The Appaleni of Corinth Spawforth, Antony Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1974; 15, 3; ProQuest pg. 295 The Appaleni of Corinth Antony Spawforth THE FOUR published inscriptions discussed below,l three from Corinth and one from Tegea, together incorporate all the existing evidence for the Corinthian Appaleni, a colonial family flourishing in the second century, members of which have preViously been recognized in only two of the texts. These two, nos. 1 and 2, are both lists of officials and victors in the Isthmian games at Corinth, and their examination by the writer has led to other restorations and comment, included below, not all of which are directly relevant to the Appaleni. 1 =Kent no.223 The inscription is a fragment of a list of officials and victors in one of the Isthmian games.2 The relevant part, Face A, is reproduced below. ~--------------------~ [-------------------lIov-] n av[4J ------------------] t' t['" ()'] V1TaTOLC. vaca €1TL aywvo €TOV 5 A. r€AALOV MVCTLKO[U TOU r€AAtoV] M€vavopov' fEAAn[VOOLKWV o~] M. 'AVTWVLOV K":ryjA-[€VTdvov, TL~.] KAavoLov MagtjA-9[V, A . .L'TaTLov] lIovAXPov, Tt~. 'A1T1T[aA?]VOU 'Ava-] 1 Fundamental references are: J. Kent, Corinth VIII.3: The Inscriptions 1926-1950 (Princeton 1966) [hereafter KENT, with his inscription numbers]; A. B. West, Corinth VIII.2: Latin Inscriptions 1896-1926 (Cambridge [Mass.] 1931), B. D. Meritt, Corinth VIII.1: Greek Inscrip­ tions 1896-1927 (Cambridge [Mass.] 1931), and K. M. Edwards, Corinth VI: Coins 1896-1929 (Cambridge [Mass.] 1933), [hereafter cited as WEST, MERITT and EDWARDS respectively]. The four inscriptions discussed are cited in the text as nos. 1-4. The writer has seen all the inscriptions except no.I. I should like to thank Mr Charles K. Williams II, Director of the American Excavations at Corinth, for his invaluable assistance in the preparation of this article, in particular for his permission to publish or republish the Corinthian material, and for having kindly supplied the photographs of nos. 2 and 4. I am grateful to Dr J. J. Wilkes for his advice and encouragement, and to Miss J. M. Reynolds and Professor J. H. Oliver for their helpful corrections and suggestions. 2 For the Isthmian games and their officials under the Empire, see D. J. Ceagan, GRBS 9 (1968) 69ff. 295 296 THE APPALENI OF CORINTH 10 ~t~&.ov. r. 'Af3t8lov ll[--. Ttf3.] JO..av8lov M~lp..ot! [VEWT'POV.] [r. .A1}v08u(wv 8~ [F. 'l]9vAlov IIoAvalvov v(tou), 5 [T,fJ. K]Aav8tov MaglJLov, M. 'A[v }Twvlov KVt77TOV, T'fJ. 'A7T7T1;XA1}V9V 'Avag'A40v, M. cJ>ovAfJt9v 'Iov~,avou, F. 'Ac£vlov vvvv F€/Llvov, 10 F. 'IovAto[v] vvvv (9pada, F. Movc~lov vv KoplvO[ov], [. ]IIof.L7T7]lov K~«;XVaL«;xr[ ou], [. ~5 • • ]€VTlov [ _________ ] LINE 4. The use of the epithet v(lov) was probably intended to distinguish C. Iulius Polyaenus from a well-known and homonymous father.19 The only other C. Iulius Polyaenus known at present, however, is a duovir in the reign of Nero,20 who is too early to have been the father of the hellanodikes; it is possible chronologically that he was his grandfather. LINE 5. Meritt did not restore the praenomen, and dotted the second mu of Magt/Lov, although the letter is clear on the stone. For Ti. Claudius Maximus, see above pp.295-97. LINE 6. M. Antonius Quietus is otherwise unknown but may have been re­ lated to other M. Antonii who were hellanodikai at this time.21 LINE 7. The new fragment adds the praenomen Tiberius and confirms Kent's restoration22 of the gentilicium. A. M. Woodward23 correctly reread Meritt's 'Avagruov as 'Avag'AaOv: the bar of the alpha has been worn away. Ti. Appalenus Anaxilaus was hellanodikes previously, as has been shown, in either 131 or 135 (see above, p.296). LINE 8. M. Fulvius Iulianus can probably be identified with the homonymous hellanodikes of 127.24 LINE 9. There is a space of four letters here and in line 10 between the genti­ licium and the cognomen, and a smaller space of two letters in line 11. Although 10 See]. H. Oliver, op.cit. (supra n.S), on the use ofjilius or vMc in Corinthian inscriptions. 10 Edwards nos. 61-62. II M. Antonius Tertius in 127 (Hesperia,loc.cit. [supra n.4] SO,lines 12-13), and M. Antonius Clementinus in either 131 or 135 (no.l, line 7). II Kent no.223, commentary. 