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Funerary column with sundial

Type of monument:
Funerary column.
Location:
Oda Köyü (Pentapolis): in a field 300 m. SW of the village.
Description:
Grey-white crystalline marble column, broken below and behind, buried above.
Dimensions:
Ht. 0.95+; diameter 0.35; letters 0.019-0.022.
Record:
Squeeze; drawing; MB notebook copy; photograph (1955/36).
Publication:
None.
Date:
Second century AD.
 
 

Ἀτταλικὸ̣[ς Ἀ]ττ̣[ά]λ̣ῳ̣
καὶ Ἀμμίᾳ τοῖς γο̣-
νεύσι καὶ Ἀουιδίῳ κα̣ὶ
Ἀκύλᾳ τοῖς ἀδελ-
5φοῖς καὶ Ἀττάλῳ ἀνε-
ψιῷ εὐσεβείας τε καὶ
μνήμης χάριν τὸν κίο-
να σ̣ὺν τῷ ὡρολογίῳ
καὶ τὸ μνημεῖον.
Attalikos (set up) the column with the sundial and the memorial to Attalos and Ammia, his parents, and to Avidius and Aquila, his brothers, and to Attalos, his cousin, as an act of piety and remembrance.

This funerary monument consists of a marble column (κίων, lines 7-8), originally supporting a sundial (ὡρολόγιον, line 8). For sundials in funerary contexts, see Wiemer 1998 (SEG 48, 1558); I.Ephesos 3214.15, with Kubińska 1968: 125-6; Petron. Sat. 71. For a catalogue of inscribed sundials, see Gibbs 1976: 85-8 (with Wilhelm, Inschriftenkunde I 753-66; Rehm, RE VIII [1913] 2416-33); for non-funerary dedications of sundials in Asia Minor, see e.g. I.Asklepieion 103, I.Tralleis 162.

The name Ἀτταλικός is very rare, and seems to be confined to the very late Hellenistic and Imperial periods: it appears once only in Phrygia, at Eumeneia (SEG 28, 1154); in Lydia, at Daldis (TAM V 1, 633) and Philadelpheia (RPC I 3025-6); in Aiolis, at Myrina (SEG 38, 1248). It is tempting here to regard the name as a patronymic adjective (‘son of Attalos’), but I know no parallels for the suffix -ικός being used in this sense; when attached to personal names, the suffix generally indicates membership of a group associated with an individual, not his descendants (Chantraine 1956: 104-5, 150-1). It is, however, very striking that all known instances of the name seem to derive from the territory of the former Attalid kingdom (188-133 BC), ἡ Ἀτταλικὴ βασιλεία (SEG 39, 1244: Claros).

Illustrations:

MAMA XI 137 (Pentapolis 5: 1955-36)

MAMA XI 137 (Pentapolis 5: 1955-36)

Squeeze of MAMA XI 137 (Pentapolis 5: 1955-36)

Squeeze of MAMA XI 137 (Pentapolis 5: 1955-36)

Line drawing of MAMA XI 137 (Pentapolis 5: 1955-36)

Line drawing of MAMA XI 137 (Pentapolis 5: 1955-36)