MAMA XI 354 (Savatra) 
Funerary inscription of the nurse Heraklea
- Type of monument:
- Funerary inscription.
- Location:
- Akörenkışla (Savatra): in the wall of a stable.
- Description:
- Coarse greyish-white marble block, broken above, below and behind. Upper and lower parts of the face rough-picked, obscuring the upper part of line 1 of the inscription. Below the inscription, at left, incised crescent. Below the crescent, a pedimented niche with defaced relief of standing figure.
- Dimensions:
- Ht. 0.87+; W. 0.54; Th. 0.28+; letters 0.025-0.030.
- Record:
- Squeeze; line drawing; MB notebook copy; photograph (1956/188).
- Publication:
- None.
- Date:
- Third century AD.
[Ἀυρ]ή̣λ̣ι̣ο̣ς̣ Ν̣[ό]ουϊος [- -]
νος Ἡρακλέᾳ τῇ τροφῷ
μνήμης ἕνεκεν
[Aur]elius Novius, son of..., for his nurse Heraklea, in memoriam.
Illustrations:
MAMA XI 354 (Savatra 12: 1956-188)
Squeeze of MAMA XI 354 (Savatra 12: 1956-188)
Line drawing of MAMA XI 354 (Savatra 12: 1956-188)
The Roman gentilician Novius is relatively common in Asia Minor: see Salomies 2001: 161. The only other possible instance of the name in Lykaonia derives from an inscription from Ankara (I.Ankara 187), the tombstone of a deceased cavalryman from Ikonion, set up by his brother Νωουιανός. The letters ΝΟΣ at the start of line 2 presumably represent the end of a patronym ([Ἱέρω]νος vel sim.). The name Herakle(i)a is attested elsewhere in Lykaonia, cf. Callander 1906: 161, no. 17 (Savatra); Sterrett 1888a: 198, no. 207. Heraklea had been Novius’ nurse (ἡ τροφός): see Robert, OMS VI, 117-20, discussing MAMA I 30, from Sarayönü (Laminger-Pascher 1984: 72, no. 122; SEG 34, 1374: in lines 3-5, read, with Robert, τροφῷ τέκνων καὶ ἰδίᾳ); cf. also BE 1971, 748. For the crescent moon, cf. the commentary to MAMA XI 346 (1956/203: Savatra).