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An Exedra for Demosthenes of Oenoanda and his Relatives*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

The Roman–Lycian notable and ex-procurator of Sicily, C. Julius Demosthenes of Oenoanda, who flourished under the Flavian Emperors, under Trajan and under Hadrian, is now well-known, following the publication of the richly-detailed Demostheneia Festival inscription by M. Wörrle. New investigation in 1994 into the archaeological context of Demosthenes' statue base (YÇ 1024), found on the site of Oenoanda in 1895 and published by Heberdey and Kalinka, has revealed that it was not re-used as stated by Hall and Milner, but shaped specifically for its original construction as the western anta of a semicircular exedra. In this article we trace the location, design and decoration of the exedra and discuss the inscriptions which adorned it.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1995

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References

1 Wörrle, M., Stadt und Fest im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien, Vestigia vol. 39 (Munich, 1988)Google Scholar.

2 Heberdey, R., Kalinka, E., Bericht über zwei Reisen im südwestlichen Kleinasien, Denkschr. Akad. Wien, phil.-hist. Kl. 45 (1896), 47 no. 62Google Scholar; also IGR III 487Google Scholar; republished by Hall, Alan and Milner, Nicholas, in French, D. H. (ed.), Studies in the history and topography of Lycia and Pisidia in memoriam A. S. Hall, B.I.A.A. monograph 19 (London, 1994), 32, no. 21Google Scholar, hereinafter “Hall and Milner”.

3 The Upper Agora has been called the “Esplanade” since Cousin's, article in BCH XVI (1892), 56–8Google Scholar, but there is now sufficient evidence to show that it was the Hellenistic and early Imperial agora of the city.

4 See Coulton, J. J., “Oenoanda: the Agora”, AS XXXVI (1986), 6190, at 76Google Scholar.

5 We did not measure or sketch the garlands of the frieze, so the drawing is exempli gratia at this point; readers should refer to Pl. XII (a, b) for a better impression of how they really looked.

6 Hall and Milner, loc. cit., Pl. 2.7 (squeeze).

7 Contrary to what was suggested by Hall and Milner, loc. cit., after Cagnat. There would have been room if Demosthenes' filiation and ethnics had both been omitted, but the filiation is unlikely to have been left out in view of the fact that the honourer included his own filiation (line 16). We propose to follow the form of Demosthenes' filiation offered by the Demostheneia Festival inscr. line 7 (Wörrle, op. cit. (n. 1) 4).

8 IGR III 500 ii 53 ffGoogle Scholar.

9 For line 3, Cf. IGR III 493–4Google Scholar for a similar expression of Roman and Oenoandan citizenship of contemporaries.

10 Cagnat, , IGR III 487, n. 5Google Scholar, lists the islands involved.

11 So Pflaum, H.-G., Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le haut-empire romain (Paris, 1960), I, 173Google Scholar no. 76. See also Kienast, D., Römische Kaisertabelle (Darmstadt, 1990), 123Google Scholar.

12 Cf. Eck, W., Chiron V (1975), 367Google Scholar. Most inscriptions give the imperial titulature current at the time of engraving, but some give instead that current at the time of the office held.

13 Wörrle, 61.

14 Assuming that her father was a C. Julius. The relationship does not arise from Moles II having married a sister of Demosthenes, for that would make him his brother-in-law γαμβρός, πενθεριδεύς), nor from Moles I having married Demosthenes' sister, which would make Demosthenes the maternal uncle (μήτρως) of Moles II.

15 Cf. Wörrle, 73. It seems clear that Demosthenes' birth falls approximately between A.D. 40 and 60, which would put him in his 20s or 30s when he mounted the Vespasianeia. Since his son Julius Antoninus married a previously-married woman who was politically active in the A.D. 70S (see below), and had a daughter by her (c. A.D. 90?), on a conservative estimate she is likely to have been born by c. A.D. 60, and Julius Antoninus by c. A.D. 70. The latest alternative dating is to assume she was twice his age, having a daughter at 40 when he was only 20 in c. A.D. 100; this would also make their daughter Julia Lysimache only 15 when her son Claudius Agrippinus was born c. A.D. 115 (see below). The earlier dating is to be preferred, therefore, according to which Demosthenes was most likely born c. A.D. 45–50. See also n. 50 below.

16 In 1994 we found that the large square building south of the Upper Agora, which had been a candidate for the agora biotike, was best interpreted as a late antique dwelling house rather than as a public building; cf. Hall and Milner, loc. cit, p. 45.

17 J. J. Coulton, loc. cit., (n. 4), and id., “The Buildings of Oinoanda”, PCPS 209, n.s. 29 (1983), 9–10.

18 Wörrle, 238, n. 66.

19 IGR III 500 ii 53 ff.Google Scholar: ὃς ἐγένετο χειλίαρχος…ἔπαρχος…ἐπίτροπος…καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο λυκιάρχης

20 Cf. Wörrle, 72. What the Lyciarchy actually was is still unresolved; for a recent but insufficient treatment of a similar question about the Asiarchy, see Friesen, S. J., Twice Neokoros: Ephesus, Asia and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family, Religion in the Graeco-Roman World 116 (Leiden, 1993), ch. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Wörrle, M., Chiron XXII (1992), 370Google Scholar, who supports the orthodox view that identifies the provincial high-priesthood of Asia with the Asiarchy.

