MAMA XI 107 (Akmoneia)

This architrave block originally formed part of a building inscription, recording the dedication of a number of pairs of columns to the divine Augusti and to a local ‘sacred council’ (ἱερῷ συν[εδρίῳ e.g. τῆς γερουσίας], [τῆς βουλῆς]). The term διάστυλον literally means the space between two columns, the intercolumnium; at Ephesos, the term is used of a stand between two columns in a stoa, which could be granted to tradesmen’s guilds to use as shops (I.Ephesos 2076-82; SEG 35, 1109-10; Knibbe 1985: 75). The term can thus also be used, by extension, for a pair of columns, as in Prott and Kolbe 1902: 93-4, no. 83 (Pergamon): τοῖς θεοῖς καὶ τῆι πατρίδι... τὰ ΙΙΙ διάστυλα (i.e. four columns) σὺν τῷ περὶ αὐτὰ κόσμῳ... ἀφ[ιέ]ρωσε (cf. Hepding 1910: 445-9, no. 27); see Hellmann 1992: 216 n.15.

The phrase ὁ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν κόσμος refers to all the various decorative elements of the pair of columns (capitals, stylobate, etc.): compare IAph2007 12.404-8, 12.503-6, 13.503, each recording the dedication of ‘an epistyle and its decoration’ (τὸ ἐπιστύλιον καὶ τὸν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κόσμον) to the demos of Aphrodisias. These decorative elements are listed in full in an inscription from the sanctuary of Apollo Lairbenos, in the loop of the Maeander river north of Hierapolis-Pamukkale: ἀνέστησα διάστυλλον ἐκ [θεμελί]ων (thus edd.; I should prefer ἐκ [τῶν ἰδί]ων) σὺν στυλ̣οβάτῃ καὶ σπείρῃ, κίονι, κεφαλῇ, ἐπιστυλλίῳ ζωφόρῳ, γείσι, κτλ. (Öztürk and Tanrıver 2008: 105-6, no. 19).