The Hellenistic World and Rome
poetic appropriateness, it dates from the first year of the Christian era, and
thus forms a pair with a comparable inscription from Kyme, of ..–...^69
Like thousands of other inscriptions of the period, the latter honours aeuer-
getēs(benefactor) who had offered hospitality and public shows to the people;
moreover ‘‘during theKaisareia[a festival in the name of the emperor] cele-
brated by Asia, as he had promised, he carried out sacrifices and banquets
where the flesh of the victims was consumed, having made a sacrifice of oxen
to the emperor Kaisar Sebastos and to his sons and to the other gods.’’
But this document, significant only for being so characteristic of the epi-
graphic expression of the next three centuries, is far exceeded in importance
by that from Kalindoia, which presents in concentrated form, and very early,
almost all the values of Greek communal life, in its relation to the Empire.
It therefore deserves translation in full:
Year [of the provincial era of Macedonia,..]
The city magistrates [politarchai], after a preliminary resolution by the
members of the council [bouleutai], and an assembly of the people [ek-
klēsia] being held, declared before the people [dēmos]:Since Apollonios son of Apollonios son of Kertimos, being a good
man and deserving of every honour, having accepted spontaneously
the priesthood of Zeus and Rōmē and Caesar Augustusdivi filius(son
of the deified [Iulius]), has exhibited so much nobility, living up to the
high reputation of his ancestors and of his own virtue, as to omit no
excess of expenditure on the gods and his native city, providing from
his own resources throughout the year the sacrifices offered monthly
by the city to Zeus and Caesar Augustus; and has also offered all manner
of honours to the gods, and provided for the citizens feasting and lavish
entertainment, similarly dining the whole populace, both en masse and
bytriklinia(separate dining groups), and organising the procession at
the festival so as to be varied and striking, and putting on the contests in
honour of Zeus and Caesar Augustus in elaborate and worthy style...
has shown his generosity to his fellow citizens by asking from the city
leave to take over the public sacrifices offered during the festival to
Zeus, Caesar Augustus, and the other benefactors, and has provided
them at his own expense; and having sacrificed oxen has entertained. R. Hodot, ‘‘Décret de Cymè en l’honneur du Prytane Kléanax,’’J. Paul Getty Mu-
seum Journal (): , with the long discussion by L. Robert,Bull. Épig. , ;
R. Merkelbach, ‘‘Ehrenbeschluss der Kymäer für den Prytanis Kleanax,’’Epigr.Anat. ():
;SEGXXXII, no. .