Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum: 50.1211

PERGAMON HONOURS MENODOROS

This inscription provides important new evidence about the transition of Pergamon from royal residence to Roman rule, following the death of  Attalos III; see P.Kay, "Rome's Economic Revolution", pp.63-64 ( Google Books ).

The reference to 'democracy' in line 11 is remarkable - Peragamon was certainly not a democracy in the modern sense of the word; see C.Müller, "Oligarchy and the Hellenistic City", p. 35 ( academia.edu ).

There is a French translation of the inscription in "L'Année épigraphique", 2000, no. 1377.

. . . on the twentieth of the month of Daisios,as proposed by Eponasios son of M..., prytanis and priest of Philetairos: since Menodoros son of Metrodoros, one of our citizens, the priest for life of the  Samothracian gods, from his earliest age [has received] the finest education, and through [his] virtue and his prudence he has conducted himself [blamelessly] and honourably [in the] priesthoods to which the people elected him, and in his public duties [he has distinguished himself] by displaying [total] integrity; and he has presented an irreproachable judgement about the citizens who have won contests at sacred games [and] have obtained a very fine ornament for their fatherland; and he himself, having been crowned as victor in the horse race 10 at the ninth Soteria and Herakleia games, has of his own accord made the people more esteemed; and when public affairs were transformed into a democracy, and the people elected councillors {synedroi} from the best men, Menodoros was appointed as one of them, and after that, being a member of the council established in accordance with Roman legislation, on account of his goodwill towards his fatherland he achieved much that was beneficial, always presenting a sane and fair judgement; and when he was involved in embassies and other duties, he conducted himself in a strenuous and honourable manner, shirking neither danger nor hardship, nor avoiding any expense; and when he was elected to be general of the city, while Manius Aquillius, the consul of the Romans, was in Asia along with the ten commissioners, he dealt with these men frankly [on behalf of] our city, 20 and justly [presented] a speech on behalf of his fatherland, and in the other matters that arose during his term of office he behaved carefully and righteously; and when he was appointed to be prytanis and priest of Philetairos, because of the justness that had been attached to him throughout his whole life, he [maintained] the trust that had been placed in him . . .

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