Ephesian gerousia, old customs, and imperial cult under Commodus

Typology: Local decree

Original Location: Local decree

Current Location: Most of the surviving fragments are preserved in the British Museum, London (IBM III.2 483)

Date: 180 CE to 192 CE

Centuries: 2nd CE

Material: Marble

Measurements: Surviving blocks are approximately 88 centimetres high and wide. The wall was 23 thick. Letters are 2 centimetres tall.

Languages: Greek

Category: Roman, Greek

Publications: Die Inschriften von Ephesos I no. 26.

Description: 16 fragments from 4 blocks fixed to a wall. Interpunctuation is frequent but not consistent.

Edition :

The edition is taken with some modifications from Oliver, James H., The Sacred Gerusia (The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora: Hesperia, Suppl. VI.) American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1941, p. 98-99.

English translation:

The translation is taken with some modifications from Oliver, James H., The Sacred Gerusia (The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora: Hesperia, Suppl. VI.) American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1941, p. 98-99. Italics mark restorations of the text and should be read with caution.

To Good Fortune

Concerning the things which . . . proposes:

In those years at the beginning right after the foundation of the city Lysimachus the king, having acquired supreme authority over the affairs of the city, made an excellent arrangement of all the other things concerning the Mysteries and the sacrifices and concerning our synhedrion with all reverence and love of goodness, and erecting both the temple and the cult statue of Artemis the Savior . . . he ordered that all those who belonged to the synhedrion should receive individually . . . from the common funds of the Gerusia to feast and to sacrifice to the goddess. And after this custom had lasted for a long, long time, it was neglected in later yearsbecause of a shortage of funds. Now however since sufficient means have been raised again through Nicomedes, the general advocate of our synhedrion, who has thus furnished an extraordinary example of his good care, the Gerusia has returned to its ancient custom of reverencing and sacrificing both to the guide of our city, divine Artemis, and to our supreme lord and most visible god Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus Pius Felix, the annual sacrifices for his perpetual preservation, so that it is now possible to expend for the banquet a sum not less than ...  Attic drachmas from the funds proclaimed by Nicomedes, and for each one attending to receive the sum for the banquet and one Attic drachma besides out of the munificence of Nicomedes.

Therefore the members have resolved to ratify and to ordain forever through the following decree:

To Good Fortune. That the Gerusia preserve as permanent the legislation in the case of the aforesaid act of reverence. Likewise that the members always preserve and discharge the duties connected with the banquets, toward the expense of which the advocate is munificently making an additional contribution. That the . . . arrange for a torch procession to take place at the banquets and for the members of the synhedrion to share in the feast . . . at the ritual repasts. That if at any time other funds are not available, they carry out the banquets and sacrifices on the same scale, while the . . . supplements the available funds for the expenses of the sacrifice out of the revenue from the exchange. That all distributions to the citizens take place according to this decree in the halls about the temple of the Savior Artemis. That the citizens celebrate each year, in accord with the previously ratified decrees, the Augustan day of the twelfth month, and that on the birthday of the god emperor, among the Ephesian Elders in number no fewer than . . . a distribution by lot ---

Commentary:

The original blocks of the inscription have been found broken in many fragments, some of which are not complete and complicate the reading of this important document. Although meaningful restorations have been proposed by modern editors, this commentary focuses on certain secure elements illustrating the cohabitation of Greek tradition and Roman Empire in the cultic life of Ephesus at the end of the 2^nd century CE.

The first certain element is that this document originated in the γερουσία/gerousia. Literally translated as “council of elders”, this institution had been present in many Greek cities before the Roman rule (see Zimmermann, Les origines). In the case of Ephesus, it was inaugurated by the Hellenistic monarch Lysimachus according to Strabo (Geography XIV.1.21). A reference to this foundational (οἰκισμός/oikismos) episode of the city (πόλις/polis) is also made at the beginning of our inscription confirming the prevalence of the tradition in the high imperial period. Strabo (Geography XIV.1.20) also described the traditional celebration of mysteries in Ortygia and Solmissus to commemorate the place where Artemis was allegedly born (see Picard, Éphèse et Claros, p. 287-302). Our text in lines 3 to 5 equally attributed these μυστήρια/mysteria and sacrifices (θυσίαι/thysiai) to the Hellenistic foundation when the members of the council (συνέδριον/synedrion) had enough common funds (κοινὰ χρήματα/koina chrêmata) to perform these rites for the goddess. Prior to the moment in which the inscription was set up, these celebrations had been affected by the lack of resources lamented in line 6. The epigraphic evidence from the Roman imperial period shows that the gerousia had more modest tasks than in the Hellenistic age, even though it still received money from theSalutaris’s Foundation, could lend and collect debts (see Rogers, Sacred Identity, p. 62-64), and was in charge of significant elements of the imperial cult such as the images reported by Ulpius Eurycles when he acted as curator of the city.

