PHRC028 : Dedication to Eumenes II, Pergamon - Mysia (158-133 BC) Dedication

This marble block is what remains of a statue base which was dedicated to Eumenes II together with an altar of the king in the precinct of Athena. The stone was later reused in the Byzantine walls situated south of the sanctuary's terrace. The identification of the name of the recipient king (in lacuna) is made possible by the presence of the formula Theos Soter: this became a common denomination of Eumenes II after his death (158) whereas Attalos I was always referred to only with the epithet Soter.

Permanent ID http://s.phrc.it/phrc028

Images:
Photo 1: Drawing of the stone from IvP I 59
Photo 2: Plan of the medieval walls of the citadel, from AvP VIII.1 (IvP I)

Current location

Archeological Museum of Bergama

Support

Object Type: Statue Base

Small fragment of the upper left corner of the base. The stone has been reworked to be used as building material.

Material: Marble

Dimensions:
Height: 16.6 cm
Width: 22.5 cm

Layout

Three lines of text aligned with the left margin. From the drawing it seems that line 1, bearing the name of the king, is slightly bigger than the following ones.

Letters of good quality, of about the same size, with thickening at the end of long hastae. A with horizontal crossbar, Σ with parallel horizontal bars, Θ with central point.

Letter height c. 2 cm.

History

Original Place: Sanctuary of Athena

Date: Between 158 and 133 BC

Justification: Formulary and lettering

Provenance: Found in the Byzantine walls south of the terrace of Athena.

Bibliography

Text constituted from: Caneva 2020.

Other editions: IvP I 59.

Edition

Βασιλέα [Εὐμένη]
Θεὸν Σω[τῆρα καὶ]
τὸν βωμὸ[ν ..^?..]

Apparatus

Βασιλέα [Ἄτταλον ?] IvP I 59

Translation

(S. Caneva)
(The statue of) King [Eumenes] Theos Soter and the altar, [...].

Traduzione

(S. Caneva)
(La statua del) re [Eumene] Theos Soter e l'altare, [...].

Commentary

This fragmentary marble block was the base of a statue of an Attalid king. As shown by the inscription, the statue was accompanied by an altar of the same ruler, which makes the statue most probably a cultic one. The identification of the recipient has been considered uncertain by the editor Fränkel, who opted for Attalos I while also proposing the name of Eumenes II as a possible alternative. The latter king is actually a more plausible match since Eumenes II is often referred to as Theos Soter in the inscriptions dating after his death (159/8). Conversely, in the preserved evidence the name of Attalos I is only accompanied by the epithet Soter. A very fragmentary inscription on a marble block found in the eastern part of the gymnasium ( MDAI(A) 32 (1907), p. 310, no. 32) is too heavily restored to provide a reliable parallel to Fränkel’s integration; moreover, by reading the commentary of editor of the gymnasium base, it is clear that he relied on the text of IvP I 59 for his conjecture. The date 158 is therefore to be taken as a plausible post quem for the dedication.

Our base was found reused in the Byzantine walls closing the southern side of the terrace of Athena. Since in general the inscribed objects found in the portion of the medieval walls and in the nearby square tower originally belonged to the precinct of this goddess (Caneva 2019), the altar and statue were erected within this prominent royal space, at roughly the same period as the altar of the Bakchoi PHRC026.

Author:

Stefano Caneva, on 05.04.2019

Revisions:

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