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Excavations at Oinoanda 1997: the new Epicurean texts1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Martin Ferguson Smith
Martin Ferguson Smith
Affiliation:
British Institute of Archaeologyat Ankara For José Alice Kany-Turpin
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Extract

Oinoanda's most famous and, many would say, most precious possession is the massive Greek inscription, which, probably in the first half of the second century AD, was set up by a citizen named Diogenes, who must have been both wealthy and influential. ‘Having reached the sunset of life’, he used the wall of a stoa to advertise the moral benefits of Epicurean philosophy not only to his fellow-citizens, but also to foreign visitors, and not only to his contemporaries, but also to future generations. In fulfilment of his philanthropic mission he expounded Epicurus' teachings on physics, epistemology, and ethics in writings which may have occupied 260m2 of wall-space and contained 25,000 words. The work, as well as being remarkable as an epigraphic colossus, is a valuable source of information about one of the most important philosophies in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Eighty-eight fragments of Diogenes' inscription were found by French and Austrian epigraphists between 1884 and 1895. I took up the search in 1968–73, discovering 38 new fragments and rediscovering most of the 19th-century finds. My work led on to the topographical and epigraphical survey, sponsored by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara (BIAA) and directed by the late Alan S Hall in 1974–75–76–77–81–83 — a survey which not only revealed more of Diogenes' work, but also yielded other epigraphical finds and, thanks above all to the work of James J. Coulton, significantly increased our knowledge of Oinoanda's history and buildings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 48 , December 1998 , pp. 125 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1998

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References

1 A list of abbreviations is given at the end of this article, before the Greek Indices. I warmly thank, in addition to those whose assistance is acknowledged in footnotes to the Introduction and other sections, José Kany-Turpin and David N Sedley for making valuable comments on a draft of this article, Sylvia R Stoddart for working her customary magic on the word-processor, Stuart Campbell for unscrambling the Greek on the disk, and Gina Coulthard for producing the camera-ready copy.

2 Fr.3.

3 I say ‘legal excavation’, because illegal excavations by treasure-hunters have taken place at various times over the past 30 years.

4 I am very grateful to: the Directorate-General of Monuments and Museums for granting the permit; the authorities in Muǧla, Fethiye, and Seki for their helpfulness and interest, making particular mention of Sayın A. Cemil Serhatlı (Provincial Governor of Muǧla), Sayın Hikmet Öz (Director of Culture, Muǧla), Sayın Mustafa Karslioǧlu (District Governor of Fethiye), and Sayın Hüseyin Ünal (Mayor of Seki); İbrahim Malkoç and his colleagues for their enthusiastic collaboration in the project; my colleagues Andrew Goldman, who supervised the actual digging and the processing of non-epigraphical finds, and Julian Bennett; our workmen and watchmen; BIAA for advice and support, acknowledging especially the assistance of Roger Matthews (Director), Stephen Mitchell (Honorary Secretary), Gina Coulthard (London Secretary), and Gülgün Kazan (Turkish Secretary). I thank BIAA too for the grant which funded the work. The Charlotte Bonham Carter Trust, Russell Trust, Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, and Mr John Fraser also made generous awards. Because of the small scale and short duration of the season, the contributions of these benefactors were not used in 1997, but their support of the project is gratefully acknowledged.

5 The grid-number for HK fr. 55 is Nl 08–89. For a list of gridnumbers, with an explanation of them, see S 19–23.

6 Listed in S 20.

7 On this building, so designated because it is in grid-square Mk of the survey-plan, see Ling, R., ‘Building Mk1 at Oenoanda’ AnSt 31 (1981) 31–46Google Scholar and Hall, A., ‘Building Mk1 at Oenoanda. Appendix: The Inscriptions’ AnSt 31 (1981) 47–53Google Scholar.

