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A third-century Inscription relating to angareia in Phrygia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

W. H. C. Frend
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Extract

During a brief visit to Afyon Karahisar in central Anatolia in September, 1954, my attention was drawn by Bay Süleiman Gökce, Curator of the Vilayet Museum, to a large inscription which had recently been brought to him. It had been found at Sulmenli (Eulandra ?) some nine miles away, and salvaged by local officials. Thanks to the Curator's kindness I was able to make a copy on the spot and take a squeeze and photograph. The latter was improved upon considerably by Mr. Michael Ballance, former Fellow of the British Institute at Ankara, who visited Afyon in September, 1955, at my request, with the result that many of the difficulties in reading a battered and incomplete text have been resolved.

The inscription (pls. VII and VIII) had been carefully cut on a large slab of greyish-yellow marble with a moulded edge. It had been broken on the left-hand side and below. There was a hole in the right side approximately 0·64 m. from the top for a dowel about 2 cm. square in section. There were two more holes in the back, and it is clear that the inscription had been originally fixed to a wall, perhaps in the village which won the case. Height, 0·82 m.; width at widest point, 0·69 m.; thickness, 0·12 m.; letters, 1·4–1·5 cm. for the first twenty-nine lines, and thereafter approximately 1·6 cm. The greater part of the first forty-one lines have survived, the surviving portion containing between forty-eight and fifty-six letters on each line.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 1-2 , November 1956 , pp. 46 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © W. H. C. Frend 1956. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 As part of a programme of travel and research arranged as S. A. Cook Bye-Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

2 ll. 3–14 had suffered severely and can only be read with great difficulty.

2a On the use and spelling of Latin words on inscriptions in Asia Minor, see Cameron, A., AJP LII, 1931, 232 ffGoogle Scholar. Protelum—πρωτηλον is not mentioned in Cameron's list.

3 Calder, W. M., ‘Julia-Ipsus and Augustopolis,’ JRS ii, 1912, 244 ffGoogle Scholar. For the identification of Sulmenli (Surmeneh) with Eulandra, Jones, A. H. M., The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, Oxford, 1937, p. 69Google Scholar.

4 Threptus' term of office cannot be dated accurately. His name indicates that he did not receive his freedom until the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but his administration could be any time between 161 and 213, the date of Philocurius' procuratorship. One might suspect a date round about A.D. 200.

5 Particularly those from Aga Bey and Altyn Tash dating to 198–211 and 245–7 respectively. See Keil, J. and von Premerstein, A., ‘Bericht über eine dritte Reise in Lydien,’ Denkschriften der Wiener Akademie, Phil. Hist. Kl., LVII, 1914–1915, 37 ff.Google Scholar, and Or. Graec. Insc., 11, 519. Two officials who held the rank of ἐπίτροπος τῆς Φρύγιας are recorded on inscriptions from near Synnada. They were Aurelius Faustinus and Aurelius Aristaenetus. Both appear to date to the early third century. Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua (= MAMA), IV, 63, and VI, 378.

6 Rostovtzeff, M., Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, Oxford, 1926, 332–340Google Scholar. Also Holmberg, Erik, Zur Geschichte des Cursus Publicus, Uppsala, 1933, ch. IIGoogle Scholar.

7 Roussel, Pierre and de Visscher, Fernand, ‘Les Inscriptions du Temple de Dmeir,’ Syria, XXIII, 1942, 173–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Keil and Premerstein, Dritte Reise, 40. They relate the usage particularly to taxes in kind.

9 Note, for instance, Suidas (Bernhardy, 46), ἄγγαροι οἱ ἐκ διαδοχῆς γραμματοφόροι.

10 I suggest a reconstruction, Αὐρ Σύμφορος γεραιοῖς Ἀν]τιμαχηνοῖς on the analogy of Symphoros' address to both villages in l. 20. An alternative Αὐρ Σύμφορος Ἀνοσσηνοῖς καὶ Ἀν]τιμαχηνοῖς would give 26 letter spaces instead of the required 22–3. Also, why write to both villages twice ?

