EPISTULA HADRIANI AD APHRODISIENSES
   
Letter of Hadrian to the Aphrodisians on immunity from the tax on nails
  
( AD 119 )
 
    
( J. Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome, London, 1982, n. 15 ).
 
 
αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ θεοῦ Τραϊανοῦ Παρθικοῦ υἱός | θεοῦ Νέρουα υἱωνός Τραϊανὸς Ἁδριανὸς Σεβαστός | ἀρχιερεὺς μέγιστος δημαρχικῆς ἐξουσίας τὸ γ´ | Ἀφροδεισιέων ἄρχουσι βουλῇ δήμῳ χαίρειν v. | τὴν μὲν ἐλευθερίαν καὶ αὐτονομίαν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα | τὰ ὑπάρξαντα ὑμεῖν παρά τε τῆς συνκλήτου καὶ | τῶν πρὸ ἐμοῦ αὐτοκρατόρων ἐβεβαίωσα πρόσθεν | ἐντευχθεὶς δὲ διὰ πρεσβείας περὶ τῆς τοῦ σιδή-|ρου χρήσεως καὶ τοῦ τέλους τῶν ἥλων καίπερ | ἀνφισβητησίμου τοῦ πράγματος ὄντος διὰ τὸ | μὴ νῦν πρῶτον τοὺς τελώνας ἐπικεχειρηκέναι | παρ’ ὑμῶν ἐγλέγειν v. ὁμῶς εἰδὼς τὴν πόλιν | τά τε ἄλλα τειμῆς οὖσαν ἀξίαν καὶ ἐξῃρημένη<ν> | τοῦ τύπου τῆς ἐπαρχείας ἀπαλάσσω αὐτὴν | τοῦ τελέσματος καὶ γέγραπφα Κλ(αυδίῳ) Ἀγριππείνῳ | τῷ ἐπιτρόπῳ μου παρανγεῖλαι τῷ μεμισθωμένῳ | τὸ ἐν Ἀσίᾳ τέλος ἀπέχεσθαι τῆς ὑμετέρας πόλεως
 
English translation ( Inscriptions of Aphrodisias Project ).
  
 
      Imperator Caesar Trajanus Hadrianus Augustus, son of divus Trajanus Parthicus, grandson of divus Nerva, Pontifex Maximus, holding the tribunician power for the third time, greets the Magistrates, Council and People of the Aphrodisians.
      Your freedom, autonomy and other (privileges) which were given you by the Senate and the Emperors who have preceded me, I confirmed earlier. I have been petitioned through an embassy about the use of iron and the tax on nails. Although the matter is controversial, since this is not the first time that the collectors have attempted to collect from you, nevertheless, knowing that the city is in other respects worthy of honour and is removed from the formula provinciae, I release it from payment and I have written to Claudius Agrippinus, my procurator, to instruct the contractor for the tax in Asia to keep away from your city.
 

 
►  Bibliography
 
 
Millar, Emperor in the Roman World, London, 1977, p. 429 ; Pleket & Stroud, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, XXXII, Amsterdam, 1982, n. 1097 ; Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome, London, 1982, n. 15 ; BE 1983, 376 ; Robert, BCH, 107, 1983, pp. 509-511 ; AE 1984, n. 869 ; Oliver, Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri, Philadelphia, 1989, n. 69 ; Thériault, Le culte d'Homonoia dans les cités grecques, Québec-Lyon, 1996, p. 85.
 
 
►  Source : Inscription on a column discovered at Aphrodisias, Turkey, recorded in 1967.