MAMA XI 71 (Sebaste)

Funerary stele of Attalos

Type of monument:: Funerary stele.
Location:: Yayalar (Sebaste): by the mosque. Now (April 2011) in the garden of the archaeological museum at Uşak.
Description:: Marble stele with pediment and lateral pilasters with Ionic capitals, originally with tenon below; broken above and below. In the pediment, eagle facing with wings extended; on the shaft, wreath with fillets in high relief. Lines 1-7 on the shaft; lines 8-10 in the wreath.
Dimensions:: Ht. 1.55+; W. 0.47 (pediment), 0.44 (shaft), 0.50 (base); Th. 0.17; letters 0.014-0.022.
Record:: Line drawing; MB notebook copy; photograph (1956/73).
Publication:: Paris 1883: 457, no. 2; (Ramsay 1883: 411-12).
Date:: I BC/I AD (letter forms; type of monument)

Ἀριστίων
καὶ Θεογένης
καὶ Μητ̣ρ̣[ό]δ̣[ω]ρ̣ο̣ς
καὶ Εὐαγόρ̣[α]ς̣
5Ἀττάλῳ τῷ πα-
τρὶ φιλο{τι}-
τέκνῳ
μνή-
μης χά-
10ριν

Line 2: Θεοξένης P(aris); Θεο⟨γ⟩ένης R(amsay). Lines 5-7: φίλ[ῳ] τ[ε] τέκνῳ P.; ‘It must be read πατρὶ φιλοτέκνῳ on the supposition that the engraver has twice engraved ΤΕ’ R. Lines 8-10: om. P.

Aristion and Theogenes and Metrodoros and Euagoras for Attalos their father, a loving parent, in memoriam.

The letters ΤΙ at the end of line 6 are clear on Ballance’s photograph; presumably the stone-cutter intended to inscribe φιλοτί⟨μῳ καὶ φιλο⟩τέκνῳ. The absence of Roman (or indigenous) names and the letter-forms (particularly the small omega in lines 1 and 7) suggest a date considerably earlier than most funerary monuments from this region.