11 Keil and Premerstein, o.c., 25.

12 ibid., 37 ff.

13 Ep. X, 77 and 78. The duty of the stationarius at this period was to maintain order and security on behalf of the governor of the province. ‘Praefectus urbi dispositos milites stationarios habere ad tuendam popularium quietam.’ Ulpian, Digest, 1, 12, 1. A soldier, T. Val. Secundus who had the duty of stationarius ephesi is recorded, CIL 111, 7136 (third century). For their employment in Africa during the Great Persecution, Optatus (ed. Ziwsa), 1, 14 and 1, 27. In general, see Hirschfeld, O., ‘Die Sicherheitspolizei im römischen Kaiserreich,’ Kleine Schriften, Berlin, 1913, 576–623Google Scholar.

14 Calder, W. M., JRS 11, 1912, 80 ffGoogle Scholar. See also Mitteis, L., ‘Zur Berliner Papyrus Publicationen,’ Hermes, XXX, 1895, 569–572Google Scholar. (Centurions acting as channels for complaints in Egyptian villages, and occasionally as magistrate.)

15 Calder, W. M., JRS 11, 82Google Scholar and MAMA VII, Introduction.

16 For instance, at Orcistus (Buckler, W. H., JHS LVII, 1937, 1 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar), and in the territory of Philadelphia, where the γερουσία was also associated with κωμηταί–τῆς γερουσίας καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν κωμητῶν πάντων, Or. Graec. Insc., 11, 488.

17 For instance, in North Africa the village seniores are made responsible for carrying out the great anti-Donatist decree of 26th June, 411. See Sententia Cognitoris (PL XI, 1418).

18 See Calder, W. M., ‘Philadelphia and Montanism,’ Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, VII, 3, 1923Google Scholar. Most of the ‘openly Christian’ inscriptions from Phrygia date between 249 and 313.

19 A Domaszewski, von, Die Rangordnung des römischen Heeres, 1908Google Scholar ( = Bonner Jahrbücher, CXVII), 2, 10, and 41. Also Lammert, F., Optio, in P-W XVIII, 1, 806–811Google Scholar.

20 In this period one of his executive duties was that of prison warden. In the Passio S. Perpetuae, 9 (ed. Robinson, Armitage, Cambridge Texts and Studies, 1, 1Google Scholar) there is reference to ‘miles optio praepositus carceris’.

21 See Sachers, I.v. Tabularius in P-W, Zweite Reihe, iv, 1969–1984. A slave or freedman, Hyacinthus, is recorded as a ταβλάριος at Synnada in the reign of Nero, , MAMA IV, 53Google Scholar.

22 See Calder, W. M., 'Julia-Ipsus and Augustopolis, JRS 11, 1912, 245Google Scholar.

23 See Rostovtzeff, M., ‘Angariae.’ Klio, VI, 1906, 249–258Google Scholar, and Seeck, O., ‘Angaria,’ P-W 11, 2, 2184–5Google Scholar.

24 Suidas, Lexikon (ed. Bernhardy, 1853), 46, καὶ ἀγγαρεύεσθαι καλοῦσιν ὥστερ ἡμεῖς νῦν, τὸ εἰς φορτηγίαν καὶ τοιαύτην τινὰ ὑπηρεσίαν ἄγεσθαι.

25 Two inscriptions of the first century A.D., the edicts of Germanicus of A.D. 19 and of Cn. Virgilius Capito in December, 48, tell something of the regulation of angareia in Egypt. Apparently the peasants received some compensation for beasts which had been requisitioned, and no requisitions except by individuals provided with the governor's diploma were permitted. (See, Or. Graec. Insc., 111, 665, 25, and Ehrenberg and Jones, Documents illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, 320.)