These financial necessities had eventually been removed thanks to an individual called Nikomedes in line 7. The donation of this high-ranking member of the council enabled the return to the aforementioned “old custom” (τὸ παλαιὸν ἔθος/to palaion ethos). However, at the end of the 2^nd century CE the crucial difference was that the gerousia did not only reverence (εὐσεβεῖν/eusebein) and sacrifice for Artemis, the “guiding” goddess of Ephesus, but also for Commodus and the eternal preservation (αἰώνιος διαμονή/aiônios diamonê) of this Roman emperor. The combination of such Ephesian elements and the imperial cult in the sacred celebrations of the city was not novel as attested in the Salutaris’s Foundation which furnished both representations of the Ionian heritage and images of Trajan, Plotina and the Senate, among others. Likewise, Roman officials had consistently been involved in the festivals of Artemis as attested, for example, through the edicts of Paullus Fabius Persicus and Popillius Carus Pedo. Indeed, the prevalence of the imperial cult in Ephesus can be observed even before a permanent temple was dedicated to Domitian, and the self-proclaimed emperor-loving population (φιλοσέβαστος/philosebastos) devotedly reacted to Hadrian’s visits. On the other hand, the particular connection between Roman emperors and the promotion of the oligarchic structures of the gerousia is clear in places such as Sidyma (TAM II.176), and, especially, Athens, where Marcus Aurelius favoured the establishment of an entity that enquired about the preparation of golden portraits for the imperial family. When such elements are combined, the proposal of Nikomedes’s foundation and its acceptance by the Roman authorities should be better understood.

The following lines of the fragmentary inscription are concerned with the sum of money that was devoted to a banquet (δεῖπνον/deipnon). Further instructions are also contained in the decree (ψηφίσμα/psêphisma) of the gerousia attached between lines 12 and 20, which sought to safeguard the legislation (νομοθεσία/nomothesia) of what is described as an act of piety (εὐσεβεία/eusebeia). For example, the ritual feast was preceded by a torch race that is also typical in the Eleusinian mysteries as reported in Aristophanes’s Frogs, or the performances that the false prophet Alexander instituted in northern Anatolia and the satirist Lucian (XXXIX) denounced (see Rogers, Mysteries of Artemis, p. 214-216). Money distributions (διανομοναί/dianomai) were also common in Greek cities as a symbol of generosity from munificent benefactors such as Nikomedes (see Mrozek, Les distributions). From all those instructions, nonetheless, the most interesting detail is provided by the fragmentary chronological sequence appended at the end (l. 19-20). Ephesus branded a day of its 12^th month as “imperial” (Σεβαστή/Sebastê) and celebrated the birthday (γενέθλιος/genethlios) of, most likely, a Roman emperor. Again, the presence of such elements of the imperial cult in the city was not unprecedented, since we know that Asia changed very soon its calendars to honour Augustus, and the provincial capital had also celebrated Antoninus Pius’s anniversary.  

Hellenistic tradition and Roman Empire therefore blended in the restitution of elements dating back to the foundational stages of Ephesus. On the one hand, torches, banquets and mysteries were held as old customs belonging to a primordial institution. On the other hand, the gerousia added reverences and sacrifices for the new ruling power that controlled its finances, viability, and survival. Artemis and Commodus were equivalently celebrated, so Rome could favourably accept the proposal of a local official who was committed to enhancing his Ephesian identity in the framework of the imperial cult. Such a symbiosis between ancient and novel religion was not so fruitfully embraced by other provincial communities such as the Jews; and the resulting conflicts should be compared with these stories of inscribed success in the emperor-loving (φιλοσέβαστος/philosebastos) capital of Asia.