A Note on the Chrysanthina of Sardis

Author(s): P. M. Fraser
Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , 1981, Vol. 101 (1981), pp. 134-136
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/629852

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 134 NOTES
engraved the epigram. In conclus
the ten was it anothercan
trenches rTapwvu'pLovindeed
(of lophon)? Or what? I be
prefer to leave it as a question.'
sanias' memorial for the W. G. FORREST
casua
would be the New College, Oxford of
first Athenia
located within the Demosion Sem
1 As in all things I am grateful to the generous genealogical genius
CHRISTOPH CLAIRMONT
ofJ. K. Davies.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

A Note on the Chrysanthina of Sardis

A Lost Peisistratid Name The periodic festival known as the Xpodv6wLva

celebrated at Sardis in the late Imperial period is known
The family of Peisistratos did not indulge in from numerous inscriptions, noted below. This
already
strikingly uncommon names but it is noteworthynote
thatconcerns an unpublished letter of the year 1838,
all but one of them also appear in Chios. Neleuswhich or contains a brief allusion to an inscription,
apparently now lost, in which the festival is men-
Neileus (e.g. c. 150a, SEG xvii 381 A 1.2), Hippokrates
(c. 42oa, RE s.n. 14), Hipparchos (s. Ia, BSA lxi [1966]
tioned.1
199 no. 3.15), Heges[istratos?] (e.g. s. IVa, NC xv [I915]
In 1838 Henry Wentworth Acland,2 aged at the time
430), Peisistratos, Hippias and Thessalos (see below):
23, and an undergraduate of Christ Church, visited the
only lophon is certainly missing. Their occurrences Troad from H.M.S. Pembroke, in which he was cruising
cover many centuries and no long filiations can in the
be eastern Mediterranean for the sake of his health, to
established, nor is there any positive argument thatstudy
theythe topography of that region. This study resulted
in the publication in 1839 (Wyatt, Oxford; the sketch
all belonged to the same family, but for the late fourth
and third centuries there is a hint. Chian social units had
republished by Stanford, 1873) of The Plains of Troy, a
a family-based molecular structure. A catalogue of one
panoramic sepia sketch of the Troad drawn from
Uvecik Tepe ('Tomb of Aesytes') with an accompany-
of them gives us about 70 names c. 300a with an average
of two additions p.a. thereafter (BSA Iv [1960] ing text. It is a far cry from this booklet describing the
181-7= SEG xix 580). On it there is a Hippias ofringing
the plains, dedicated to Dean Gaisford, to Acland's
later fourth (father of the named member) and
nextawork, Letters from a Student on some Moral
Thessalos of the later third century. At least one Hippias
Difficulties in his Studies (1841), to say nothing of slightly
appears on coins of the later fourth (NC xv [9151]later
430)works, occasioned by more topical studies: Memoir
and another (or the same) on a subscription list ofonthe
the Cholera at Oxford in the Year 1854, with
mid third as father of the subscriber (SEG xix 578.12). A
considerations suggested by the Epidemic (1856), and Notes
Chian Peisistratos dedicated in Rhodes in the second on Drainage, with especial reference to the Sewers and
Swamps of the Upper Thames (1857), and the later
century (IG xii.i 113), a Peisistratos son of Peisistratos
made a patriotic subscription in the later third (BCHproduction of his very distinguished medical career.
xxxvii [1913] no. 27. 18-19), a Chian Peisistratos, The work on the plains of Troy is not of any
archaeological importance,3 and contains no texts of
grandson of Peisistratos, is given proxenia at Delos in the
mid third or a little earlier (IG xi.4 598), a Peisistratos
local inscriptions. But a long letter (Acland was, or was
to become, a profuse correspondent) 'On board the
put his name on coins belonging to the same chrono-
logical group as those of Hippias (NC xv[1915143o).Fevzie, Capladan Pasha's ship-near Sestos and
That the Hippias-group and the Peisistratos-group were
1 My attention was first drawn to this letter by Mr John Sparrow,
somehow related is put beyond doubt by the name
but I owe the opportunity to study it, and ready agreement to
which one fourth-century Hippias and one fourth-cen-
publishing the relevant passage from it, to Dr H. C. Harley, who is
tury Peisistratos gave to their sons. Given what we
preparing a full-scale study of Sir Henry Acland, based on the Acland
know of the Athenian family's ties with Argos, Argeios
papers in the Bodleian Library. I must also thank the Keeper of
Peisistratou (IG xi 598) and Argeios Hippiou (SEG xix
Western MSS of the Library for permission to publish the passage
580) are no accident. (MS Acland d. 23, fol. 39).
There are three possibilities. That an otherwise 2 Later Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford (1857-94), and
unattested Neleid family in Chios was tempted to Fellow of All Souls College from 1840 to 1847. For a summary of
Acland's life (1815-1900) see DNB Suppl. (1901) s.v.
import names from its Athenian cousins; that antiquar-
3 Acland heads the alphabetic list of discarded sources in J. M.
ianism prompted fantasy; that the Athenian family
Cook's authoritative survey of the Troad, The Troad (Oxford 1973)
established some real connection, by marriage or15. I am not here concerned with Acland's opinions on Trojan
emigration, with Chios. The first is improbable. The
topography, and may refer readers not familiar with the 'Problem of
second is made attractive by two other antiquarianTroy', as it was before Schliemann's excavations, to Cook 14 ff., and,
names, Pindaros Hippiou (SEG xix 578. I2) and
for Troy itself (Asarhk) to Cook 91 f. Both in the letter quoted and in
Lykourgos Argeiou (ibid. line 21), but antiquarianism The
is Plains of Troy 36 if., Acland accepted the current identification
a third-century rather than a fourth- or fifth-century(Lechevalier's) of the Homeric Troy with Bunarbashi (mod. Pinar-
basi), S. of the Menderes river (for which see Cook 123 ff.) and
failing: we have a fifth-century Hippokrates and for that
rejected that with Tchiblak (mod. Ciplak) (for which, as the wrong
matter a fifth-century Hippias (NC xv [I915] 430)
nomenclature for the actual site at Truva/Asarlik, see Cook 93).
lurking in the background. Some real connection must
Acland's sketch gives a good panoramic view of the plain down to the
be the most likely guess-the Peisistratidai of Hdt. viii
foothills of Mt Ida to the south, and including the offshore islands. The
52.2 will have had to settle somewhere. best detailed map of the plain is behind vol. ii of Dorpfeld's Troja und
But in any case we are left with the problem of
Ilion (Athens 1902) Taf. I (after Spratt); Cook's maps suffer a little
Argeios. Was he a real sixth-century Peisistratid? Orfrom lack of contrast.

