Epistula proconsulis Asiae ad Aphrodisienses ( Reynolds )

EPISTULA PROCONSULIS ASIAE AD APHRODISIENSES

Letter of the proconsul of Asia concerning the privileges of Aphrodisias

( AD 222-235 )

( J. Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome, London, 1982, n. 48 ).

English translation ( Inscriptions of Aphrodisias Project ).

[ . . .]fortunate ; clearly it follows that affection and honour is due to the cities dedicated to his great good fortune, which you yourselves know that I give gladly and especially to those honoured with freedom by the ancestors of our lord Imperator [Alexander] who himself confirms it and increases the rights in which you rejoice; and I will gladly come to you and make a stay in your most splendid city and sacrifice to your native goddess for the safety and eternal continuance of our lord Imperator [Alexander] and our lady Augusta [Mammaea], mother of our lord and of the camps, if no law of your city or decree of the Senate or instruction or letter from the emperor prevents the proconsul from making a stay in [your] city. But if there is any impediment in the documents I have mentioned, when I sacrifice as is my custom to the [?other gods] for the good fortune and [safety] and eternal continuance of [our] lord Imperator [Alexander and] his mother [Mammaea] Augusta, our [lady], I will call upon your native [goddess with them]. I gave this reply [to the chief men] of your [most splendid] city. I hope for your welfare.

► Bibliography

Reinach, REG, 19, 1906, pp. 84-87 ; Abbott & Johnson, Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire, Princeton, 1926, p. 466, n. 137 ; Robert, Études anatoliennes : Recherches sur les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Mineure, Paris, 1937, 303 ; Pleket & Stroud, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, XXXII, Amsterdam, 1982, n. 1097 ; BE 1983, 391 ; Smith & Ratté, Aphrodisias papers : New research on the city and its monuments, Portsmouth, 2008, pp. 52 and 58.

► Source : White marble statue base found at Aphrodisias, Turkey.