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Originalveroffentlichung in :Bulletin of theInstitute of ClassicalStudies47 ,2004,S. 79-81

EPIGRAPHICEVIDENCEFOR THE PHILOSOPHERALEXANDEROF APHRODISIASANGELOSCHANIOTIS

Inscriptionsoftenprovideinformationaboutgreatfigureso fancientliterature.ThisappliestoArrian,Plutarchan dTacitusnolessthantothepoetNikandroso fColophonorAristotle.Anew f ind f rom thecityo fAphrodis iasin Asia Min orin 2001now addssome importantbiographicalinformationon thecity's mostknown authoran doneo fthegreatestphilosopherso fth eImperialperiod.Thisnew inscriptionwillbepublishedtogetherwith otherrecentepigraphicf indsfrom Aphrodisias in aforthcomingissueo ftheAmericanJournalof Archaeology;as thenewsaboutthistextha salreadyspreadamong scholarsinterestedin thehistoryo fancientphi losophy,itseemed appropriate to presentthistextas soonas possible in ajournalmorel ikelyto bereadbyscholars interested in classicalliterature.Thenew inscription iswritten onthemarble rectangularbase o fastatue dedicatedby

Alexanderto his father.T h estonewasre-usedas atrough,bu tluckilytheside whichhas beendestroyed is nottheinscribed one.T h ebase(height1.14m ,width 48.5cm,depth52.5cm)wasfound in thetowno fKaracasu in 2001,bu tithad originallystood in Aphrodisias.T h etextreads:

Yr|(pio-auevrj

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80 B I C S - 4 7 - 2 0 0 4

Alexander became head of the Peripatetic school (c. A D 198-209).2 Th e name Titus Aurelius,borne both by the father and the son (L . 4 and 8), imp lies that the family was awarded R om ancitizenship by the later emperor Antoninus P ius (Titus Aurelius Fu lvus Anton inus), p robab lywhen he was holding the off ice o f the governor of A sia in A D 135/136 (as was pointed outto me by M . Frede), and this safely dates the inscription to the late 2nd or early 3rd century.The most important biographical information provided by the new inscription is the fact

that Ale xa nd er was the son of a philosopher. W e already knew several of his teachers(Aristokles of M essene or Aristoteles of M ytilene, H ermino s and Sosigenes), but his f irsteducator in ph ilosophy m ust have been his father; such fam ily traditions in philo soph y arenot unc om mo n in the Imperial period.3 Th e inscription does not refer to Ale xan der's school,i.e. the Peripatetics, but describes his p osition in general as 'one o f the diadochoi in Athens' .4The new h onorary inscrip tion throws some ne w light on the viv id intellectual life at

Aphrodisias in the Imp erial perio d, the only sur vivin g product o f which are (apart fromAlexander's works) the novel o f Chariton o f Aph rodisias and a few fragments of the histor-iographical works o f Apo l lon ios (FrGrHist 74 0 F 1-16). Fro m an honorary inscription5 w eknow of a library in the city, and m ore texts inform us about Ap hro disia n scholars, such asthe tragic poet C . Iulius Long ianus wh o was honoured in H alikarnassos for the pub lic lectureshe gave in that city ( A D 127),6 the sophists Chaireas, Marcus Flaviu s Anto nius L ysim ach os,Claudius Aurelius Zelos, his son Iulius Aurelius Charidemos Ioulianos, Marcus AntoniusPopillius Ag elao s, and Pereit ianos Dome teinos, and the orator Tib . Claudius Au reliusKtesias.7 Other philosophers, in ad dition to the tw o A lexa nd roi and the Peripatetic Adrastos,8are the prominent cit izen Marcus Aure lius Dio dor os Kallim edes, wh o is called in a posthumous honorary inscription 'a true philosopher',

9and in Late Ant iquity Asklepiod otos,leaders o f the late pagan s (late 5th century A D ). 1 0 From random references to benefactors

who are called soph ists or orators and sophists in their honorary inscriptions w e m ay in ferthat ph ilos oph y and rhetoric play ed a very important part in the life of the elite.

2R . W . Sharpies, 'Alexan der of Aphrodisias. Scholasticism and innovation', ANRWH36.2, (Berlin 1987), 1177f.3 See e.g., A . W . Parsons, ' A Fam ily of Philosophers at Athens and Alexan dria', in Commemorative Studies in HonorofT. L. Shear (Baltimore 1949), 268-72.4 For similar expression see e.g. IG IP 1099 L . 6: diadochus Athenis; Porph., Vit. Plot. 20: oi T' ' A0T|VT|OI 5 iS 6o xo i.References to 6id6oxoi of particular schools are limited to those of the Epicureans and the Stoics (Hahn, op.cit., 125).5 Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua, VIII, 498.6 C. Roueche, Performers and Partisans at Aphrodisias (London 1993), no. 88.7 The evidence has been collected by L. Robert, 'Inscriptions d'A phro disias', L'Antiquite Classique 35 (1966), 395-98and B. Puech, Orateurs et sophistes grecs dans les inscriptions d'epoque imperiale (Paris 2002), 165f. no. 59(Chaireas), 166-69 nos. 61-63 (Charidemos), 187-89 nos. 76-77 (Ktesias), 338-41 nos. 167-68 (Lysim achos) and 471 f.no. 260 (Zelos). Ag elaos and Pereitianos Dome teinos are mentioned in unpublished texts.8 H. B. Gottschalk, 'Aristotelian Philosophy in the Rom an wo rld from the time of Cicero to the end of the SecondCentury A D ' , ANRWU 36.2 (Berlin 1987), 1155f.9 Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua, VH I499 b 15f.10 For the activity o f Asklepiodotos and his homonym ous son -in-law, see P. Athanassiadi, Damascius, the philo-sophical history. Text with translation an d notes (Athens 1999), 202-33, 24 8f 284f., 348f.; A . Chaniotis, 'ZwischenKonfrontation und Interaktion: Christen, Juden und Heiden im spatantiken Aphrodisias', in Patchwork: Dimensionenmultikultureller Gesellschaften, ed. C . Ackermann and K. E. M illler (Bielefeld 2002), 102f. For a house decorated w ithportraits of philosophers (the seat of the philosophical school of Asklepiodotos?) see R. R. R. Smith, 'Late Romanphilosopher portraits from Aphrodisias', Journal of Roman Studies 80, 1990, 127-55.

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A N G E L O S C H A N I O T IS : N E W E V I D E N C E F O R A L E X A N D E R O F A P H R O D I S I A S 81

It is be yo nd m y area o f expertise to comm ent on the significance o f the new text for thehistory of ph ilosoph y in the Imperial period, but I hope that the publication o f Ale xan der 'sinscription w ill attract as m uch interest as the rumou rs about its existenc e.Heidelberg