13 JHS 52 (1932) 144. u Hesperia, loe.cit. (supra n.4) 79-80, lines 7-8. ANTONY SPAWFORTH 299 the letter-cutter made no attempt to square off the ends of the lines or to space the letters consistently, he apparently left these spaces in order to redress the imbalance which he felt would arise from the shorter names in lines 9 and 10 and to a lesser extent in line 11. C. Asinius Geminus is otherwise unknown, as are any other C. Asinii from Corinth.25 LINE 10. A. C. Iulius Thrasea is otherwise unknown. LINE 11. Meritt restored Movc[ etSlov and KoptvO[lov]. I have preferred Kop{vO[ov] on the analogy of Kent no.345,26 where Corin~[hu]m is attested as a cognomen in line 2. C. Mussius Corinthus probably came from the same family as C. Mussius Priscus, Corinthian duovir in A.D. 4/5.27 LINE 12. There is space for only one letter before the gentilicium. As only Cn. Pompeii are otherwise known at Corinth,28 I have attempted no restoration. LINE 13. I was unable to see any trace of Meritt's ~ at the beginning of the line, or of any other letter before EVT{OV. There is space for a restoration of four or five letters at the beginning of the line. Meritt restored [--' Iov ]EVT{OV; but since Terentii are also known at Corinth29 I have left the gentilicium unrestored. 3=Kent no.187 The text, in Latin, records part of a dedication, probably from a statue-base, to a man who was praefectus iure dicundo30 and duovir at Corinth. Kent's text is reproduced below, with lines 1 and 2 as emended by the writer. 25 No C. Asinius can be connected with the provincial government of Achaea prior to the date ofthis inscription. However, there may once have been Italian negotiatores of that name with interests in the Peloponnese, from whom, or from a freedman of whom, Geminus may have descended: cf C. Asinius Felix, buried and posthumously honoured at Tegea in Augustan times (IG V2 26): his cognomen suggests a servile and Latin-speaking origin, such as would suit the freedman agent of some commercial C. Asinii. Moreover, Roman nego­ tiatores are known to have been active in the eastern Arcadian plain: there was a community of them at Mantinea in Augustan times (W. Dittenberger, SIG3 no.783), and the Q. Baebius Q. f. Romaios honoured by Tegea sometime in the first century B.C. was probably one also (rG V2 146. For other commercial Baebii in the eastern Mediterranean, see J. Hatzfeld, Les Trafiquants italiens dans I'Orient helUnique [Paris 1919] 163, 59 n.2 and 165 with n.5). It seems pOSSible, therefore, that the C. Asinii Geminus and Felix had similar origins. 26 Presumably from Korinthos, whom the Corinthians claimed as a son of Zeus and the founder of their city (Paus. 2.1.1). 27 Edwards nos. 35-38; Kent 25 nO.18. 28 SEG III 334; Kent nO.69. 29 West nos. 7 and 8, Kent nos. 288 and 294, and Corinth Museum Epigraphic Inventory I 2572 (unpublished). The only known Corinthian Iuventius is Iuventius Proclus, Isthmian agonothetes in the first century (Dittenberger, SIG3 no.802). 30 See RE 22 (1954) 1309-23 s.v. praefectus iure dicundo CW. Ensslin). 300 THE APPALENI OF CORINTH [M(arco) App]aleno [M(arci) f(ilio)] M(arci) n(epoti) Aem(ilia) [P]ulchro [pr]aef(ecto) i(ure) d(icundo) IIvir 5 [.. ]~[. . . ]rioni ~----------------------~ LINE 1. Kent was unable to restore the gentilicium. Of the six rare attested gentilicia ending in -alenus,31 only Appalenus is known at Corinth, where the family of that name also used the praenomen Marcus (no.4, line 1). The restor­ ation therefore seems assured. The praenomen was restored by Kent on the basis of the preserved praenomen in line 2. LINE 2. I have omitted Kent's dot under the second M. Although only the lower part of the last hasta is preserved, the identity of the letter seems certain: the only alternative, the letter A, is excluded, since the angle of the preserved hasta is much steeper than those of the three As in lines 1, 2 and 4. I have followed Kent's restoration, based on M(arci) here, of the two other praenomina, here and in line 1; in both cases there is space for a single letter only. LINE 5. [d]~[cu]rioni is a possible restoration. Although Kent leaves space for two letters