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 NOTES 135
Abydos, Novr 13th
given. That however is not of 1838',
great importance, in a d
impressions, to
region his
that in any Tutor
case has seen very considerable a
George movement of
Liddell,4 isstones not
since antiquity." Although the
withou
as containingfirst
a reference
group to
of majuscules cannot yield any significant t
Acland sense, the
writes reference
(f. in the second group to the
39):s

... I XpvoavOwva
remained some is quite clear, and we may reconstruct
time on the t
context without difficulty: that of an agonistic honorific
Alexandria Troas. You kno
decree or dedication in which, particularly in the
flor]mer Imperial period,
well. So the victories
I of the honorand were (s
indeed
Gymnasium recorded
at in ATroas I
the familiar formulaic manner.12 had
In such
of. It exists tho' of course. S
inscriptions the name of the city where the victory was
Ionian Antiquities cheap at W
won is placed either in the accusative or genitive, or in
you keep it.6 On the pla
the dative preceded by the preposition iv. Since Sardis
ANENEZEIKAIn also wh.
was the seat of the Xpvaov6tva and EdpSELs is a plural
AEIXPYFANOINAAJEN
Above this form, we may restore either [--?p]}Elt(s),
inscription are assuming 2
Acland to have misread a square sigma for a gamma-a
At what I believe is the A
venial fault-or alternatively [--Ev Zip]8E(aL), assum-
inscription given in Chevalie
etc.7 also one which is not-about Tiberius and ing him to have misread the two last letters. In view of
his errors of transcription further on in the line either
Germanicus Caesar etc.8-I went hence to Smyrna.
supposition would be legitimate, but I prefer to adopt
Visited Clazomenae, and took a plan of its piers and
the former as involving slightly less change.
harbour--and then went to the 7 churches in Asia,
[--2MpI8tL(s), then, followed by Xpva&v'Owa, fol-
which I was able to do through a firman of the
lowed by a reference to the Youths' pancration, in
Cap.P. It took io days making no delay.... 9
which the honorand had been victorious: dyEv(EwWv)
Acland says that he copied the text given above [the
in last four letters either abbreviated, or omitted by
majuscules at some point in the plain of Troy and notthe
at lapicide or (as later in the line) by Acland; all equally
possible suppositions] ir(Acland's IT)avKp 7-rLov. So
Alexandria Troas or 'the sanctuary of Apollo Thym-
braeus','0 but the exact location where he saw it is much
not we may make of this single line. We may further
note that Acland states that there were two 'roses' above
and below the line. Evidently, then, as was frequent in
4 Then no doubt preparing, with Robert Scott, the first edition
such inscriptions in the Imperial age, the single victories
(1843) of'Liddell and Scott' (in which the Xpvadvwva did notwere
at that
separated by decorative markers, here apparently
stage appear). For Liddell (1811-98) see DNB Suppl. (190l) rosettes.
s.v. 13
s The text of the letter is reproduced as written, except that (i) the
The XpvaaovOtva, known only to have been cele-
main group of Greek letters (that with which we are concerned) has
been standardised to a normal capital fount (which is fairly close to
brated at Sardis, and in the late Imperial period,
Acland's majuscules); (ii) in the word rravKp7Ltov, Acland
especially the third century A.D., was probably cele-
omitted
the AN, and inserted them above the line with the commentbrated '(this in honour of Demeter (who seems to have been
regarded
omission is my mistake)'; for typographical reasons these letters have at that time as the poliouchos of Sardis)14 or of
Koreof
