It is generally agreed that Karneades who was honoured by this statue was the Academic philosopher, who came to Athens from Cyrene and was no doubt granted Athenian citizenship during his long residence in the city. The identity of the two men who made the dedication is more controversial. They have traditionally been identified as two foreign princes, namely Attalos II of Pergamon and Ariarathes V of Cappadocia, on the assumption that these two princes also received Athenian citizenship while they were students in the city. But in 1971 H.Mattingly suggested that the dedicators were native Athenians and that their royal names were a coincidence. This view has been accepted by many scholars, as reported in the Athenian Agora Museum Guide ( Google Books ); although the traditional identifation has been vigorously defended by B.Frischer, "The Sculpted Word", pp.194-6 ( Google Books ).
Attalos and Ariarathes of Sypalettos dedicated this statue of Karneades of Azenia.
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