EPISTULA IMPERATORUM TRAIANI DECII ET HERENNII ETRUSCI AD APHRODISIENSES
   
Letter of Trajan Decius and Herennius Etruscus on Aphrodisian freedom
  
( AD 250-251 )
 
    
( J. Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome, London, 1982, n. 25 ).
 
 
αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ [Γάϊος̣ Μέσ̣σ̣ι̣ος̣ Κόϊν̣τ̣ος̣ Τ̣[ραϊα]ν̣ὸς̣] | [Δ̣[έκ]ι̣ος̣] Εὐσεβὴς Εὐτυχὴς Σεβαστός, δημαρχικῆς | ἐξουσίας τὸ γʹ, ὕπατος τὸ βʹ, ἀποδεδειγμένος τὸ τρίτον, | πατὴρ πατρίδος, ἀνθύπατος καὶ [Κόϊν̣τ̣ος̣ Ἑ̣ρ̣έν̣ν̣ι̣ος̣ Ἐ̣τ̣ρ̣οῦσ̣κ̣ο[ς]] | [Μέσ̣σ̣ι̣ος̣ Δ̣έκ̣ι̣ος̣,] ἀρχιερεὺς μέγιστος, δημαρχικῆς ἐξουσίας | τὸ πρῶτον, ὕπατος ἀποδεδειγμένος, Ἀφροδεισιέων τοῖς | ἄρχουσιν καὶ τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ χαίρειν· | εἰκὸς ἦν ὑμᾶς καὶ διὰ τὴν ἐπώνυμον τῆς πόλεως θεὸν καὶ | διὰ τὴν πρὸς Ῥωμαίους οἰκειότητά τε καὶ πίστιν ἡσθῆναι | μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ καταστάσει τῆς βασιλείας τῆς ἡμετέρας | θυσίας δὲ καὶ εὐχὰς ἀποδοῦναι δικαίας καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ | τήν τε ἐλευθερίαν ὑμεῖν φυλάττομεν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν | καὶ τὰ ἄλλα δὲ σύνπαντα δίκαια ὁπόσων παρὰ τῶν πρὸ ἡ-|μῶν αὐτοκρατόρων τετυχήκατε συναύξειν ἑτοίμως | ἔχοντες ὑμῶν καὶ τὰς πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἐλπίδας. | v ἐπρέσβευον Αὐρήλιοι Θεόδωρος καὶ Ὀνήσιμος. | vacat εὐτυχεῖτε vacat.
 
English translation ( Inscriptions of Aphrodisias Project ).
  
 
      Imperator Caesar [[C. Messius Q. Traianus Decius]], Pius, Felix, Augustus, holding tribunician power for the third time, consul for the second time, designated for the third, father of his country, proconsul, and [[Q. Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius]], Pontifex Maximus, holding the tribunician power for the first time, consul designate to the Magistrates, Council and People of the Aphrodisians, greetings.
      It was to be expected, both because of the goddess for whom your city is named and because of your relationship with the Romans and loyalty to them, that you rejoiced at the establishment of our kingship and made the proper sacrifice and prayers. We preserve your existing freedom and all the other rights which you have received from the emperors who preceded us, being willing also to give fulfilment to your hopes for the future.
      Aurelius Theodoros and Aurelius Onesimos carried out the duties of ambassadors. Farewell.
 

 
►  Bibliography
 
 
Boeckh et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, Berlin, 1828-77, n. 2743 ; Texier, Description de l'Asie Mineure, III, Paris, 1839-49, p. 154 ; Franz, Ann. d. Inst., 19, 1847, p. 110 ; Le Bas & Waddington, Voyage archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure..., III, p. 1624 ; Lafoscade, De Epistulis Imperatorum Magistratuumque Romanorum, Paris, 1902, n. 80 ; Reinach, REG, 19, 1906, pp. 82-83 ; Abbott & Johnson, Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire, Princeton, 1926, pp. 482-483, n. 145 ; Bourne, Coleman-Norton & Johnson, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 232, n. 290 ; Calder & Cormack, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua, VIII, Manchester, 1962, n. 424 ;  Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (31 BC-AD 337), London, 1977, p. 417 ; Pleket & Stroud, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, XXXII, Amsterdam, 1982, n. 1097 ; BE 1983, 384 ; AE 1984, n. 877 ; Oliver, Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri, Philadelphia, 1989, n. 284.
 
 
►  Source : White marble block found at Aphrodisias, Turkey, in 1705.