chaniotis inofficial titles of emperors 2003-libre

8/10/2019 Chaniotis Inofficial Titles of Emperors 2003-Libre

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rigin lver

ff ntli hungin :ActaAntiquaAcademiaeScientiarumHungaricae43 2003 S.341 344

ct Ant.Hung.43 .2003 341 344

ANGELOSC H A N I O T I S

LIVIASEBASTE IULIASEBASTE CAIUSCAESAR

PARTHIKOS DOMITIANANIKEITOSTHEOS

INOFFICIALT I T L E SO FE M P E R O R SINT H EE A R L YPRINC PATE

Summary

T h e

Greeks both

communit ies

an d

private

persons often

attributed

to

members

o f

the

impe

rial

fami ly

honorary

titles

that

they

d id

not

off ic i l l y

have.

L i v i a

w a s

regarded

as

T h e a

Sebaste

in

Ioulis,

Iouliaas SebasteinA p o l l o n i a ,C a i u sCaesaras Parthikosin K o s ,D o m i t i a nas T h e o sA n i k e t o s invictus)

in

A p h r o d i s i a s ,

an d

Sabina

as

Sebaste

in

Perge.

T h e s e

honorary

titles

a l w a y s

appear

in

a

cultic

context.

This

suggests

that

fo r

th e

G r e e k s

such

inofficial

titles

w e r e

comparable

with

epithets

o f

gods .

Keyw o r d s :E m p e r o r ,imperialf a m i l y ,titulature,epigraphy,L i v i a ,Iulia,C .Caesar ,Sabina,Domit ian .

According

to

literary

tradition

Sabina,

Hadrian s

wife,

was

awarded

the

title

ugust in

A . D .

128,

in

the

same

context

in

which

the

emperor

was

given

the

title

p ter

patriae.

1

The

title

SebastelAugusta

appears,

however,

in

two

honorary

inscrip-

tions

for

Sabina

that

are

dated

to

c.

A . D .

120-122.

2

Fo r

this

reason

Werner

Eck

sug-

gested

dating

the

official

award

o f

this

title

to

c.

A . D .

119.

In

1992

I

published

two

new

inscriptionsforSabinafromLyttos,inwhichshelacksthetitleAugusta/Sebaste.

Oneo fthemcanbesafelydatedtoA . D .124/125,theotherisalsoearlierthanA . D .

128. A s1argued,thesetextssuggestthatSabinadidnothavethetitleAugustaat

that

date;

the

early

appearance

o f

the

title

should

be

explained

as

an

inofficial

and

probably

unauthorised)

adaptation

by

provincial

communities

o f

a

title

that

they

knew

from

imperial

nomenclature.

5

In

this

article

I

present

a

fe w

inscriptions,

pub

lished

recently,

that

offer

new

evidence

for

this

practice

from

the

Greek

East,

which

forthemostpartconcernsmemberso fthefamilyo fAugstus.

1

WE C KHadrianalspaterpatriaeun ddie VerleihungdesAugustatitelsan Sabina,in :G .WIRTH

ed

)Romanitas.Christianitas.UntersuchungenzurGeschichteun dLiteraturde rrmischenKaiserzeit

J

Straubzum70 .Geburtstaggewidmet

B e r l i n - N e w

Y o r k

1982)

2 1 8 ,

with

th e

sources.

2

CILII4 9 9 2 O l i s i p o ,A . D .121/122);I.Perge99 c.A . D .121).

3

E C K ,art.cit.

2 2 6 - 2 2 8 .

4

SEG

X L I I

8 1 3 - 8 1 4=SEG

X X X V I

815

bis

an d

X L

7 7 7

b).

.

5

A .C H A N I O T I S - G .RETHEMIOTAKIS,N e u eInschriftenau sd e mkaiserzeit l ichenLyttos ,Kreta,

7>C/K>7 1992)34.

44 5975/2003/ 20.002003AkademiaiKiad.Budapest


2/4

342

CHANIOTIS,ANGELOS

Livia

Sebaste in Joulis on Keos

Theepistyle o f a building, possibly dedicated to the emperor cult, in Ioulis is

inscribedw ith a d edicatory inscription that has recently been restored b y So phia

Zoumbaki

and Lina Mendon i as follows:

6

' Y jt ip xffe xoO

9eof

K a i o a p o ?

,1

eaoxov

owTTiptac Ieeoig 'OXuuJttoic; d9 e o i ;I

E

|aoTois ripxtEpeug |[9e

)v] ?

E

[aoT>v]

0eM[X]r,S < j > i W o a p . The editors rightly identified the Oeoi Se a ato i with

Augustusand Liv ia and pointed out that L ivia wa s sometimes designated as A u -

gusta/Sebaste

in the Eastern prov inces prior to A ug ustus ' death.

IuliaSebaste in Apollonia

A

statue base from Ap ollo nia com mem orates the dedication o f a statue o f 'Io u-

U aSe aox by Aristo:

8

['A pt]o t(b i ' A p i o t a m M , | V6VKUOV


3/4

LIVIASEBASTE, IULIA SEBASTE, CAIUS CAESAR PARTH1K0S, DOMITIAN ANIKEITOS THEOS 343

known

from Priene ( 0e KaMtxetcvog)

14

and Halasama on Ko s (unpublished: Ar|T(b

KaUiteicvog).

15

Whether w e restore in the last line 'EXex)6t[ai], i.e., a dedication o f

Iulia's

statue to Eleithy ia, or 'Etai 8i[av ], i.e., an identification o f lulia w ith Eleithy ia,

theassociation o f the mother o f Augustus 's beloved grandchildren with the goddess

ofchildbirth is obv ious.

