Relief with Dedication by a Thiasos from Tanais
Ivantchik Askold I., Tokhtasyev Sergey R.
This article presents the publication of an inscription from Tanais dating from the first half of the second century AD; some of its fragments were found at the beginning of the twentieth century and others during excavations in the 1990s. The inscription was cut on a large marble block and is a dedication by a thiasos. Twenty names have survived in the inscription (one of them appears twice). Some of them reflect Roman influence. Two of the persons mentioned at the beginning of the list were Roman citizens, as can be seen from their names: the citizenship of one of them can be traced back to the Julio-Claudian era and that of the other to the Trajan era, which provides the terminus post quem of the inscription. Two other persons were not Roman citizens, but their parents’ affection for Rome resulted in choosing Latin names for their children. One of the names in question, Κικέρων, is unique and reflects not just the Roman influence but familiarity with Latin literature. This provides rare evidence of how in the second half of the first century AD Roman influence in the Bosporus was not only political or military: there were admirers of Roman culture and literature living there, who obviously knew the Latin language. Many of the names in the inscription are Greek (Ζήνων, Πάνκαρπος, Στέφανος, Ἔρως (featured twice), Ποντικός, Μηνόφιλος, ῾Ηρακλείδης, Θεόφιλος, Πόθος). One of them (Μηνόφιλος) had apparently made its way to the Bosporus from Asia Minor. Two other names (Φαρνάκης, Ἀριαράθης / -ράμνης) are of Persian origin, but had been adopted from the South Pontic region. There are only three Sarmatian names (Αζιας, Αρδαρος, Οροατης), which is an unusually small number for inscriptions found in Tanais. One tentatively restored name might be Jewish (Σαμου]ήλου); if some other versions of its restoration are accepted, it should be included in the group of Greek names. One further name (Παππος) belongs to the category of Lallnamen of unclear origin. Three of the members of the thiasos mentioned in this inscription are also mentioned in two other thiasos inscriptions (two in CIRB1262 and one in CIRB1266), which enables placing all the three inscriptions into the same chronological group.
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