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Balboura Survey: Onesimos and Meleager, Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

In the course of the survey of the surface remains of the North Lycian city of Balboura, our attention was drawn to three small buildings near the southwest corner of the agora (Fig. 1), because their association with a series of inscriptions casts an interesting light on the society of the city. Most of these inscriptions have long been known, although three are unpublished, but their significance cannot be fully appreciated without some knowledge of the buildings and statue bases with which they are associated. Our aim, therefore, is to consider the architectural and epigraphic evidence together.

The buildings concerned (Figs. 2–4) are, from west to east, an exedra set up by Onesimos the city slave (demosios), with statues of the Demos and Boule of Balboura; a temple of Nemesis, also built by Onesimos; and a second exedra, set up by the wealthy Meleager, son of Castor. All three buildings face southward onto a paved street, and turn their backs to the agora, which was set at a lower level to the north.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1988

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References

1 The study of the exedra of Meleager is by J. J. Coulton, that of the other architecture by A. T. Reyes, while all the inscriptions are the responsibility of N. P. Milner. As is inevitable in such a joint investigation, however, each of us owes much to discussion with the others. The site plan (Fig. 1) is adapted from the survey plan by Dr. L. Bier of Brooklyn College, New York, and the state plan of the temple of Nemesis and the exedra of Onesimos was executed with his assistance. Valuable advice on Nemesis, Boule, and Demos was provided by Dr. O. Palagia.

2 Because the temple probably had Ionic, Corinthian, or Composite capitals (below, p. 128), its columns would normally have had twenty-four flutes (Vitr. 3.5.12; 4.1.1.). For an Ionic building whose principal columns had sixteen flutes, see Dinsmoor, 142 (fifth-century B.C. stoa of the Athenians at Delphi); cf. Coulton, J. J., Greek Architects at Work (1977) 39Google Scholar.

3 Cf. Shoe, 145, 149–50; pl. 69.

4 For the ancient testimonia on Nemesis and the wheel, see Cook, A. B., Zeus 1 (1914) 269–71Google Scholar, and note also Vettius Valens 6.9.14 (cited in Seyrig, H., Syria 13 (1932) 52 n. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar). On the iconography of Nemesis in general, see Karageorghis, V., Sculptures from Salamis 1 (1964) 1214Google Scholar with references to earlier bibliography; Rolley, C., BCH 88 (1964) 502 with n. 2Google Scholar; Hamdorf, F. W., Griechische Kultpersonifikationen der vorhellenistischen Zeit (1964) 35–6Google Scholar; Fleischer, R. in Hommages à Maarten J. Vermaseren 1 (1978) 392–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Taf. 77–9; see also below, p. 131.

5 For examples, see RE 13 (1927) 2000 no. γGoogle Scholar (Eleusis); 2004 no. 17 (Basilica Julia in Rome); 2006 no. 2 (Timgad and Germany), s. v. lusoria tabula. For a photograph of an example from Eleusis, see Liddell, D. M., Chessmen (1938) pl. opposite 115Google Scholar.

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7 RE, op. cit. (n. 5) 1988, 2004–5Google Scholar distinguishes between eight-spoked wheels and wheels with a greater or lesser number of spokes, suggesting that the latter were related to a game called ὤμιλλα, mentioned in Pollux 9.102.

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14 Vitruvius recommends that the height of a door should be 2–2·5 times its width (4.6.1, 3), but surviving ancient doorways vary considerably in proportions. The proportions of height to width for doorways in Lanckoronski vary roughly from 1·5 (1, 78) to 2·4 (2, 82–3, fig. 34). The proportions from Greece and Italy tabulated in Donaldson, op. cit. (n. 13) 30 vary from 2–2.6; those in Büsing-Kolbe, op. cit. (n. 13) 138, Tab. 1 from c. 1.5–3.75.

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27 B. Schweitzer, op. cit. (n. 19) 175–246.

28 SNG v. Aulock: Phrygia (1964) no. 3726; cf. n. 33.

29 Bibliography in Fleischer, R., Hommages à M. J. Vermaseren 1 (1978) 393Google Scholar.

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32 For examples of reliefs that may have shown Boule and Demos together, see Schwenk, C. J., Antike Kunst 19 (1976) 64–6Google Scholar, pl. 14 = id., Athens in the Age of Alexander (1985) 394–401 no. 81; Daremberg-Saglio 1.1, 744, s. v. Boule = C. L. Lawton, op. cit. (n. 31) 301–3 no. 115; C. C. Vermeule, op. cit. (n. 31) 114, 122–3; Chuvin, P., RArch (1987) 100–1Google Scholar.

33 LIMC 3.1 (1986) 379 no. 52Google Scholar, s. v. Demos; illus. in LIMC 3.2 (1986) 125 no. 6Google Scholar, s. v. Boule. For similar numismatic representations of Boule, and Demos, , see LIMC 3.1 (1986) 379 no. 50Google Scholar (Paphlagonia) and no. 51 (Bithynia), s. v. Demos. A coin from Kibyra, found in the western section of the upper city of Balboura in summer 1987, shows a veiled bust of Boule on the obverse and, on the reverse, a winged, standing Nemesis, plucking at her chiton with her right hand; cf. Head, B. V., Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phrygia (1906) 136 no. 30–3Google Scholar; pl. 16.11 (“time of Septimius Severus and later”); SNG Copenhagen: Lydia 1 (1947)Google Scholar Phrygia pl. 8 no. 277 (“Imperial times”); SNG v. Aulock: Phrygia (1964) Taf. 121 no. 3726 (“2–3 Jh.”).