Caius

lulius Caesar Parthicus in Kos

A

very fragmentary inscription from Kos may also present a surprising case o f

an

inofficial title for a member o f Au gustus ' house. The text is an honorary inscrip

tion

for a man w ho had served as a priest o f A po llo (L. 7f.), gymnasiarchos (L. 7),

probablyas an agonothetes o f an agon honoring Hestia and o fthefestival Pythokleia

(L. 5 ) / a s a priest or high priest o f Tiberius (L. 3) and as a high priest of Claudius,

the

ktistes

o f Kos (L . 5):

1

[iepE]a TiEpiou K atoa po g SeaoTov[l]-

4[of> S eao xoi) icai c. 6 KJc uoa pog Se a axo fjviovnap6[ i ] -

[

KO

c

. 17 ]aq 'E on agKOXnuGoicXicov,pxie-

[paTeiJoavxa

Ti eplov K Xau ]tou K alo ap og 2eaoTof3 KTtotfa]

[tagJiUog ? c. 6 Y vu va aia p] pQ av T[ a, i]EpaTEi3oavTa 'AJT

[

X]-

8

[taovog ]

L.

5, e.g. [&Yiovo9ETiioavTa

i]g

'Eoxta;.

Thefirst part o f the text seems to mention offices currently held by this man

(lines3 -5 ), the later part earlier offices (cf. L. 7: [i]Ep axE voa vra) . The title r iap0 i-

icg(lines 4f.) is puzzling . Th e date o f the inscription exclud es an identification with

Trajan.The only m ember o f the imperial family under the Julio-C laudians that had

anyconnection with the Parthians is Au gustus ' grandson and adopted son, Ca ius

Caesar,wh ose meeting with the king o ftheParthians Phraates V resulted in a peace-

ful

resolution o f the crisis in the East (A .D . I).

18

W e kn ow that Caius Caesar was the

recipiento f divine honors in Kos from another inscription w hich mentions the agon

Kaisareia,

celebrated in his honor.

19

Th e agon Kaisareia, the remains o f

the

name (Kctt-

14

/ Priene

225.

15

K HGHAMMAR,

Sculpture and So cietv. A Study oftheConnection between the Free-Stand

ing

Sculpture and Soc ietv on Kos in the Hellenistic andAug ustan Periods

(Up psala 1993) 189 no 79.

^Forthis festival see M . SEGRE,

hcrizioni di Cos,

edited by D . PEPAS-DELMOUSOU and M. A .

RlZZA(Rome 1993) 70-7 3 E D 82.

17

SEGRE,

op.cit,

207 no. E V 134.

18

Fo r these events see D. KIENAST,

Augustus. Princeps und Monarch

(Darmstadt 1999, tnird edi-

tion)

34 5f and 376, w ith the sources and further bibliograph y. For the Roma n expectations from this

expeditionsee E. GRUEN, T he E xpan sion of the Empire under Augustu s, in 77ie

Cam bridge Ancient His-

tory,

V olum e X . 77ie

Augustan Em pire

(Cam bridge 1996, Second Edition)

191

f .

SEGRE,

op.cit.,

228 E V 218 A lines 9 -11 : K aw p na

rix

Tt9tnfva Ta iwi KaCoapi .

ActaAnt. Hung. 43, 2003


4/4

344

CHANIOTIS, A N G E L O S

aap

ZectoTofi

vlq),

and the position o f this priesthood strongly suggest that the

Koansaw arded the title

Parthikos

to C aius Ca esar , in order to celebrate his success.

Wem ay restore in lines 4f.: [iccrt r a to v K Jg io a p og Ze aoT ofi ulofl nap8 [i|icoi)]. It

maybe assumed that K os wa s one o f Ca ius' stops in his Eastern expedition, probably

after

his stay in Samos.

21

DomitianDeus Invictus

InA phro disias, a priest dedicated a statue o f an emperor to Zeus Nineudios.

22

Theemperor's name is given as AvxoicpdTw p Ka Xoap Se a ot ? repuaviKg (Im

peratorCaesa r Aug ustus G erma nicus); an identification w ith Do mitian is quite prob

able,since another inscription from A phrod isias uses the same nomenclature for

Domitian.

O ne cannot exclude, ho we ver , an identification with C aligula, Claudius or

Nero.T he surprising d em en t in the emp eror's titulature is his designation as aviio )-

T05

eoc;. Th is private , inofficial designation o f an emperor asinvictus(ordeus invic

tus

antedates the introduction o f

invictus

as an o fficia l imperial title under Septimius

Severus

by a Century.

24

Inofficialtitles as cultic epithets

TheGre eks, the comm unities o f Ioulis and K os and private persons (Ap ollon ia,

Aphrodisias),we re fam ilir with the honora ry titles and names that were used b y

memberso f the imperial fam ily, but they w ere not alw ays familir with the m echa-

nisms

behind their officia l awa rds. For them they we re compa rable with epithets o f

gods

(such as ^injicoog, oooTTjp, JIXOUTOTT]s

A 1 0 5

NivEuiov, ovv|ica8ie'pa)OEv

T V

0E6Vi(pBe|tpKaSw?

JIEOXETO.

C f .SEG X X X II 1099: [A]xoKp[d]T[op]a K a i f aa pa ] Ao ui na v v SEaotv TEpuaviKv.

Forthis title under the Severans see, e.g., A. MASTINO,Le titulature di Caracalla e Geta attra-

versole iscrizioni(Bolo gna 1981 ) 3840 and 63f.

Acta

Ant. Hung. 43, 2003

chaniotis inofficial titles of emperors 2003-libre

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