La société thasienne et l'Empire sous les Julio-Claudiens : deux inscriptions inédites

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the excavations on Thasos have brought to light two inscriptions relating to the imperial family. The first, dated between 14 and 29 AD, is owed to Komis, the priestess of Livia. Engraved on the back face of the north-west portico, it was the dedication of the exedra in the west part of the agora. The second, completed by a fragment discovered in 2006, is the dedication of a statue for Agrippa Postumus, adoptive son of Augustus honoured as a benefactor in the ancestral tradition. The two texts attest to the transformations in monumentality and in Thasian society at the beginning of the Empire.

Recent epigraphic research in Thasos, Aegean Thrace & Samothrace (2005-2015)

“…The match between the two fragments (Parissaki 2002 = SEG LII 815) has been confirmed following consultation of the squeeze of the Thasian fragment in the archives of the EfA. As a result, it has become clear that Perigenis, a woman honoured in the first fragment, was the wife of Samos, honoured in the second (Fournier andDadaki 2012-2013). The reconstituted inscription (Fig.…”

“…The second epitaph is inscribed on a large marble block from a funerary monument, reused in Proto-Byzantine times and discovered at Agios Vassileios. This monument, dated to the first century AD, bore the names of five Thasians -three men and two women -belonging to three generations (Fournier andDadaki 2012-2013). It is worth mentioning here the stimulating study by Bernard Holtzmann (2012) of one particular type of Thasian monument characteristic of the imperial periodfunerary medallions, sometimes inscribed, representing a couple or, more frequently, a woman by herself.…”

“…They enable us to refine the chronological classification of several fragments of lists of magistrates and show up individual elite members and elite family groups of the Hellenistic and Imperial periods. The decrees published in Grandjean andSalviat 2006 andFournier andHamon 2007 have thus provided three new names of archons of the fourth century BC (Sōmbrotos, Pantaklēs and Biōn), who are difficult to place with any precision in the lacunae of the archon lists. The dedications published by Grandjean (2012-2013: nos 5, 7), on the other hand, make known the names of individuals who appear in the lists of the third century BC.…”

“…It honours a citizen called Stilbon and his unnamed wife, a priestess. The couple undertook all the expenses for construction or repairs in the sanctuary of a female divinity (most likely Artemis), with the city putting public slaves at their disposal for the works (Fournier andPrêtre 2006 = SEG LVI 1018;cf. BE 2009: 412).…”

“…One recent addition to the many dozens of honorific public inscriptions known so far, dating mainly to the Imperial period, is one in honour of Agrippa Postumus, composed of two fragments, one of which was discovered in 1983 and the other in 2004 (Fournier 2006= SEG LVI 1019. This ephemeral heir of the Roman empire, between his adoption in AD 4 and his relegation in AD 6, was endowed with titles such as 'son of the divine Augustus' and 'euergetes by ancestral tradition', and was honoured with a statue in the agora.…”