A New Inscription of Arrian Bowersock, G W Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1967; 8, 4; ProQuest pg. 279

A New Inscription of Arrian 

G. W. Bowersock 

NOT LONG before his untimely death J. H. Kent was able to 
witness the publication of his volume of inscriptions dis­
covered at Corinth between the years 1926 and 1950. 1 The 

texts he published have already led to fruitful discussion and further 
discovery;2 dou btless, as scholars scrutinize Kent's edition and 
additional evidence accumulates, still more will emerge from the 
Corinthian documents. An elucidation of one of them is offered here. 

Inscription no. 124 has been preserved in four fragments.3 Kent per­
ceived clearly their relation to each other and was able to produce the 
following text: 

[tjnAJ 0 ao</> [ ov(?). . • . . .J 
[7TP€U Jf3EVT~V [AvToKpcXroposJ 
Ka{[ aCt. Jpos Tpata[voO <ASp J~[ avo 0] 
[EJE/3t;x[ a ]TOO, ~!'TWT[paT7JY ]ov [T'IjS] 
~7Tapx[ Etas TijS KCt.7T7TaS]oK[tas. A.] 
[r]EN\ws M[EvavSpos Kat, A. rEAAws] 
['Io]OaTos vClas) TO[O TEMtov MEvavopov] 

, [ '" J4 EVEP/, EataS EVEKEV . 

Kent's restorations are virtually certain (including [</>tA]oao</>[ov]), and 
they are particularly valuable because he had no axe to grind. 

Of the honorand Kent wrote, HIn spite of the fact that he was a 
governor of Cappadocia and legatus of the emperor Hadrian, and may 
have been given the soubriquet 'philosopher', it is not possible to 
identify him."5 The notion that two posts are mentioned (a legateship 
and governorship) is mistaken. There should be no comma after 

1 J. H. Kent, Corinth, Results of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical 
Studies at Athens, VIII pt. 3: The Inscriptions 1926-1950 (Princeton 1966). 

2 Cf L. Robert, "Inscriptions de l'antiquite et du Bas-Empire a Corinthe," REG 79 (1966) 
733-70. 

3 Kent, op.cit. pp.55-6. Cf photographs 124a, 124b (of two fragments together) and 124c 
on plate 11 of Kent's volume. 

t] have reproduced Kent's text exactly: op.cit. p.56. 
5 Kent, op.cit. p.56. Cf J. H. Oliver, Hesperia 36 (1967) 56. 

279 



280 A NEW INSCRIPTION OF ARRIAN 

[L']EB~[U]TOV: we have here one of the normal ways of designating an 
imperial legatus pro praetore (7Tp€U(3€vT~~ avnuTpaTTJYo~). Cf, e.g., 
IGRR III 486: 7Tpeuf3€vT~v [NEpWVO~] KAav8lov Kaluapo~ L'e(3auTo[v] 
TepfLavtKOV avn<u>TpaTTJYov, and ILS 1066: leg. imp. Antonini Aug. Pii 
et divi Hadriani pro pro provo Cappad. Now a Hadrianic governor of 
Cappadocia who was also a philosopher can be only one person, and 
that is Flavius Arrianus, the pupil of Epictetus and historian of 
Alexander the Great.6 Arrian's governorship of Cappadocia is well 
attested on stone and in literature; he served there for a number of 
years.7 His reputation as a philosopher is secured by his collection of 
the Discourses of Epictetus, not to mention Cassius Dio's biography of 
him under the title 'Appuxvo~ 0 rPtA6uo1>o~.8 

The identification of the honorand of the present inscription is 
rendered certain by another fact. Arrian dedicated his Discourses 
of Epictetus to one L. Gellius. There has been suspicion previously that 
this Gellius was the important Corinthian, L. Gellius Menander, a 
contemporary of Arrian.9 It is precisely L. Gellius Menander who, 
together with his son Justus, honors the philosophic governor of 
Cappadocia.10 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

August, 1967 

6 PIRZ, F 219. 
7 IGRR III 111=ILS 8801 (Sebastopolis in Cappadocia, A.D. 137); cf AE 1905,175 (Sukhum). 

Cassius Dio 69.15.1 (under ca. A.D. 134) records the repulse of the Alani by Arrian as gover­
nor, and Arrian himself told the story in his 'EKTa~,r; KGmX 'A..\avwv. D. Magie, Roman Rule 
in Asia Minor II (Princeton 1950) 1593, registers Arrian as governor of Cappadocia from 134 to 
137 (manifestly on the basis of the testimonia just quoted). Arrian, Periplus 17, seems to re­
fer to a date of 131/2 (cf PER 2, F 219), but it is not clear whether Arrian was governor at the 
time. He was evidently succeeded by L. Burbuleius Optatus Ligurianus (ILS 1066, quoted 
above in my text). 

8 C{ G. Wirth, "'App,avor; 0 4>'..\0(101)0<; " Klio 41 (1963) 221-3. See also P. A. Stadter, "Flavius 
Arri~nus: [he New Xenophon," GRBS 8 (1967) 155-61. 

9 F. Millar, "Epictetus and the Imperial Court," JRS 55 (1965) 142. On L. Gellius Menan­
der, PIR2, G 132, with Kent, op.cit. nos. 125,135,137. 

10 Hence PIR", G 125 (the Gellius in Arrian) no longer warrants a separate entry.