21 Wörrle, 60–2.

22 Cf. Roueché, C., Performers and Partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and Late Roman Periods, JRS monograph no. 6 (1993), 61Google Scholar; Price, S. R. F., Rituals and Power (1984), 89Google Scholar. That the Vespasianeia was a league festival, held in a major metropolis (not Oenoanda), is advocated by Wörrle, 238, n. 66, correctly we think.

23 Cf. a priest of Vespasian at Antioch, Pisidian, JRS II (1912), 102 no. 34Google Scholar. Contra Wörrle, 62, who less plausibly dates the Vespasianeia to the reign of Hadrian. For Vespasian's reorganisation of Lycia, see Wörrle, 97–100.

24 Cf. Devijver, H., Prosopographia militarium equestrium I (1976), no. 155Google Scholar.

25 See also IGR III 500 ii 15 ff.Google Scholar: Μαρκίας [Γης, θ]υγατρὸς Μαρκίου Μο[λε]βου Λουβασιος.

26 N.b., her father is not termed “Marcius” by her, and is only so in the much later Genealogy of Flavilla, Licinnia, IGR III 500Google Scholar. The latter is thus likely to be erroneous. If so, she may well have been enfranchised as a Roman citizen at the same time as her husband.

27 Larfeld, W., Handbuch der grieechischen Epigraphik (Leipzig, 1902), II, 490Google Scholar.

28 Welles, C. B., Gerasa: City of the Decapolis (New Haven, 1938), 359, no. 3, no. 1Google Scholar.

29 Was he perhaps adopted by Demosthenes? But then he would have to be C. Julius Apollonios. Conceivably, the missing top block was inscribed to this effect. Wörrle, 73–4, shrewdly infers that Demosthenes adopted his nephew (C. Julius) Simonides III, the first agonothete of the Demostheneia (see our Stemma). He is probably not right, however, to identify (p. 73) Loubasis, grandfather of Moles II, with Loubasis, father of Marcius Molebes, whose daughter Marcia Ge married Thoas, Marcius (IGR III 496Google Scholar; 500 ii 13 ff.), because the former Loubasis was a generation younger than the latter (see Jameson's, S. stemma I, AS XVI (1966), facing p. 137Google Scholar). Our inscr. 5 reveals a third and a fourth Loubasis; a fifth(?) Loubasis should be restored to IGR III 1504Google Scholar (YÇ 1060), on a decorated architrave from a small building on the slope c. 50 m. north of the Upper Agora, dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian by Ammia alias Polykleia, daughter of [L]oubasis. The name was evidently not so rare at Oenoanda, even if unattested elsewhere.

30 Zgusta, L., Kleinasiatische Personennamen (Prague, 1964), §948 and §1590.2Google Scholar.

31 Ibid. §948.

32 Ibid. §946.1.

33 Ibid. §852.

34 Arkwright, W. G., “Lycian and Phrygian names,” JHS XXXVIII (1918), 59 n. 114Google Scholar.

35 Pape, W., Benseler, G. E., Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen3 (1911), s.vGoogle Scholar.

36 Cf. Wörrle, 63 ff. See also the reflections of MacMullen, R., Changes in the Roman Empire (1990), 169–76, at 175–6Google Scholar, and Corruption and the Decline of Rome (1988), 75–7Google Scholar.

37 IGR III 500 ii 46 ffGoogle Scholar.

38 Cf. Devijver, H., Prosopographia militarium equestrium I (1976), 435 no. 120Google Scholar.

39 Cf. n. 29 above. Further evidence in the shape of a simple, square funerary base inscribed to C. Julius Antoninus and erected by “his parents” was found in a disused cemetery in the Seki plain in 1994: Γαίῳ Ἰουλίῳ ∣ Ἀντωνείνῳ ∣ ᾕρωι ∣ οἱ γονεῖς. Despite its modest size, the presumption must be that it is for the son of Demosthenes, but it has perhaps been removed from the ruins of a larger family funerary monument.

40 Wörrle, 58 on OGIS 555, cf. Hall, A. S., Coulton, J. J., Chiron XX (1990), 133 n. 79Google Scholar. Obviously this Moles will have been vitally important when the Oenoandans came to build bridges to Octavian after they had enthusiastically collaborated with Brutus in the sack of Xanthos in 42 B.C., cf. Appian, B. Civ. 4.79Google Scholar.

41 Cf. Bier, L., “The Upper Theatre of Balboura”, AS XLIV (1994), 2746, at 44Google Scholar (YÇ 1129).

42 Cf. Hepding, H., Ath. Mit. XXXIV (1909), 329 ff.Google Scholar, Tuchelt, K., Frühe Denkmäler Roms in Kleinasien I (1979), 82Google Scholar, IGR IV 293 ii 61 ff.Google Scholar, 64 ff. (for Diodorus Pasporos of Pergamon), on which Hepding, H., Ath. Mit. XXXII (1907), 271Google Scholar. Cf. also Milner, N. P., Smith, Martin F., “New votive reliefs from Oinoanda”, AS XLIV (1994), 6576, at 69Google Scholar.

