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The trust fund of Phaenia Aromation (IG V.1 1208) and imperial Gytheion

The trust fund of Phaenia Aromation (IG V.1 1208) and imperial Gytheion

Kaja Harter-Uibopuu

Studia Humaniora Tartuensia, vol. 5 (2004)

Abstract

In the small town of Gytheion in southern Laconia two marble blocks were found, containing the regulations for a trust fund from the year 42 AD (IG V,1 1208; SEG 13,258). The text will be presented with new emendations and an English translation. In my commentary I present the general background of the donor, Phaenia Aromation, and concentrate on a discussion of the juridical problems that the text poses. A detailed analysis of the procedural prescriptions forms the centre of this paper.



The inscription that I would like to discuss in the following article had been found in a vinery in Gytheion in southern Laconia consisting of two marble blocks. The stones had been copied by P. LeBas and were then edited by P. Foucart.1 A new edition was provided by W. Kolbe, enriched with comments by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and presented in IG V.1. The latest emendations of the Greek text were made by A. Wilhelm (SEG 13.258). Unfortunately his article does not state clearly, whether he was able to read the squeezes or to see the stones in original, or whether they had already been lost at his time. The inscription provides interesting information on the administration of imperial Gytheion, especially when you combine the information taken from this stone with SEG 11.923, the famous hieros nomos on the imperial cult in Gytheion, stemming from the year 15 AD. Since the text can be taken as a good example of a description of daily life of Romans in a Greek town, I would like to illustrate the general background before concentrating on legal aspects of the text and presenting some new readings.

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