before ~ and three subsequently, the letters of the suggested restoration seem broad enough to fill the spaces. The exact significance of the word here, however, remains uncertain. Kent32 tentatively dated Pulcher's two offices of praef i. d. and duovir to the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius respectively. There is no precise evidence for the date of the text, although its letter forms would seem to suit a date in the middle of the second century. I have therefore tentatively followed Kent's dating. The tribe of M. Appalenus M. f. M. n. Aem. Pulcher, the Aemilia, was that of the colony of Corinth.33 Double and triple affiliations are rare in inscriptions from Roman Corinth, and the four known ex­ amples clearly denote men of distinguished birth.34 While Pulcher's 31 Apart from Appalenus, W. Schulze, Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen (Berlin 1933), also lists Annalenus, Atalenus, Musalenus, Salenus and Talenus, all rare, with Talenus alone attested outside Italy (from Urso in Spain). 82 Kent 26, nos. 53 and 54. 33 West 88-89. 34 Members of the Imperial family apart, the other examples are en. Publi~[ius] M. f. M. n. M. pr[on]. Rust[icus] (Kent no.176), A. Y[a]tr<.>[ni]us A. f. 9. n. [.] [pro]n. [---un---] (Kent no.250), Q. Fulvius Q. f. [Q?] 1).. NoWli]<.>r (Kent no.120), and C. Iulius Laconis f. Euryclis n. Spartiaticus (West no.68). The first two both came from duoviral families, Nobilior was probably a descendant of the consular family of the same name, while the ANTONY SPAWFORTH 301 own distinction was assured by his duovirate, his double affiliation suggests that his family had also been prominent in the previous two generations at least. If the text is correctly dated, Pulcher was a contemporary of Ti. Appalenus Anaxilaus, hellanodikes in A.D. 131 or 135, and again in 137. Pulcher was the third of three generations of M. Appaleni, which suggests that Marcus was the praenomen regularly borne at this time by the direct male line of the family. The praenomen Tiberius seems to have been a departure, such as would suit the younger son of a M. Appalenus.35 Although direct evidence is lacking, it is possible that Ti. Appalenus Anaxilaus was a younger brother of M. Appalenus Pulcher. 4=IG V2 155 (PLATE 9) The inscription was published briefly in 1885 by V. Berard,36 whom Hiller von Gaertringen followed in IG, and has not been republished since. The stone was found in the area of the agora of Tegea and is now one of a group of ancient stones assembled in the public park next to the restored Byzantine church ofPanaghia in Episkopi, the village on the site of Tegea. The monument consists of an octagonal, parallelepipedal statue base of common limestone,37 complete, and measuring approxi­ mately 0.76m. in diameter by 1.37m. in height. The top surface has three sockets, two pediform and one circular, for the attachment of the statue. The inscription runs across two of the eight faces, hence­ forth referred to as Faces A (PLATE 938) and B, just below the top surface. It consists of three lines, of which the third is uninscribed in Face B. In the latter, where the surface is badly worn, line 1 is almost Euryclid Spartiaticus came from one of Roman Achaea's foremost families (cf G. W. Bowersock,jRS 51 [1961] ll2ff). 35 The name Anaxilaus is otherwise attested at Corinth only once: Ti. Claudius Anaxilaus was IIvir quinquennalis under Nero (West no.54 and Kent no.212). Anaxilaus has both the praenomen and the cognomen of the duovir, and possibly was related to him through his mother. 36 BCH 17 (1893) 11, nO.14. 37 Berard, op.cit. (supra n.36) 8-10, alludes in some detail to this unusual type of base, several other examples of which he found at Tegea. He gave neither measurements nor a description, however, of this particular base. 38 Owing to unfavourable conditions no overall photograph of the stone could be obtained, but only of Face A. I should like to thank the Greek Archaeological Service and Mr G. Steinhauer of Sparta Museum for permission to publish the photograph. 