dorates to refrain from partaking in these mysteries.”
- Inscription Comment
- Text and translation of G. Petzl
- Site
- Sardis
- B-Grid Coordinates
- ca W230 / S850 top at *119.33
- Findspot
- Found in "Hypocaust Building" on the E bank of the Pactolus, ca. 200 m. N of expedition camp.
- Description
The original base of the statue is lost. Its inscription, a dedication by the satrap Droaphernes, was copied in Roman times together with other texts. The inscription is published with commentary by L. Robert. I believe with C.H. Greenewalt, Jr. (Seventeenth Campaign AASOR, infra) that the Roman marble block may have come from a platform or statue base inscribed with copies of texts of the Persian period relating to Persian gods, and possibly carrying a group of statues, either originals or copies of statues referred to in the text(s). Reconstructions of this type may have been made necessary by the earthquake of A.D. 17 (see Cat. 275 Figs. 467-468, restoration of an image of Hera).
- Condition
Local marble.
L-shaped block damaged and reused in a late Roman structure.
- Dimensions
- L. 1.05; W. 0.585; H. 0.45. L-shaped extension at back: D. 0.32-0.40; W. 0.64. W. of anathyrosis borders: top 0.12-0.13; I. side 0.07-0.08; back 0.12-0.17; bottom 0.08-0.12. Dowel hole 0.08 by 0.08. L. of clamp holes 0.10-0.11. Letters: H. 0.025; W. 0.025.
- Comments
- Cf. also supra Ch. III, "Literary and Epigraphic Sources," no. 16.
- See Also
- See also: M14, No. 434.
- Bibliography
- Published: Hanfmann, “Excavations at Sardis 1973”, 138f.; Hanfmann, “Excavations and Researches at Sardis 1974”, 56f.; Greenewalt, “Seventeenth Campaign”; L. Robert “Règlement de l’autorité perse”.
- Author
- NHR