8 Since our excavation in the autumn of 1997 began, there has been a full-time watchman, for whose salary we are responsible. In addition, there is, as before, another watchman, employed by the Fethiye Museum, who has other duties as well as the protection of Oinoanda. The employment of a full-time watchman means that the security of the site has been improved. I wish to record my sadness, and the sadness of others who have worked at Oinoanda in past seasons, at the death in the summer of 1997, in extremely tragic circumstances, of Mehmet Atçı, who for some 25 years had been the watchman employed by the Museum. He was as generous and kind as he was energetic and loyal. I knew him throughout his period of service and counted him a friend. It is pleasant to report that his successor is one of his sons.

9 The other new piece (YÇ 1201), which I have passed on to N. P. Milner, belongs to the same inscription as the fragments published (or republished) by Hall, A., AnSt 31 (1981) 47–51Google Scholar. Two other non-philosophical inscriptions were recorded by me in 1997. One (YÇ 1200) was found in Trench 2 (see below), the other (YÇ 1202) at Kemerarası, a site just across the river from the foot of the hill of Oinoanda on the northern side. Milner's publication of YÇ 1200 is in the present issue of AnSt.

10 For a photograph of Trench 2, see Sm H2 12.

11 I am grateful to J. Bennett for drawing fig 3 and for supplying the drawing on which fig 2 is based. All the photographs with this article were taken by me.

12 See e.g. Sm 54.

13 The description of Trench 1 in this paragraph is reproduced, with minor alterations, from Sm H2 11. The source of most of the archaeological information is A. L. Goldman. J. Bennett, in a letter of 18 August 1998, suggests that the stylobate was built to support a colonnade. He may be right, but firm evidence for his suggestion seems to be lacking.

14 See Sm 37–48, Sm A2, Sm G2.

15 It is unfortunate that a bout of illness prevented this able epigraphist, who has an unrivalled knowledge of the non-philosophical inscriptions of Oinoanda, from participating in the 1997 season.

16 The inscription which the base presumably carried is obliterated.

17 Since NF 131 does not lie face up, no part of its text is concealed by the statue-base.

18 See e.g. Sm 98.

19 HK fr. (68) (grid reference NK 74–06) is southeast of the southeast corner of the Esplanade, HK fr. 69 (grid reference Ml 67–77) west of the ‘Great Wall’. HK fr. 70, which is an immediate continuation of HK fr. 69, lies close to it.

20 For a case of vertically-adjacent blocks being reused together, see Sm 98.

21 It is to be noted that HK fr. 58 is complete, not, as HK 400 thought, broken on the left. See S 49.

22 Some dispute that the prefatory passage contained in HK fr. 59, 57–8 (= fr. 2–3) belongs to the Physics, but see Sm 432. For the heavy preponderance of stretchers over headers in the Physics, see Sm 95–6 and fig 7.

23 It is significant, in this connection, that in Cicero, DND 1.18, 20Google Scholar the Epicurean Velleius, in rejecting a providential god who created the world, mentions Plato alongside the Stoics.

24 The reference to ‘the so-called Dead Sea’ (not the Palestinian lake, but part of the northern ocean) in fr. 21.II.10–III.8 may also be his own idea.

25 For post-Gomperz textual emendations and for a suggestion that Philodemus may be referring to the Egyptian belief that the gods are mortal, see A. Schober (in the published version of his 1923 dissertation), CErc 18 (1988) 81Google Scholar and Henrichs B 35 n. 157. I have wondered whether Philodemus may not be referring instead to the belief that animals are gods, e.g. [οἱ Αἰγύ]|πτιοι δὲ καὶ π[άντας] | ἁπλῶς τοὺς θ[ῆρας ὡς] | [σέ]βοντ[αι] (see Cicero, DND 3.39Google Scholaromne fere genus bestiarum Aegyptii consecraverunt), but I have not examined the papyrus to see whether such a reading is possible.