34 CIL 3, 6998Google Scholar = ILS 7196.

35 Pleket, H. W., ZPE XLII (1981) 167–70Google Scholar.

36 REG XCIV (1981) 558Google Scholar.

37 Cf. Pittalakos in Aeschines, c. Tim. 54; 59Google Scholar.

38 J., and Robert, L., REG 86 (1973) 475Google Scholar.

39 Robert, L., in ed. des Gagniers, J. et al. , Laodicée du Lycos (1969) 316 ff., esp. 321Google Scholar.

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41 TAM 3.1, 4851Google Scholar. Note also near Balboura: Bean, G. E., AS X (1960) no. 102Google Scholar (Comama—of Boule).

42 MAMA 6, 380–380aGoogle Scholar.

43 Robert, L., L'Antiquité Classique XXXV (1966) 425–7Google Scholar.

44 Buckler, W. H., Revue de Philologie IX (1935) 187, no. 2Google Scholar.

45 Laumonier, A., BCH LIX (1935) 365–6Google Scholar.

46 L. Robert, loc. cit. (n. 43).

47 IGR 3, 465Google Scholar = LBW 1226 = inv. no. 21.

48 Laumonier, A., Les Cultes indigènes en Carie (1958) 274Google Scholar.

49 L. Robert, loc. cit. (n. 39).

50 Balland, A., Fouilles de Xanthos VII (1981) 215 ffGoogle Scholar; but see now Wörrle (n. 73).

51 Foxhall, L., Forbes, H. A., Chiron XII (1982) 4190Google Scholar.

52 Rickman, G., The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome (1980) 10, 48Google Scholar.

53 Polybius, , Histories, 6.42Google Scholar.

54 A. Balland, loc. cit. (n. 50) no. 67.

55 Loc. cit. (n. 34).

56 Loc. cit. (n. 50); but Wörrle, loc. cit. (n. 73), refutes Balland's interpretation.

57 Naour, C., ZPE XXIV (1977) 265 no. 1Google Scholar.

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59 Plutarch, , Pericles 37.4Google Scholar; schol. ad Aristophanes, Wasps 718Google Scholar.

60 IGR 3, 493Google Scholar.

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67 Loc. cit. (n. 60).

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69 IGR 3, 802 (Sillyon)Google Scholar; ibid. 796 (Perge).

70 OGIS 533.

71 IG 5.2, 268 (Mantinea)Google Scholar.

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73 Loc. cit. (n. 50) 217. But a sitometrion is now attested at Oinoanda by A.D. 124 (Wörrle, M., Stadt und Fest im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien (Vestigia 30, 1988) 127–8, 130Google Scholar).

74 Loc. cit. (n. 57) 269, n. 14.

75 G. Rickman, op. cit. (n. 52), 119, emphasizes that the imperial granaries erected at Patara and Myra were located on the northern Alexandrian corn route to Rome (Acts of the Apostles 27: 1–28; 13), and were unlikely to have housed supplies for the local communities of the district.

76 Vitr. 4.3.4 with reference to 3.3.12. Note also Coulton, J. J., BSA LXXIV (1979) 125, fig. 10Google Scholar; the Doric façade is chronologically closest to the buildings of Group 9/12 (Hellenistic), whose capitals suggest that the proportions of upper to lower column diameters varied between 0·8 and 0·9.

77 Shoe, 165, pl. 55.

78 On the use of handling bosses and for other examples, see Martin, R., Manuel d'architecture grecque I (1965) 209–10Google Scholar; J. J. Coulton, op. cit. (n. 2) 47–8, fig. 12e.

79 A distance of c. 0·20 m. might have been expected; note, for example, Lanckoronski 2, 81, fig. 32 (an Ionic temple) and 82, fig. 33 for the evidence.

80 For a similar step-cutting, cf. Courby, F., Picard, C., Recherches archéologiques à Stratos d'Acarnanie (1924) 38Google Scholar, fig. 20 and 43, fig. 23 (the inner frieze), with comments ad loc.

81 The accumulation of errors of measurement over the recording of the dimensions of individual frieze blocks accounts for the discrepancy.

82 Vitr. 4.3.4.

83 Coulton, J. J., The Architectural Development of the Greek Stoa (1976) 108–9Google Scholar.

84 Vitr. 4.4.1.

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86 Shoe, 92.

87 Ibid., 68.

88 Coulton, J. J., AS XXXII (1982) 50–1, fig. 5Google Scholar.

89 Dinsmoor, 175.

90 Coulton, J. J., AS XXXII (1982) 56Google Scholar, with references.

91 Coulton, J. J., AS XXXVI (1986) 8Google Scholar; for the inscription dating the aqueduct, see IGR 3, 466Google Scholar; Naour, C., Anc Soc 9 (1978) 166–70Google Scholar with bibliography.