Tomb Garden and Cistern of Gallatis, Son of Pythion
Province
Province Description
Roman intervention in Greek political affairs resulted in conflicts that led to the destruction of Corinth in 146 B.C. and the sacking of Athens in 86 B.C. It was not until 27 B.C., however, that Augustus formally organized the Roman province of Achaea. Achaea consisted of the cities and territories of the southern Greek mainland between the Peloponnese and Thessaly, as well as Epirus in the northwest and the Ionian and some of the Aegean islands. The provincial capital was Corinth. Under Nero in the mid-1st century A.D. Epirus became a separate province, and in the mid-2nd century Thessaly was detached and added to the province of Macedonia. Under Roman domination many cities such as Athens, Sparta, Patras, and Corinth grew in size and prominence, the latter two partly owing to their importance as ports. After an initial decline in the number of rural sites in the early Empire, by the late Roman period the countryside was densely settled with farms and villas, due to changing landholding patterns and Roman improvements in agricultural and irrigation technology. The main exports from Achaea were wine, particularly from the northern Peloponnese, as well as olive oil and honey, linen and woollen textiles and marbles.
Location
Garden
Tomb Garden and Cistern of Gallatis, Son of Pythion
Keywords
Garden Description
An inscription found near Chaeronea and known only from a transcription records the dedication by Gallatis, the son of Pythion, probably some time during the first or second century, of a funerary monument to himself, his wife, his children, and whomever his children wish, “with the cistern and garden" (τῷ φρέατ[ι] καὶ κήπῳ) (IG VII, 3453). The freedom Gallatis grants to his children to dispose of the property as they wish is unusual, but cisterns (as at the tomb gardens of Lictoria Chaerusa at Capena and of P. Sullius Zoticus (cf. CIL 6.29961) at Rome) and wells (as at the tomb garden of Claudia Semne (cf. CIL 6.29959) at Rome), are sometimes mentioned explicitly, and ready sources of water, even when not specified, must often have been provided along with the gardens they supplied in such funerary dispositions.
Dates
probably the first or second century
Bibliography
- J. Kubińska, Les monuments funéraires dans les inscriptions grecques de l’Asie Mineure. Warsaw, 1968, pp. 146-47. (worldcat)
Pleiades ID
TGN ID
Contributor
Maureen Carroll (ORCID: 0000-0001-9958-8032)
Publication date
21 Apr 20210