43 YÇ 1067, in a pile of rubble below the “Great Wall”, south of the Upper Agora. If the name is correctly read as Erpias, it is epichoric to eastern and central Lycia, Cf. Zgusta, §353.5.

44 YÇ 1076, built into the city wall, at the north-west corner.

45 Vienna Schedae, no. 58.

46 Demostheneia Festival inscr. lines 47 and 6; cf. Wörrle, 70 and 75.

47 IGR III 500 ii 1–6Google Scholar; cf. Wörrle, 65 n. 79.

48 He was also her first father-in-law, when she was married to his son Licinnius Maximus, before marrying C. Julius Antoninus.

49 Hall, A. S., Epigraphica Anatolica IV (1984), 2736Google Scholar, with Wörrle, 74 n. 141; see also Heil, M., Chiron XIX (1989), 165–84Google Scholar, and Halfmann, H., Asia Minor Studien III (Bonn, 1991), 41–3Google Scholar. It should be here remarked that N.P.M. reads Hall's fragmentary squeeze in the B.I.A.A. in line 1 as [c. 8 ]ΦΡΟΝΤΙ[ΝΟΝ—. Frustratingly, it was found in 1994 that the relevant part of the stone has broken off in the meantime, and must be considered lost.

50 Wörrle, 60–1, 72, 74 n. 141, notes the remarkable longevity of Demosthenes and some of his circle, and would date his birth hardly much after A.D. 50. See also n. 15 above.

51 IGR III 500 iv 8 ffGoogle Scholar.

52 Cf. Wörrle, 72. n. 131.

53 Wörrle, 60 n. 48.

54 Assuming he is the son of (C. Julius) Simonides III.

55 Wörrle, 73.

56 See refs. collected by Wörrle, 65 n. 83.

57 IGR III 500 ii 65 ffGoogle Scholar. They are thus more accurately described as Dryantianos' descendants. Şahin, S., Epigraphica Anatolica XVII (1991), 114Google Scholar, suggests to read “uncle” instead of “great-grandfather”.

58 So Wörrle, 60 n. 48; 64 n. 71. The restoration of the name Iulianus (by N.P.M.) seems to impose itself.

59 TAM III 603, 905 no. 59Google Scholar. See PIR2 C 776Google Scholar, Alföldy, G., Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter den Antoninen (1977), 166Google Scholar, Halfmann, H., Die Senatoren aus dem östlichen Teil des Imperium Romanum (1979) 164 ffGoogle Scholar. no. 80.

60 Her senatorial husband Claudius Titianus was related to the Vilii; cf. Jameson, S., “Two Lycian Families”, AS XVI (1966), 125–30Google Scholar, with stemma 137; Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-T., Prosopographie des femmes de l'ordre senatorial [1er-IIesiècles] (1987) 230 no. 257Google Scholar. Her father Claudius Titianus, also called Ti. Claudius Flavianus Titianus Q. Vilius Proculus L. Marcius Celer M. Calpurnius Longus (so Raepsaet-Charlier no. 238 and others, contra Jameson), may be identical with (and is certainly related to) the Longus, M. Calpurnius (IGR IV 894, 895Google Scholar, cf. 897, identical acc. to Cagnat comm. ad 894) who had estates at Alastos, near Tefenni, in the Cibyratis.

61 IGR III 1505Google Scholar (corrected) (YÇ 1119).

62 Hall and Milner, loc. cit., 30–1, nos. 19 and 20 (YÇ 1007 and 1006).

63 M. Aurelii may, in theory, have been enfranchised by the Emperors M. Aurelius or Commodus, but in the Cibyratis the majority of cases have to do with the effect of the Constitutio Antoniniana. The evidence of inscriptions from Balboura suggests that of those enfranchised in A.D. 212 “M(arcus)” was often prefixed to “Aur(elius)” and often omitted; cf. Coulton, J. J., Milner, N. P., Reyes, A. T., AS XXXIX (1989), 60Google Scholar; the same may be observed in the epigraphy of Oenoanda—see the collection in Hall and Milner, for example.

64 IGR III 500 ii 8–9Google Scholar.

65 Hall and Milner, 22 no. 15, 26 (YÇ 1028).

66 IGR III 1507Google Scholar (YÇ 1003). Perhaps grandfather of, rather than the same as, the ambassador of 125.

67 Cf. Wörrle, 70–1, where he misdates the games put on by M. Aur. Antimachos. It was proposed by Petersen, E. and von Luschan, F., Reisen in Lykien, Milyas und Kibyratis II (1889), 181Google Scholar, that Polykleia was the sister of Ammia, husband of C. Licinnius Musaios.

68 Wörrle, 70. Cf. Hall and Milner, 36 no. 27 (YÇ 1118), Simonides son of Kroisos son of Tlepolemos son of Tlepolemos; 38 no. 30 (YÇ 1089), Aurelius Kroisos son of Simonides son of Kroisos son of Tlepolemos.