New Inscriptions from Tanais

Ivantchik Askold I., Ilyashenko S. М.

The article presents an edition of three new inscriptions found during the excavations of 2009, 2010 and 2012 at Tanais, as well as a republication of one inscription discovered in 1968. The earliest of them dates back to AD 108 and informs us about the restoration or construction of the southern gate (trench XIX) financed by the Hellenes temporarily living in Tanais and not having its citizenship. The fragment of the second plate is also connected with the southern gate and is dated to AD 212; it seems to be contemporary with the inscriptions CIRB 1246 and 1248, if not part of the first of them. The works on repairing defensive walls mentioned in these inscriptions can now be precisely dated. Two other inscriptions were discovered near the western gate, but they are not directly connected with it. The first of them probably refers to the reconstruction of the tower III and is dated to ca. AD 220. The second is dated to roughly the same period and represents a dedication to the river god Tanais on behalf of a thiasos. This is the third known inscription testifying to the existence of this cult and its thiasos. The new inscriptions mention persons already known from published texts, which allows us to complete our data on the prosopography of Tanais in the first half of the 3rd century AD.

Keywords: Tanais, epigraphy, fortifications, architect, Hellenes, Southern gate of Tanais, thiasos
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