been inserted into the line; (iii) Acland copied the kappa (or perhaps both). Its name reflects either the
cult-title
rTaVKPaTov as an angular beta, closed at the top, and with a long XpodvOqrl, attested already in the fourth
stroke nearly, but not quite, closing the lower loop; I have printed this
century B.c. by a dedication from the Latmian Gulf, or
as a beta, which is clearly how Acland regarded it (hence, perhaps, his
the golden flowers that Kore was in the act of picking,
comment' 'wh. I cannot understand'); (iv) I have omitted four
when,
fragmentary letters, given as AP below the alpha and theta of
as represented on an Imperial coin of Sardis,
Thymbraean Apollo, and it is to this that Acland is referring here. The
XpvadvOtva, and /\ -below the last alpha of XpvadvOtva and the
first alpha of dyev. stones were no doubt largely from Ilion (Cook 69).
6 I read this name as 'Wire's', or (less probably) as 'Wise's', but
" SeeI Cook 389 ff.
cannot find a bookseller of either name in contemporary trade-
12 and
See the useful selection of these published by L. Moretti,
street-directories of either Oxford or London. Others may have more
Iscrizioni agonistiche greche (Rome 1953), henceforth 'Moretti'. The
luck.
conventional type of inscription, with long lists of victories won by
7 This inscription was originally published by Lechevalier, Voyage the honorand in games throughout the Greek world, begins with the
dans la Troade3 (Paris 1802: for further details about the publication of Roman conquest (nos 51 ff.), and reaches its peak in the later Empire
Lechevalier's work see Cook 22) iii 301, no. II (a good transcription), (nos 66 ff.). There is no full-scale treatment of the evolution of the
whence CIG 3616, and now, after intermediate editions, Die games and their Imperial recognition etc. in the Roman period, but
Inschriften von Ilion= IGSK 3 (Bonn 1975) no. 121. It is one of a group apart from the discussions of individual games a good deal can be
of three (or four) inscriptions in honour of Sex.Iul.Philon, passed by extracted from the texts and commentaries in Moretti; see also the
different tribes: ibid. nos 121-4.
brief sketch in Jones, The Greek City (Oxford 1940) 231 ffT
8 It is impossible to identify this inscription with certainty, in the 13 See e.g. BMI 605 (Ephesos); 615 (Ephesos); IG ii2 3170 (Athens);
absence of a text, but it may well be Inschr. Ilion 88, first published by IG xiv 1102 (Moretti 79; Rome); CIG 3208 (Smyrna); etc. It is
Bailie, Fasc. Inscr. Gr. ii (Dublin 1846) 196, no. ccvi (IGR iv 206; ILS regrettable that Moretti's publication does not note these decorative
8787). dividers; his work would have been much enriched by photographs.
9 Acland subsequently, in his old age, published an album of nine 14 See Apoll. Tyan. Ep. 75 (Hercher; J. G. Pedley, Anc. Literary
drawings of which seven are of the sites of the Seven Churches Sources on Sardis [Camb. Mass. 1972] no. 217), reproaching the
(Oxford 1897: no text).
Sardians for an outburst of violence: 'Epwtvwv votl'aat v rts rLiv
10 For the difficulties as to the location of this site (also wrongly
regarded as the site of a city called Thymbra), see Cook 64 ff., 117 ff. TrrdAv
o6 EtvaL,
roS ' XAos. Mr E.KatL oVXt
L. Bowie Ld/7rpoS.
points out to me07 & Eddiscovered
a newly qAdvOpwrros~ ;,v ' n7s
Lechevalier, whom Acland followed, regarded the large Necropolis
and published letter of Apollonius (Penella, HSCP lxxix [1975] 305
with many ancient stones in it at Halileli (Halil-Eli, Acland), north of ff.), which contains a similar reference, in the same context, to the role
the Diimrek Su (see Cook fig. 6, p. 10io) as the temple of the of Demeter as poliouchos (p. 308).

