DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4326#0089
APHRODISIAS.
51
citizens of Plarasa and Aphrodisias may, as friends and to the extent of our power, possess, use,
and enjoy the produce of their towns, villages [or farms], fortresses, boundaries, and revenues,
they shall have the privilege of immunity in everything; nor shall they be liable on any pre-
tence to pay [tribute] on them, nor be called upon for any contribution, but shall make use of
them according to the authority vested in them by the present decree."
The ixiitwa of the Triumviri was made probably when Antony went to Asia to collect money
for paying the promised largesses to the army , and we may conclude it to have been the act of
Antony alone in the name of the Three. As Dion informs us that the acts of the Triumviri were
confirmed by the Senate in the consulship of L. Marcius and C. Sabinus (u. c. 715), the senatus
consultum may be attributed to that year; and the letter of Antony to a subsequent year of his
Triumvirate. When we consider the imputation, under which Antony laboured, of making his
possession of the official memoirs of Caesar subservient to his own purposes of ambition or ava-
rice, there is strong reason to suspect that the praise bestowed by him upon Solon, was the re-
sult of a sum of money, of which the Ambassador was the bearer from Aphrodisias.
Although we have no record of Aphrodisias having suffered from any of the earthquakes, which
during the Roman empire destroyed some of the finest cities of Asia Minor, it is not very likely
that it should have escaped those disastrous visitations ; and it is possibly to their effects that some
reparations are to be attributed, which are recorded in three of the inscriptions of Aphrodisias.
The first of these inscribed over a gate in the ancient walls, mentions the erection of the gate by
the governor (riy^aij named Flavius Quintus Eros Monaxius, in the reign of Flavius Julius Con-
stantius Augustus and............Caesar.* Monaxius is entitled axb Kor^a^/ov and the
city Guyytv\q K^cav, thus preserving the memory, at a very late period, of that ancient connexion
between Caria and Crete, which is mentioned by Herodotus (I. 171) and alluded to by Strabo
(p. 661, 65%) and Pausanias (VII. 3, 4). It appears that Cretarch was an office or dignity at
Aphrodisias, and that Monaxius derived honor by his descent from men who had held that
office.
Over another gate is an inscription which was placed there by the senate and commons in
honor of a governor [nywav] named Flavius Constantius who in addition to other works had
also restored the city walls.-f Immediately below this document is a record of the renewal of
the gate of the illustrious Metropolis of the Tauropolitae by Flavius Ampelius, then holding the
dignities of Scholasticus and of father of the city.J This inscription dated in the 8th indiction,
and preceded by the sign of the Cross, is obviously less ancient than the former, which seems
to be nearly of the same date as the third, or that first mentioned.
Alexander the Great extended them to the distance of one
stade from the temple, Mithridates a little further, and
that Antonius doubled the distance. The aXXoc roVoc «poC
therefore refers probably to the space beyond the TiptvoQ of
Venus, which had been added by Antonius to the asylum.
* Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 2744.
f Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 2745.
| Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 2746.
51
citizens of Plarasa and Aphrodisias may, as friends and to the extent of our power, possess, use,
and enjoy the produce of their towns, villages [or farms], fortresses, boundaries, and revenues,
they shall have the privilege of immunity in everything; nor shall they be liable on any pre-
tence to pay [tribute] on them, nor be called upon for any contribution, but shall make use of
them according to the authority vested in them by the present decree."
The ixiitwa of the Triumviri was made probably when Antony went to Asia to collect money
for paying the promised largesses to the army , and we may conclude it to have been the act of
Antony alone in the name of the Three. As Dion informs us that the acts of the Triumviri were
confirmed by the Senate in the consulship of L. Marcius and C. Sabinus (u. c. 715), the senatus
consultum may be attributed to that year; and the letter of Antony to a subsequent year of his
Triumvirate. When we consider the imputation, under which Antony laboured, of making his
possession of the official memoirs of Caesar subservient to his own purposes of ambition or ava-
rice, there is strong reason to suspect that the praise bestowed by him upon Solon, was the re-
sult of a sum of money, of which the Ambassador was the bearer from Aphrodisias.
Although we have no record of Aphrodisias having suffered from any of the earthquakes, which
during the Roman empire destroyed some of the finest cities of Asia Minor, it is not very likely
that it should have escaped those disastrous visitations ; and it is possibly to their effects that some
reparations are to be attributed, which are recorded in three of the inscriptions of Aphrodisias.
The first of these inscribed over a gate in the ancient walls, mentions the erection of the gate by
the governor (riy^aij named Flavius Quintus Eros Monaxius, in the reign of Flavius Julius Con-
stantius Augustus and............Caesar.* Monaxius is entitled axb Kor^a^/ov and the
city Guyytv\q K^cav, thus preserving the memory, at a very late period, of that ancient connexion
between Caria and Crete, which is mentioned by Herodotus (I. 171) and alluded to by Strabo
(p. 661, 65%) and Pausanias (VII. 3, 4). It appears that Cretarch was an office or dignity at
Aphrodisias, and that Monaxius derived honor by his descent from men who had held that
office.
Over another gate is an inscription which was placed there by the senate and commons in
honor of a governor [nywav] named Flavius Constantius who in addition to other works had
also restored the city walls.-f Immediately below this document is a record of the renewal of
the gate of the illustrious Metropolis of the Tauropolitae by Flavius Ampelius, then holding the
dignities of Scholasticus and of father of the city.J This inscription dated in the 8th indiction,
and preceded by the sign of the Cross, is obviously less ancient than the former, which seems
to be nearly of the same date as the third, or that first mentioned.
Alexander the Great extended them to the distance of one
stade from the temple, Mithridates a little further, and
that Antonius doubled the distance. The aXXoc roVoc «poC
therefore refers probably to the space beyond the TiptvoQ of
Venus, which had been added by Antonius to the asylum.
* Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 2744.
f Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 2745.
| Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 2746.