Epigramma Magni Momenti, "IG" IX ii II35 Oliver, James H Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1967; 8, 3; ProQuest pg. 237

Epigramma Magni Momenti, 
fG IX ii 1135 
James H. Oliver 

THE LOST INSCRIPTION, of which O. Kern in 1908 in the IG said 
"magni fuit momenti," is known from a squeeze made by 
Lolling and now at Berlin. Kern and Peek 1 have done much to 

re-establish the text, but room for improvement still remains. To 
judge from the photograph of the squeeze which Peek has published 
and from the drawing which he has contributed, the text from Volo 
with some changes of our own will read as follows. 

[y(]vaTo p.[ EV .d€(]§tOS a€, 8aL[ K JpaVT€~p'a 8E 'pwp.[ a] 
[?jJp€V E7T[1. KA€tVOV P.JVPWT€VXES ;80s, 

["DBt€, au 8' €[vp€LTaO 8]€80pKOTa Ttpp.ovas "IaT[p]o[v] 
[AOJLYOV llq.t9[vlas E~€1f3aA€s raAaTaV, 

5 [Kat] 7Tvpa[ ous ay;as Kay(]pas ap.cpl a€ Aaot$s­
TO ~w!{ as Eg 00 7Tlp. Jy;as IJ.7Tapyp.a .d d, 

[K]alaapL YVWT[ oS EtiJV Z] 9'TWp KAV'T(Ss, Epya cplAo7TAa 
[1jJK' E7Tt T<XV f.L[€yaAaJv KOLpavlav VrraTov. 

1 [y{]vaTo f'[EV Peek; Ll€{]Stos Oliver, flE1SLOs KTA. Peek. 2 [fJp€ Kern, 
[~]p€V l7T[~ KAELVOV Peek; f']VpLOTEVXES Kern. 3 [".Q]AL€ (dissyllabic) Oliver, 
[rJat€ Peek; €[vp€tTao Peek; 8e]SopKoTa T€pf'0Var; "IaT[p]o[v] Kern. 4 [AOtJyoV? 
Kern; flaLO[vtas Peek; JgE1f3aAes Kern. 5 [Ka~] 7Tvpa[ovs &y;as KaYL1par; Peek, 
avvaYEL1pas Kern. 6 ~wv[as (genitive of equivalents) Jg 00 Oliver, ~wf" 

[vy;taTcp Peek; 7T'€f' Jifiar; Kern. 7 [KaJ{aapL YVW[ TOr; lc1v f'1}a ]TWp Kern, 
yvwT[or; a~ f'7J]aTwp Peek, i]UTWp Oliver. 8 [1j]K' Kern; [f'EyaAaJv Kern, 
K[AEtTlX]V Peek. 

At the end, whose "philopla erga sent a consul to the great com­
mand"? Those of one from whom "you sent to Zeus the token dedi­
cation of a cingulum, a first-fruit of victory." The two statements have to 
be connected by a relative pronoun, though not necessarily as here 
restored. It may have read [T]O ~c7Jf.L' [00 vLKas •• JY;ar; IJ.7Tapyp.a .dd. 

1 W. Peek, "Ein unbekannter Besieger der Galater," Klio 42 (1964) 319-27. 

237 



238 EPIGRAMMA MAGNI MOMENTI, IG IX ii 1135 

The inscription with Peek's attractive restoration of the first four 
lines honors a man addressed at the beginning of line 3 with the prae­
nomen, which Peek reads as Caius and I as Aulus. In Greece of the 
first century after Christ a good parallel for the Greek form of the 
praenomen Aulus will be found at IG 112 1996, line 52, "QAto~ A6AAto~ 
'A7"nK6~ 'A~7J(VLEV~). The man's father is mentioned in line 1 by his 
nomen, which Peek reads as Pedius and I as Didius. In other words, 
the man being honored was A. Didius or, according to Peek, C. 
Pedius. The first syllable of the nomen Didius may actually have been 
short and has to be scanned short but was usually transliterated as 
here given. 

The C. Pedius, whom Peek because of the last word calls a consul 
Macedoniae, would be unknown. There is no such thing as a consul 
Macedoniae, but this name does not appear among the few known 
proconsuls of Macedonia either. 

On the other hand, A. Didius, known also as A. Didius Gallus, 
obtained a suffect consulship (according to Degrassi) in A.D. 36, when 
there were no proconsuls of Macedonia because Moesia, Macedonia 
and Achaia were all united under one great command, that of the 
legate of Moesia. Because of wartime conditions the article which 
appeared in 1943 in PIR 2 D 70 fails to mention an inscription from the 
Athenian Agora, but the previous evidence already suggested a 
governorship of Moesia for A. Didius.2 The acephalous Athenian 
inscription, Hesperia 10 (1941) 239-41, No. 40, published even then as a 
cursus for A. Didius, lists among other posts the three emperors 
whom he had served and the two imperial provinces he had governed. 
Lines 5-10 are particularly interesting here: 

5 [comiti et le]~~[to i]n Br!~~~~[nia] 
[leg]~to[> ] Ca~[s]aris > 
[leg]ato > div[i] Clau[dii] 
[le]gato[> August]i 
[le]gato[ > pr> pr > ] prov[inciae Moesiae] 

10 [le]gqt[o> pr> pr> pr]ovin[ciae Brittaniae] 

The three emperors with which it was an honor to have served 
were Tiberius (not Caligula), Claudius and the new emperor Nero. 

The honorary inscriptions at Olympia and Athens make it highly 
probable that also the epigram from Volo concerned A. Didius, and 

I See A. Stein, Die Legaten von Moesien (Diss. Pann. I 11 [1940]) 25-7. 



JAMES H. OLIVER 239 

since A. Didius was suffect consul apparently in A.D. 36, also the 
governorship of Moesia must be dated in A.D. 36, and likewise the 
military emergency that caused him to be sent to the Balkans, be­
cause in the epigram he is said to have been a consul at the time of his 
appointment. His governorship of Moesia accordingly preceded that 
of P. Memmius Regulus. Suetonius, Tiberius 41 says that near the end 
of the reign Moesia was devastated by Dacians and Sarmatians. The 
author of the epigram calls the invader a Gaul from the Danube, and 
there were in fact Celts mixed with the Dacians.3 Besides, the Gauls 
had won their place in Greek literature as the most frightening 
barbarians from the north, whereas the Dacians were less well known. 
However, it is unnecessary to assume that the author of the epigram 
mistook a Dacian for a Gaul. Among the invaders, who were mostly 
Dacians, there may have been a Celtic leader. It could also be that 
Didius acquired his cognomen from this victory. 

Apart from the identity of the man honored it is necessary to object 
to Peek's punctuation, for he has placed colons at the end of lines 4 
and 6 and so obscured the sense. But he has correctly discerned the 
date. 

TRANSLATION 

Didius begat you, but war-powerful Rome, 0 Aulus, raised you to 
a seat attended by ten thousand armed men. You drove out a Gaul 
who had looked upon the boundaries of the fair-flowing Danube, a 
scourge of Paeonia, by lighting fire signals and collecting troops. He 
from whom you sent to Zeus (Jupiter Capitolinus?) the token dedica­
tion of a (barbarian's) girdle when you were a glorious legate of 
Caesar, he loved arms and did with them deeds which called a consul 
to the great command. 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 

March,1967 

8 D. Berciu, "La civilisation de La Tene chez les Geto-Daces," Latomus 25 (1966) 414-25, 
says on p.423: "entre Daces et Celtes il s'est etabli dans certaines contrees une veritable 
symbiose."