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Base for fountain with gilded bronze serpents, in situ, front view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Base for Fountain with Gilded Bronze Serpents
Report 2: Sculpture from Sardis: The Finds through 1975
(1978)
Cat. 278
- Date
- 4th-6th C. AD, Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN72.026
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Sculpture, Statue Base, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Inscription language
- Sculpture Type
- Inscription of lost statue
- Inscription Text
oἱ κρήνης ποτ᾿ ὕπερθε μέσην κατ᾿ ἄγυιαν ὁδοῖο πᾶσι παρερχομένοισιν ὁρώμενοι εἰσὶ δράκοντες οὗτοι χαλκείησιν ἑλισσόμενοι φολίδεσσιν, οὓς Βασιλίσκος ἔθηκε δικασπόλος ἔνθα κομίσσας χρυσῷ ἐρευθομένους ὑπὸ δε‹ι›ράδα μέχρι καρήνων νέρθεν ἄνω πέμποντας ἐπὶ στόμα χεύματα πηγῆς.
- Inscription Translation
These are the snakes which were once seen by everyone passing by, above the fountain in the middle of the public road. Basiliskos, who held the office of judge there, set them up, wound round with brazen scales, reddened with gold from their necks to their heads, sending up the streams of the fountain from below to their mouths.
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- B
- Trench
- MC 72
- Locus
- B BE-H
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E3 / N48 *96.5
- Findspot
- in situ
- Description
The base has a molded profile at top and bottom. A vertical channel is cut in one side for a water pipe.
Letter forms suggest a late date, 4th-6th C. A.D.
- Condition
Marble.
Upper I. and r. corners broken away, and chipping at other edges.
- Dimensions
- Max. P.H. 0.74-0.75; H. inscribed face 0.392; max. W. at bottom 0.91; D. at top ca. 0.84, at base ca. 0.94. H. letters 0.025-0.027, of spaces between lines 0.02-0.025.
- Comments
- See Also
- See also: M14, No. 428.
- Bibliography
- Published: BASOR211, 22, fig. 4; Hanfmann, Sardis R1, 173 n. 75; Sardis M4, 21, 114-115, from which the above translation by Clive Foss is quoted. Forthcoming publication by L. Robert.
- Author
- NHR