26 Cod. Theod. VI, 29, 2. Seeck, o.c.

27 Cod. Theod. VIII, 5, 8, ‘Octo mulae iungantur ad raedam aestivo videlicet tempore, hiemali decem; birotis trinas sufficere iudicavimus.’

28 Cod. Theod. VIII, 5, 23. See also Pflaum, H. G., ‘Essai sur le Cursus Publicus sous le Haut-Empire romain’ (Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XIV, 1940), ch. V.Google Scholar This method of travel is not unknown in Anatolia to-day. The writer travelled by ox-cart from Eskişehir to Mutalip seven miles distant in a morning.

29 Letter of Petronius Annianus and Julianus to Domitius Celsus, Vicarius of Africa (apud. Optatus, , De Schismate Donatistarum, Appendix, VIII, ed. Ziwsa, , 212Google Scholar).

30 See Rostovtzeff's amendment to ll. 19 ff. of Or. Graec. Insc., II, 519, art. cit., Klio, 256.

31 CIL in, 7251 = ILS 214, from Tegea; Spartian, Vita Severi, 14. Socrates, , Hist. Ecc. 111, iGoogle Scholar. See Holmberg, o.c., 43 ff.

32 van Berchem, D., ‘L'Annone militaire dans l'Empire romain au IIIe siècle,’ Mémoires de la Soc. nat. des Antiquaires de France, ser. VIII, X, 1937, 129 ffGoogle Scholar.

33 H. G. Pflaum, o.c., 170–1.

34 Or. Graec. Insc., 11, 519, 11. 17 ff. For the same abuse in the early years of the fourth century, Cod. Theod. VIII, 5, 1 (Jan., 315).

35 A Jewish proverb of the day affirmed Άγγαρεία is like death. See Fiebig, P., Άγγαρεύω, Zeitschr. für die Neutest. Wissenschaft, XVIII, 1917–1918, 65Google Scholar, and Cod. Theod. VIII, 5, 2 (14th May, 316).

36 Fiebig, o.c., 20.

37 Notably on the inscription relating to the emporium established at Pizos dated A.D. 202, Dittenberger, Sylloge 3, II, 880. Here, too, angareia and the corn payments of the annona are connected. See also Rostovtzeff, M., JRS VIII, 1918, 29Google Scholar.

38 Calder, W. M., ‘Julia-Ipsus and Augustopolis,’ JRS 11, 1912, 237Google Scholar.

39 Attested by CIL 111, 14200 (Synnada-Prymnessus, ) and MAMA IV, 60Google Scholar (Synnada-Docimium).

40 This may be one explanation for the large number of milestones dated to the third century which have survived in the provinces of the Empire. L. Leschi has drawn attention to the concentration of late third-century milestones in the olive producing area south of Theveste, , Revue Africaine, LXXII, 1931, 262–294Google Scholar.

41 Cod. Theod. VIII, 5, 64 and XI, I, 9.

42 Mirus = modern Malatia. At this period it was still a village subject to Cotiaeum. It was obviously growing in importance and by the end of the century had become a city. See A. H. M. Jones, The Cities of the East Roman Provinces, 69.

43 I owe this suggestion to Sir W. M. Calder.

44 See, for instance, Or. Graec. Insc., 111, 519.

45 Roberts, C. H. and Turner, E. G., Catalogue of the Greek and Latin Papyri of the John Rylands Library, IV, no. 653Google Scholar. Also no. 654.

46 Riccobono, S., Fontes Iuris Romani antejustiniani (2nd ed., Florence, 1943), nos. 174 and 176Google Scholar.

47 Roussel, P. and de Visscher, F., ‘Les Inscriptions du Temple de Dmeir,’ Syria, XXIII, 1942, 173–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The great inscription on the eastern façade of the temple dates between 216 and 245. Cf. Crook, J. A., Consilium Principis, Cambridge, 1955, 82 and 142–3Google Scholar.