26 For the scandalous events which provoked this action, see Josephus, AJ 18.65–84Google Scholar.

27 On Diogenes' date, see Sm 37–48, Sm A2, Sm G2.

28 I am grateful to N. P. Milner for this information.

29 For a brief statement of the position and for references, see Stern II 620.

30 The date is certain, because Juvenal (15.27) says that the event occurred in the consulship of (L. Aemilius) Iuncus.

31 But their reputation for effeminacy goes back much further: see Herodotus 2.35, Sophocles, OC 337–41Google Scholar.

32 Triptolemus is mentioned in fr. 17.III.9, though not as a judge in Hades.

33 Due for publication in autumn 1998. I am very grateful to the editor for sending me the relevant proof-page of his book together with helpful comments on the text.

34 δι' αἰῶνος surely goes with οἱ μακαριώτατοι = ‘the beings for ever most blessed’, not, as Indelli & Tsouna-McKirahan (104) take it, with the preceding words.

35 The suggestion that notities represents ἔννοια. was first made by Lambinus in his edition of 1563–4. The same view is taken by Ernout-Robin, while Munro and Bailey are among those editors who say that the word translates πράλιηψις.

36 In DND 1.43–4 Cicero uses anticipatio and praenotio and says that he is here translating πράλιηψις.

37 Photographs of HK fr. (68), 69, 70: HK fr. (68) in Sm B pl 81 fig 15, S pl 19 fig 54; HK fr. 69 in Sm fig 10, S pl 18 fig 51; HK fr. 70 in S pl 20 fig 56.

38 I cannot think that another maxim was quoted between Sent. 8 and Sent. 10, for that would have made Diogenes' discussion of virtue and pleasure unbelievably long.

39 The squeeze, divided between two sheets, is preserved in l'École française d'Athènes. See Sm J 372.

40 C fr. 23. He comments ‘estampage seulement’ (C 22) and ‘non transcrit’ (C 63). See Sm B 387, Sm 482.

41 It is surprising that Heberdey did not notice it when he returned to Oinoanda in June 1902, for on that visit he recorded in his notebook (though he never published) another Diogenes fragment (NF 3 = fr. 130) which is close by.

42 Six columns in fr. 32, eight in fr. 33, and the 10 intervening ones.

43 See Cicero, Fin. 3.16–17Google Scholar (SVF III.182, 154Google Scholar); Aulus Gellius 12.5.7 (SVF III.181)Google Scholar; Diogenes Laertius 7.85–6 (SVF III.178Google Scholar).

44 See Cicero, DND 1.18Google Scholar, where the Epicurean spokesman Velleius refers to the futtilis commenticiasque sententias of Plato and the Stoics.

45 Not 3.28, as given in LSJ.

46 Plutarch, Mor. 48e–49aGoogle Scholar uses this passage as the starting-point of his essay on how to distinguish a flatterer from a friend.

47 I am very grateful to D. S. Levene for making a computer search for me, and to J. Longrigg for sending me a photocopy of Raeder's text.

48 The only passages of Diogenes, apart from NF 129, to refer to the punishments, which, according to some, await us after death, are fr. 73, which belongs not to the Ethics, but probably to Diogenes' Letter to Dionysius, and NF 126–7.IV.5–8, from the Physics, where mention is made of ‘Plato's and Socrates' judges in Hades’.

49 For Diogenes' imitation of Epicurus in his presentation of Epicureanism, see Sm 131–5.

50 Not 17–25cm as shown in Sm 81.

51 See Sm 94–6 and Sm fig 7.

52 NF 105 is identifiable as part of the wall of Diogenes' stoa only by the scored band at the bottom, and it is possible that it was never inscribed (Sm 595). The next widest C-block, at 75cm, is HK fr. 8 (fr. 149.I–II.14–18).

53 Five from fr. 145.II.14–18, 18 from the missing column, and six from NF 133.1.1–6.

54 Lucretius also mentions jaundice.

55 Letter to Mother (fr. 125–6). On its authorship, see Sm 555–8.

56 Almost certainly by Philodemus.