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 136 NOTES
Pluton bore her off in his chariot.'5 The festival is reflected in the name of Chrysanthios, the noble pagan
referred to in numerous inscriptions of the third Sardian who was the teacher of Eunapius, and was
century.16 One, from Sardis, seems to indicate that iteulogised by him.'8
was inaugurated by Septimius Severus, i.e. after A.D. P. M. FRASER
195, though that is uncertain since the reference may All Souls College, Oxford
only be to a characteristic elevation of the rank of the 17 The XpvcrodvOva are named on some Sardian issues from
festival by the Emperor.17 The festival is perhaps Septimius Severus onwards: see BMC, Lydia cix, and 260 no. 150; 271
15 Various deities have been claimed for the XpvadvOtva. Demeter
no. 192; SNG Von Aulock, Lydien 3156, 3159; Inv. Waddington 5267;
was clearly an important deity of Sardis in Imperial times, as the
cf. L. Robert, RevArch 1934 59-61. The issues show a prize crown
passage quoted in n. 14 shows; and Demeter appears on the Imperial
standing on a base inscribed XpvacvOtva, or a wreath so inscribed
bronze coinage of Sardis in the act of searching for Kore: see BMC,
(BMC 271, no. 196). On the identification of the object as a crown,
Lydia 257 no. 138, and pl. xxvi, 1o; cf. 265 no. 70. Kore, too, is
and not as a prize-urn see Robert, RPhil 1958 20 n.3 (who in this
represented on the coinage (ibid. 249 no. 89, and pl. xxvi, i-herconnection suggests that the festival derived its name from the prize of
ravishment by Pluton), and there was a festival of the Kdpqa also: see
a crown of golden flowers: 'c'est de leur prix particulier qui devaient
tirer leur nom l'dry~wv 1EpLlo'dp vpos de Sidon ... et les chrysanthina
JOAI xxx (1937) Beibl. col. 214. I6, Kdpra iv ,Zdpswv; cf. L.
Robert, RevArch 1934 59 n. 6 (= Op. Min. Sel. ii oz23 n. 6); id. R Phil
de Sardis, en l'honneur de Kor&, qui fut enlevie par Plouton alors
(1958) 20 n. 3; Moretti 221. Head's explanation (BMC, Lydia cx) that
qu'elle cueillait des fleurs.'). See also ISard. 77, in honour of an
'these games were named after the golden flowers which Kore was agonothetes [r]cJ[v irr]p'rwov d[yl]wvwv XpvaavOlvw[v lEp]jc[v
picking when Hades ravished her' has then much to commend EluEJAa[TrJLKc(V
it, [7rcv El ' r7Iv OKO[UtVE'VqV, K.r.A.], referring to the
whether we refer the festival to Demeter or to Kore. It is further
Emperor Septimius Severus. It is, however, possible that Septimius
possible, with Guarducci, Epigr. Gr. ii (1969) 68i, to see a reference had
in simply elevated an already existing festival. Moretti on no. 75
the festival to XpvaavOls, the Argive maiden who, according (Ephesos
to ii no. 72) argues that that inscription is earlier than
Pausanias i 14. 2 informed Demeter of the rape of her daughter:
Commodus and Septimius because there is no mention of Kotqr dSLta

