Tomb Garden and Orchard of Aphrodisios and Flavia
Dates
2nd or 3rd c. B.C.
Garden Description
According to a secondary inscription carved horizontally, perhaps in the third century A.D., across the back of a figured grave stele of perhaps the third or second century B.C., found on the road between the Magnesia gate and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, "this orchard with its sarcophagi and pavilion (?yÒlow) belongs to Aphrodisios and his wife and children" (toËto tÚ pvmãrin §st‹n sÁn tew svro›w k¢ t" yÒlƒ ÉAfrodis¤ou k¢ g(u)n(aikÚw) Flab€aw k¢ t°knv[n]). The first editor, Hicks, interpreted the word pvmãrin to mean "cover" or "lid" (p«ma) and thought that the stele originally protected the entrance to the monument, but Keil (who corrected the misreading §vro›wto svro›w[for soro›w], "sarcophagi"), rightly saw that pvmãrin 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 yÒlow is uncertain—the term is attested only once elsewhere in Asia Minor in a funerary context, in Pisidia, where a yÒlow is equipped with statues (Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiquae. Manchester and London, 1928-1993, VIII, 375; cf. Kubin'ska)—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
- E. L. Hicks, The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum III.2 Ephesos. Oxford, 1890, no. 625b (worldcat)
- B. Keil, "Über kleinasiatische Grabinschriften," Hermes 43, 1908:546, n. 1 (worldcat)
- J. Kubin'ska, Les monuments funéraires dans les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Mineure. Warsaw, 1968, pp. 115, 144 (worldcat)
- C. Börker and R. Merkelbach, Die Inschriften von Ephesos, Teil V. Bonn, 1980 (I.Ephesos V), 1625b. (worldcat)