What messages would have been received from this gate? Its ‘‘reading
communities’’ would have been varied. For those from Italy whose first
language was Latin, the stocky arches, their inscriptions, and the powerful
figures (now missing) atop them would have been a powerful proof that
they were now on top, that their culture and traditions were taking hold
all over the world. Nonetheless, any Romans who stood here were trav-
eling, living in, or governing the East, and it is likely that they would have
comprehended the Greek inscription as well.^22 Asians literate in Latin
were no doubt fewer, especially this early, though there would be some,
especially if they aimed to climb the ladder in Rome.
23
Even those who
only spoke and read Greek would certainly recognize the features and
costumes of Augustus and his family from many other statues and monu-
ments.
24
The receding but central Greek inscription would have filled in
some of the gaps in a reassuring fashion, and it adds the People of Ephesos
to the dedicatees, so the great tradition of the polis is adhered to.
About sixty years after this gate was made, a two-aisled stoa about 150
meters long was added to the east side of the Agora (figure 4.3). It is
interesting that the benefactors who supplied the funds for this enormous
project saw fit to put their names, not on the long face of the building, on
the main street from the theater, but on its end, near the Gate of Mazaeus
and Mithridates. Once again, the dedicators make their inscription bilin-
gual, with the Latin likely coming first, below the stoa’s triglyph frieze,
the Greek below that. Though both are incomplete, they said pretty
much the same thing: that the building was dedicated to Artemis Ephesia,
the deified Claudius, Nero (with his name Germanicus later scratched
out), Agrippina Augusta, and the city of the Ephesians. Neither preserves
the name of the male dedicator, though the Greek version gives the name
of his wife, Claudia Metrodora, and the fact that he built it from his own
funds.^25 Metrodora became not just a benefactor but the eponymous
magistrate of Chios, so perhaps lived there after her husband’s death.
- Swain 1996, 389 n. 48; Wallace Hadrill 1998; though note Reynolds (1995, 396) on
non Greek speaking governors; Eck (2004) on Latin as a language of power, but also on
government communications in Greek and possibly other native languages. - Majbom Madsen 2002, 99, 103 105; Jones 2005, 265, 268 69. According to Cassius
Dio (60.17.4), the emperor Claudius stripped a Lycian of Roman citizenship because he
couldn’t understand Latin. For Eastern experts in Roman law using Latin, Swain 1996, 392
n. 17, Millar 1999. - On portrait statue dedications and receptions by provincial clients, see Tanner 2000,
46 50; Stewart 2003, 84 5, 90 1, 157 69.
25.IvE3003: Dianae Ephesiae, Divo Clau[dio, Neroni Claudio Caesari Augusto
[[Germa]nico]], Agrippinae Aug[ustae], civita[ti Ephesiorum] / [ cum Claudia
Metro]dora uxor[e].
½’æôÝìØäØ’ ̄çåóßfiÆ;ŁåfiH ̊ºÆıäßfiø; ̋ÝæøíØ ̊ºÆıäßfiø ̊ÆßóÆæØ ÓåâÆóôfiH½½ˆåæìÆíØŒfiH; ’ªæØððåßífiÅÓ½åâÆó½ôfi B;ôfiH’ ̄çåóßøí äÞìfiø=½ KŒ ôHí Näßøí ŒÆôÆóŒåıÜóÆò IíÝŁÅŒåí ófí
̊ºÆıäßfiÆ ÌÅôæïäþæfiÆôfi B ªıíÆØŒß:
Halfmann 2001, 37; Kearsley 2001, 129 no. 155. Dated 54 59C.E.
Reading, Hearing, and Looking at Ephesos 75