AEyEraL o1v Wgo A rlrpa is "Apyos EAOoioaav HIEAaoys 8'g atro or EovUpELta. If that argument is sound, then Severus must have
OLKC KaL Sg L XpovavO;9 riv pwrrayyv irrtrativqrj rTi K6pqg elevated an already existing festival, since the XpvadvOwva appear in
&Tly/Oatro. The case, then, for the festival being one of Demeter75 lines 2 and 7.
and/or Kore seems strong. However, in publishing a fourth century is This point was already made by Hicks in his commentary on
B.c. dedication from the Latmiac Gulf, IDid. 125 (Berl. Abh. 1911,BMI 615. For Chrysanthius's eulogy see Eunap. VS 500-5. For a
Anh. I, Siebent. Vorber. Milet 65), Hapvw' 'AOrlvadov yvv' EtX'v, Christian
/ instance see IG xii.i 674: XpvadcvLtos vayvvaTrr)S
(Rhodes).
irrip 'E'rLatras XpvadvOrL, Wiegand said that the epiklesis
Xpvadv'rj 'deutet offenbar aufeinen Aphroditekult der auch in Sardis
existierte', clearly referring to the Xpvadvrtva. (Rehm, in republish-
The Technique of the Erbach Griffin-Protomai
ing the inscription, loc. cit., said that the reference to Aphrodite
'scheint mir nicht ganz gesichert', with which one can only agree.)
Buckler and Robinson, ISardis 82-3, maintained that the festival was In his publication of the six griffin-protomai for-
named 'either after the marigold (XpvuavO's), sacred to Artemis, merly
or in the Erbach collection U. Jantzen' notes how
more probably, after Xpoodvavr, a cult-name of the goddess (with closely they agree in height not only among themselves
but also with three other protomai
reference to Wiegand's dedication, BMI 61 5 [not 614], etc.)'. But here of identical type,
again, as with Aphrodite, there is no specific link with Sardis, and two in Munich2 and one from the Samian Heraion.3 By
the
identification by way of the XpvaavO'g or EhAXpvaov seems very thin:
the kindness of their present owner I have recently had
the word is found only in Nic. fr. 74.69, and there the XpvaavOO'9
an opportunity of taking detailed measurements of the
appears in the company of AElpa, which 'fade upon the tombstones of
Erbach set; and Dr Michael Maas, to whom I am greatly
the dead', which seems more appropriate to Demeter than to Artemis.
P. Herrmann, Wien. Denk. lxxx (1962) 17 no. 13, publishingindebted,
a has supplied me with the corresponding
dedication from Saittai by Xpvaoodvvot OdAot also expresses doubts as
dimensions of the Munich pair. The results are com-
pared
to the link with Artemis (cf. also Bull. 1963 169 no. 234 on no. 13). For in the table.
Xpvadv9O' as a proper name see e.g. Peek, G VI 1778 of the first half of 1Arch. Anz. 1966 129.
the 4th century B.c. (Attica). 2 Staatliche Antikensammlungen Inv. nos 35, 36; U. Jantzen,
16 See Moretti nos 75.2, 7; 79.33; 81.2o; (82.17); 84.16; 87.17; 90.23
Griechische Greifenkessel (Berlin 1955) pl. 21.
(all, except perhaps no. 75, of the third century: see n. 17); ISard. 77-9 3 Samos B 440; Jantzen (n. 2) pl. 22, 1; AthMitt lxxiii (1958) Beil.
34, 1.2.
(79= Moretti no. 84); BMI615.-15; CIG 3208.16; FD iii.i 550 line 20.

ERBACH MUNICH

Measurements (in cm) I II III IV V VI 35 36

Max. h. as preserved* 19"9 19"5 20'4 19'5 19-2 19"5 2

W. across back of beak 3"5 3"4 3.4 3"4 3.4 3"4
W. between globular ear-bases 4"6 4"6 4"6 4"6 4"6 4.6 4
Max. w. of neck 5"4 5.4 5"4 5"4 5"4 5"4 5
Tip of beak to base of neck 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9"5 9"3
Top of head behind knob to palate 3-4 3I1 3.4 31 3"2 31
Diam. of r. spiral 1-6 1i6 1.6 1i6 I16 1i6 1
Diam ofl. spiral 1-6 1.9 1-7 1.8 1.8 1I8 1.9
Inside w. of r. eye 1.4 1-9 16 1.9 1.6 1-7
Inside w. of l. eye 1"5 2.0 1-7 1.9 1.5 1.6
H. of knob 2.1 1"9 2I1 1-85 2-1 1 9 2.2t 2-3
* The variations in overall height are of course due to the differing states of preservation of the
protomai.
t Incomplete.

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