ISic001413: Ariston honours Apollonios, amphipolos

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 2023-07-08.
ID
ISic001413
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
honorific
Object type
base
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy;
  • 1: Tusa: Ἀπ[ολλωνίου]
  • 2: Tusa: Ἀρίστω[ν] Ἀ[πολλωνίο]ν τὸν π[ατέρα]
  • 3: Tusa: Ἀπολλώνιον Ἀ[ρίστωνος ἀμ]φιπ[ολή]σα[ντα]

Physical description

Support

Description
A large rectangular 'shelf' set at the base of a niche in the rear wall of an exedra at the rear right hand end of the agora portico. The shelf is made up of 3 stones, projecting slightly out from the wall below, with mouldings to the top and bottom of the front face, and a flat surface above with three distinct circular impressions in the upper surface (two to the right end as you face the stone, above the right-hand text, the rightmost towards the front and the left hand one set further back; and the third to left of centre, above the left hand text). The face of the shelf, between the two mouldings, is approximately 18 cm high. On the same support as
Object type
base
Material
limestone
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 40 cm, width: 2.45 cm, depth: 65 (visible) cm

Inscription

Layout
The texts are not symmetrically laid out, with the left-hand text (this one) on the right half of the left hand block, set some way in from the left margin, and continuing in lines 2 an 3 onto the middle bloc; the right hand text instead starts half-way along the middle block and runs to the right end of the shelf. Both texts maintain a consistent left margin, with the first line starting one letter to the left. Spaces separate the words in line 4 of the left hand text.
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1-4: 20-30mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Soluntum
Provenance found
Uncovered in excavation of the agora portico (1952-1954) in situ, in the rear wall of the 9th (final) exedra at the rear of the portico at the NW end
Map

Current location

Place
Solunto, Italy
Repository
Area Archeologica e Antiquarium di Solunto
Autopsy
Prag, 2000-04-01
Map

Date

later second century BCE (on the basis of current dating of the agora portico). (150 BC – 100 BC)
Evidence
archaeological-context

Text type

honorific

commentary

The only formal publication of this inscription and its partner (ISic001414) remains that by Tusa (1963), which was never picked up in SEG and Tusa's text has simply been reproduced in subsequent discussions and presentations (e.g. Dimartino or in EDR). The text is however far from perfectly preserved, and Tusa's reading, particularly of the first two lines of this text, should not go unchallenged. Most fundamentally, Tusa's reading of the patronym Ἀπ[ολλωνίου] in line 1 cannot stand: I read Ἀρίστ[ωνος] (the traces of the first five letters are reasonably secure), and this would therefore mean that the eponymous priest in this text is the same man as in the adjacent text, ISic001414 and confirm the general assumption that this is a contemporary double dedication. However, it requires that the family relationships identified by Tusa in his original publication be reconsidered. It should additionally be noted that almost nothing can be read of the patronym in line two (i.e. of the dedicant of this text). However, the length of the lacuna in line 2 corresponds very closely to the length of the name Ἀπολλώνιον in line 3 (plus the missing letter from the end of Ἀρίστω[ν]), such that Tusa's proposed restoration (notwithstanding the typographic error of ν for υ in the original publication) of this patronym should be allowed to stand. Consequently, applying Occam's razor, to keep the number of individuals to a minimum, it would appear that (a) the eponymous hierothytes (Philon, son of Ariston) is identical in line 1 of both this text and ISic001414; (b) this text is dedicated by the father of the eponym (Ariston, son of Apollonios), who in turn appears as the honorand and amphipolos in ISic001414; (c) the honorand and amphipolos in this text is therefore the grandfather of the eponymous priest Philon; (d) in ISic001414 it is the eponymous priest Philon and his two brothers who honour their father, Apollonios (the dedicant in this text). Although this does entail that three generations appear to be active simultaneously (although it is perhaps not strictly necessary that the grandfather, honoured in this text, had held the position of amphipolos particularly recently, only that the father, honoured in ISic001414 had done so?), it appears the most logical resolution of the relationships described, and implies a strong grip on the local honours over several generations by one family, not dissimilar to the position of the family of Antallos which appears in several other Soluntum inscriptions of the same period (e.g. ISic001130).

The chronology has been much debated, but the inscription itself can hardly serve to resolve debates about the date of the monumentalisation of the agora or the city more broadly, and any date for the inscription should almost certainly be subordinated to the archaeological dating of the structures - for which the current consensus leans to the second century BCE (Wolf) or more specifically the later second century (Portale). The form of the inscription, including adscript iota, would perhaps suggest a date no later than the second century BCE, but given the coarse nature of the stone, and the strong likelihood that the stone was finished with a layer of plaster and paint, the simple nature of the letter forms (especially the lack of serifs) is not particularly instructive and can only point to a later Hellenistic date.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions
Discussion

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
4/18/2024