This stone monument, bearing Greek text on the back and the side, and with a human figure carved in relief on the front, was found on the banks of the Euphrates River near Samosata (eastern Turkey) in the late 19th century. Shipped to London, the inscription was later published by V.W. Yorke in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (1898), and subsequently re-edited by F.H. Marshall in GIBM IV (1916).

The stele, hewn from a black basalt slab, was discovered only partially intact, and measures 79cm in height, 36cm in width, and 23cm in depth. 28 lines of text are preserved with the right edge and bottom missing. Of the figure on the front side, just the upper part survives, turned to the left with right hand extended, and wearing a radiate crown. On account of its similarity to monuments on Nemrud Dag, the extraordinary mountain top sanctuary built by Antiochos I (c. 69-31 B.C.), this is thought to represent Apollo, and the figure he shakes hands with to be Antiochos.

The main subject of the text is eusebeia, and in the decree Antiochos expresses his conviction that for all men this is the source of good fortune and pleasure: "I considered that piety was not only the most secure possession of all good things, but also the most pleasant enjoyment to men" (lines 9-11). His attribution of piety as the cause of a life "happily filled with many years" (lines 18-19) has enabled the monument to be dated to the later part of his reign, probably the early 30s B.C.

The highly formulaic character of the opening lines (1-6) in which Antiochos declares his divinity and ancestry, and the correspondence of much of the main body of the text (9-19) to a cult inscription on Nemrud Dag (OGIS 383: 10-24), enable the full restoration of these sections. Yorke did not consider that the remaining text, except line 24, presented any difficulty, but critical considerations of lines 6 and 7 and 21-28 have shown that their restoration is not unproblematic (cf. Waldmann, Petzl). Line 24 of the text reads:

en hierai te litheiai mian perio[

Yorke restored the broken word as perio[dou, noting perio[chou as an alternative. The former gives the sense of sacred stones 'of one circuit', a reading which would be consistent with the design of the Nemrud Dag sanctuary, and by extension, possibly with other religious sites in the kingdom (on the mountain the monuments are placed on terraces around a great mound, which may form the sepulchre of Antiochos). This restoration was accepted by Dittenberger, and by subsequent editors including Waldmann and Petzl.

A recent find at the Zeugma excavations has, however, caused this reading to be revised. Unearthed in 2000, the stele (cf. SEG 53-2, 1769) appears to be an almost identical copy of the Samosata one except in a superior state of preservation. The relief shows Antiochos receiving the right hand of Apollo, whilst the wording corresponding to LL. 6/7 and 21-28 respectively of the Samosata stele has a more natural quality than the restorations that have been offered for these lines. In the matter of the disputed conjecture, the Zeugma text has periochou. The meaning, "(of one) compass", is rather ambiguous, but it may be a reference to the physicality of the monument. A possible translation of lines 24-26 might now read: "I set up on sacred stone of one compass, alongside the statues of the gods, a representation of my form receiving the blessed right hands of the gods".

I am very grateful to Dr. Charles Crowther for his assistance in studying this inscription. Among many other things, I learned from him that patience is one of the great virtues of the epigraphist.


REFERENCES:
Yorke, V.W. 1898. "Inscriptions from Eastern Asia Minor" JHS 18, 306-27.

Dittenberger, W. 1903. Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae. Vol. 1. Leipzig.

Marshall, F.H. 1916. GIBM IV, 1048a. Oxford.

Waldmann, H. 1973. Die Kommagenischen Kultreformen unter König Mithradates I. Kallinikos und seinem Sohn Antiochos I. Leiden.

Petzl, G. 1976. Review of Waldmann, Gnomon 48, 371-2.

SEG 53-2. 2003. No. 1768, 1769.