MAMA XI 296 (Konya)

Milestone of Septimius Severus

Type of monument:: Milestone.
Location:: Eğribayat (Konya): in the gateway of a yard.
Description:: Whitish limestone cylindrical column, broken above, below and behind.
Dimensions:: Ht. 1.33+; Diameter 0.41; letters 0.030-0.045.
Record:: Squeeze; MB notebook copy; photographs (1957/124).
Publication:: None (mentioned by Ballance 1958: 230, no. 21; French 1988: 220, no. 615 [sic])
Date:: I: AD 198. II: AD 333-7. III: uncertain.

I
[Imp(erator) Caesar L(ucius) Sept]-
[imius Severus]
[Pius Pertinax Aug(ustus)]
[Arabicus Adiabe]-
[nicus Parthicus]
[maximus pontifex]
[max(imus) trib(unicia) pot(estate) VI]
ịṃ[p](erator) [XI co(n)s(ul) II pro]-
c̣ọ(n)ṣ(ul) [et Imp(erator) Caesar]
〚Marcuṣ Aụṛe[lius]〛
〚Ạntoninus A[ug(ustus)]〛
5 〚co(n)s(ul) Parthị[cus]〛
〚ṃaximụṣ〛 ṛẹ[sti]-
tuerunt mịḷ(ia) p̣[ass](us) [- -]

II
[DDDD(ominis)] ṆṆNN(ostris)
[Fl(avio) Val(erio) Const]antino Aug(usto)
[et Fl(avio) Cl(audio) Consta]ntino et
[Fl(avio) Constantio] ẹt
5[Fl(avio) Iul(io) Constante]
[Nobbbb(ilissimis) CCCCC(aesaribus)]

III
. . [- - -]
Ṃ . [- - -]
MA[- - -]
BB[- - -]

I: [Imperator Caesar L. Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus, Arabicus, Adiabenicus, Parthicus maximus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the sixth time,] im[perator for the eleventh time, consul for the second time, pro]consul, [and Imperator Caesar] 〚Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, consul, Parthicus maximus,〛 restored (the road). [-] miles.
II: To our [lords Flavius Valerius Const]antinus Augustus [and Flavius Claudius Consta]ntinus and [Flavius Constantius] and [Flavius Iulius Constans, most noble Caesars.]

Like MAMA XI 9 (1956/104: Apollonia) and 295 (1957/41: Apollonia), this milestone was originally set up and inscribed in AD 198; the titulature of Geta was then erased, and replaced with an extended, anachronistic titulature for Caracalla (text I). At a later date, the milestone was turned upside down for reuse as a milestone of Constantine I and his co-rulers (text II). A third inscription, placed next to text II, is now all but illegible; the two letters BB are presumably part of an abbreviation [no]bb(ilissimis) vel sim.

This milestone, mentioned by Ballance 1958: 230, no. 21, was later seen by French at Eğribayat (French 1988: 221, no. 615), ‘at house of Nuri Özdemir; used as a gatepost (righthand side)’. French correctly describes the stone as carrying three inscriptions: ‘(1) Severus and Caracalla, (2) Constantinus with Constantinus, [Constantius and Constans], (3) ?’, with no distance numeral visible. French wrongly identified the stone recorded by Ballance with another, unpublished milestone from Eğribayat (French 1988: 220, no. 613), ‘at a çeşme on N side of village; said to have been brought from Seyitler (? = Sedirler) Mah., Konya’, which carried only two inscriptions, with the distance numeral XVI (presumably measured from Ikonion). Images of the squeezes taken by French of the two stones are available online at http://www.biaatr.org/squeeze Konya 08-09.

Ballance 1958: 230, no. 21, notes that this milestone was first recorded by W.M. Calder in 1910; there is no trace of Calder’s copy among Ballance’s papers, nor of a second milestone copied by Calder at Eğribayat in 1910 and also later seen by French (Ballance 1958: 230, no. 24; French 1988: 221, no. 614: distance numeral XVII, under Valerianus). French records the existence of two further milestones at Eğribayat (1988: 221-2, nos. 616-7), neither of which carry legible inscriptions.