Bodel, J. (2026). "Tomb Garden and Orchard of Aphrodisios and Flavia." Gardens of the Roman Empire, accessed October 2, 2026. https://roman-gardens.github.io/id/cd3e1d562d/

Tomb Garden and Orchard of Aphrodisios and Flavia

Author: John Bodel
Published: 2026-10-01
Last modified: 2026-10-01

Dates

second or third century BCE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

According to a secondary inscription carved horizontally, perhaps in the third century CE, across the back of a figured grave stele of perhaps the third or second century BCE, found on the road between the Magnesia gate and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, "this orchard with its sarcophagi and pavilion (θόλῳ) belongs to Aphrodisios and his wife and children" (τοῦτο τὸ πωμάριν ἐστὶν σὺν τε͂ς σ̣ωροῖς κὲ τῷ θόλῳ Ἀφροδισίου κὲ γ(υ)ν(αικὸς) Φλαβίας κὲ τέκνω[ν], IEph 1625B). The first editor, Hicks, interpreted the word πωμάριν to mean "cover" or "lid" (πῶμα) and thought that the stele originally protected the entrance to the monument, but Keil rightly saw that πωμάριν was nothing more than a transliterated form of the Latin pomarium, fruit orchard, an amenity often attached to tomb monuments in the Roman world. The character of the θόλῳ is uncertain—the term is attested only once elsewhere in Asia Minor in a funerary context, in Pisidia, where a θόλῳ is equipped with statues (Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiquae. Manchester and London, 1928-1993, VIII, 375; cf. Kubińska)—but the transliterated pumarin gives reason to suspect that a Roman context is here relevant, in which case one naturally thinks of the sort of ornamental (often round) pavilion (diaeta) frequently found in Roman tomb gardens.

Bibliography

  • Börker, C., and R. Merkelbach. 1980. Die Inschriften von Ephesos. Teil 5. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt. (worldcat)
  • Hicks, E.L. 1890. The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum. Vol. 3, pt. 2, Ephesos. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (worldcat)
  • Keil, B. 1908. "Über kleinasiatische Grabinschriften." Hermes 43:546 n. 1. (worldcat)
  • Kubińska, J. 1968. Les monuments funéraires dans les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Mineure. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places