302 THE APP ALENI OF CORINTH entirely missing. while many letters in line 2 are pardy or wholly lost. The letters are irregularly cut; they measure approximately O.02m. in height. The text may be transcribed as follows: M 'A --, \ rp r a" 6-10 ] • 7T7Tall.1]VOV.l 'I)-" VWV ------------ I p%pa, Ka8apov Ao[y,c'T Np, ~ Tfi/,€arCiJ [v] 7ToA£c. vacat ifi( 1]c/>tcfLan) f3( ovMjc) vacat LINE 1. Berard saw no more letters after M. 'A1T1raA7]vov, while Hiller restored M. 'A7T7TaA7]VOV [TOV >oAoydmlTov]. The honoured officialis clearly a member of the Corinthian Appaleni. The family used the praenomina Marcus and Tiberius, as was shown above, and the last two letters in Face A seem to belong to an affiliation, to be restored Tt[ft. vlov --]. The rest of the line has space for between seven and eleven letters, of which only the lower part of a vertical hasta, belonging to the last letter, survives. These letters would have contained the cognomen of Appalenus, which unfortunately cannot be re­ stored.39 LINE 2. Here the writer's reading is the same as Berard's, although several letters have suffered increased wear in the intervening period. The irregular cutting of the letters and their forms-in particular the angulate omikron and theta and the quadrate omega and sigma40- suggest a date in the last quarter of the second or the first quarter of the third century. M. Appalenus Ti. [f. - - - -] is the latest known member of the Corinthian Appaleni. Given the date of the text and his affiliation, it is possible that he was a son, or more probably a grandson, of the hellanodikes Ti. Appalenus Anaxilaus. Appalenus was honoured by the city of Tegea as its logistes or curator.41 It is unlikely that he was a 39 Of the two cognomina known to have been used by the Appaleni, either IIovAXPov or 'AvaelAaov could be restored here. Either is possible, but equally so is another, unknown, cognomen. It seems unlikely that pfrropa in line 2 was preceded by an epithet, since both epithet and cognomen would need to fit a space of only 7-11 letters. '0 See M. Guarducd's brief discussion of these two letter forms, both characteristic of Greek epigraphy in the late second and third centuries, in Epigrafia greca (Rome 1967) 377-79. At Tegea quadrate forms recur in IG Vi 152 (infra n.42) and 153, from the third and fourth centuries respectively, although I can find no other example there of angulate forms. For examples of the latter from elsewhere in Greece cf, e.g., Hesperia 11 (1942) 59 n.25, from Athens and dated 185-92, and IG IV2 451 and 553, both from the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros, and both dated to the third century. USee RE 4 (1901) 1806-11 s.v. curatores reipublicae (E. Kornemann) and W. Liebenam in Philologus 56 (1897) 290-325; also C. Lucas, "The Curatores Rei Publicae of Roman Africa," JRS 30 (1940) 56-74. SPAWFORTI-I PLl\ IE ~ INSCRIPTION 2 (MERITT, Corinth VIlLI :--lOS. 15 + 18), FACE A RESTORED ISTHMIA:'-J OFHCL\LS AND VICTORS AT COIUi'\TH, A.D. 137 (photograph by Cllllrtl'SY of the American Sch(lol of Classical Studies at Athens) PLATE 9 SPAWFORTH INSCRIPTION 4 (IG V2 155), FACE A STATUE BASE HO.'cTWC. The inscription, which I have seen in Tegea Museum, is crudely and irregularly cut, and seems certain to postdate no.4. It illustrates the final stage in the degradation of the curatorship from a senatorial and equestrian office, as originally it had been, to a purely local one. 43 See C. W. Bowersock, Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (Oxford 1969) 12-14. 44 Bowersock, op.at. (supra n.43) 21-29. 4S The gentilicium Appalenus is otherwise attested only from Barium in Apulia, where two M. Appaleni, AeHofon and Phoebus, and an Appalena Ammauru, are known from funerary inscriptions of uncertain date (elL IX 288-90). All three cognomina suggest servile origins, and almost certainly these and the Corinthian Appaleni are connected in some way. Since the linguistic affiliations of Appalenus are Etruscan, however (see W. Schulze, op.cit. [supra n.3l] 346 and 107 respectively), it is uncertain whether the origins of the Corinthian family should be sought in Barium; it is possible, for instance (I am grateful to Miss Reynolds for this suggestion), that the Appaleni at Barium were acting as agents for some commercial Appaleni who lived elsewhere-perhaps even the Corinthian family, itself.