Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
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Ramsay, William Mitchell
The cities and bishoprics of Phrygia: being an essay of the local history of Phrygia from the earliest time to the Turkish conquest (Band 1,2): West and West-Central Phrygia — Oxford, 1897

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4680#0276

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App. I. INSCRIPTIONS. 607

taking- the population of the surrounding- cities, settled them to make
this city (Augustus who ruled over the Italians), and called the city by
this name Sehaste after the emperors of the Romans who are entitled
Sebastoi, for he loved much l our country and the fair plain : for verily,,
when pestilential atmosphere and civil war were slaying many, coming
hither 2 [and warned by omens] of birds, [he built etc.]/

The restoration of these lines will, doubtless, be improved in details;
but it gives so suitable a sense as to disprove the suggestion of M. Cumont
that ' devant cliacun des vers conserves, il doit en manquer un ou meme deux
antres.' Moreover, I have never seen any example of an epigram en-
graved, as M. Cumont supposes, in long lines containing each two or
three hexameters, while lines of one hexameter are common. Hence we
must follow the canon, laid down by G. Hermann and reiterated by
Dittenberger (Avfsatze E. Curtius gewidnet p. 293), prqficiscendum vero
semper ah eo, quod maxime simplex est, ut pauca deesse putemus.

The restoration of 1. 1-12 is more difficult, and my text is printed with
all reserve (ideas of Mr. Bywater, Cumont, Buresch, and J. G. C. An-
derson are used in it). A council of the gods seems to be held, at which
a prophecy is made by Dionysos about the future Sebaste and the (pre-
viously) existing city (Dionysos is doubtless the hellenized Men, pp. 126,
295 etc.), The { highest summit' 1. 3 is resumed in jj.tr{]opov 5 and plov
6; and ovhos 6 designates a temple on this height. The old city and
temple were on this hill, the later Sebaste was in the plain. The general
sense of 6-12 is : ' "at present men, foolish, admiring the lofty hill, have
been eager to go up to that peak and found a noble temple, and to raise
aloft the baked bricks, to be- situated thus in the clouds of heaven."
Thus he spake ; and the gods approved the word of Dionysos. And our
city in this way pleased the mind of Zeus. And when the young god
produced for men the holy nectar-like cup [this I take from Buresch3],
he was received [Se apodotic] among the gods/ etc.

According to this inscr., whatever be its authority, Sebaste was a new
city, peopled from surrounding cities; and the foundation was made by
Augustus, when he visited Asia after the battle of Actium (as M. Cumont
points out). As restored, the inscr. suits well our theory that Leonnaia,
in its lofty situation on the hilltop of Hissar, was the capital city of the
district before Sebaste was founded, § 6 and § 15.

496. CiG 3^72- Sazak. erovs <rvri', p.{r\vo's) a' 8'. MaKovXeiva 'AwoX-
X[a>]v{[(f tSiw] avbpi.

1 c'^fi'XaTo from <piXca (eipiXaro Iliad 2 Understanding -iKav{a)v.

E 61, Y 304). B But he has viKrapo[s dtvov
 
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