Aristarchos, agoranomos (Syrian city)

South Levantine mint

Lead

Cast

Square

4.50 cm

4.70 cm

- cm

Mass (g)	Mass (grain)	Date of measurement	Reference	fragmented	cleaned	reference weight
63.77	-	-	Dothan 1971	No	No	Yes

Symbol	Technique	Direction	Position	Number	Synecdoche

Dothan 1971: Square lead. 63.77 gm. 4.5 × 4.7 cm. The back is flat, the corners are rounded, and the face has raised edges and an inscription which reads ΑΓΟΡΑ/ΝΟΜΟΥΝ/Τ(ΟΣ) and a number of letters which cannot be read. A lead weight found at Ashdod during the first season is similar in weight. A number of lead weights have been found in Palestine with the inscription ΑΓΟΡΑΝΟΜΟΥΝΤΟΣ.
Lifshitz 1973–74: La surface du poids est presque carrée: 45 mm × 47 mm; il pèse 63,77 g. Dans une cavité est gravée une inscription en six lignes dont un seul mot a été lu et transcrit par l’éditeur. Voici le texte de l’inscription tel que je crois l’avoir pu déchiffrer: Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|το[ς] Ὤμ|βρ[ου ἔ]τ(ους) αρ´ (ou αο´) | μητρο|πολη(τείας). Il faut faire remarquer une particularité de l’inscription: les lignes 1, 3 et 5 sont un peu plus courtes que les lignes 2 et 4; la dernière ligne est la plus courte de toutes. L’omicron à la ligne 1 est petit et suspendu au-dessus de la ligne. L’omicron après le nu à la ligne 2 est bien lisible et il n’y a pas besoin de le restituer comme le fait l’éditeur. À la ligne 4 il faut sans doute restituer un iota après les deux premières lettres. C’est donc la transcription grecque du nom latin Umber ou Umbrius. Le premier était attesté dans des inscriptions latines et l’autre dans des papyrus grecs. La datation du poids est intéressante et permet de fixer sa provenance. L’année est indiquée par l’ère de la métropole. La ville la plus proche qui avait obtenu ce titre était Césarée et le poids, découvert à Ashdod, provient certainement de la capitale de la province. La date initiale de l’ère «métropolitaine» de Césarée n’est pas connue et son emploi n’était pas attesté. Le titre «métropolis» a été accordé à Césarée sous Sévère Alexandre (222–235) et le poids a été émis vers la fin du ΙΙΙe siècle ou vers le milieu du IVe [s.]. J’ai restitué μητροπολη(τείας) parce que nous trouvons ce mot dans l’inscription sur un poids de Laodicée en Syrie.
CIIP III: A square lead weight without a handle or loop. One side has raised borders, bevelled on their inner part; this bevelled part is decorated by a pattern of double semicircles. There is an inscription in six lines within the field; the inscription is very worn, especially in its center and the lower part. The reverse has been reported blank. Small omicron; four-bar sigma; alpha has broken middle bar. Meas.: h 4.7, w 4.7 cm; wt 63.77 g. Inscription: ΑΓΟΡΑ|ΝΟΜΟΥΝ|ΤΟΣ Α|ΡΙ[.]ΤΑΡ|Χ[..]ΤΟ|[- -]. Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|τος Ἀ|ρι[σ]τάρ|χ[ου] το|[ῦ - -]. “Aristarchus son of …, being agoranomos.”

No

Language	Technique	Legend type
		Authority, Date

Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|τος Ἀ|ρισ̣τάρ̣|χ[ου ἔ]το(υς) | ηορ´.
Lifshitz 1973–74: Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|το[ς] Ὤμ|βρ[ου ἔ]τ(ους) αρ´ (ou αο´) | μητρο|πολη(τείας).
Finkielsztejn 2012: Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|τος Ἀ|ρισ[τάρ]|χ(ου) το (sic!) | (?) ηορ´.
Finkielsztejn 2014a: Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|τος Ἀ|ρισ[τάρ]|χ(ου) το (sic) | ηορ´.
CIIP III: Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|τος Ἀ|ρι[σ]τάρ|χ[ου] το|[ῦ - -]

GREEK

FROM -135 TO -134

Seleucid Era 178 = 135/134 BCE (cf. Finkielsztejn 2014a) rather than Year 178 of the Caesarian Era in Laodicea = 130/131 CE.

Name	Date of acquisition	Inventory number
Israel Antiquities Authority (Jerusalem)	None	None

Reference	Page/Column	Reference (number)	Plate / Figure	Comment
Dothan 1971a	67–68, 72	None	None	None
Dothan 1971b	71	fig. 30/7; pl. XXV/5	None	None
Lifshitz 1973–74	33	1	None	None
BÉ 1976	422	43	None	None
SEG 26	387	1666	None	None
Meimaris 1992	72	None	None	None
Di Segni 1997	476–477	138*A	None	(non vidi)
Finkielsztejn 2012	137	19	None	None
CIIP III	207–208	2298	None	None
Finkielsztejn 2014a	80–82	50	None	None

Lifshitz 1973–74: Attributed to Caesarea Maritima; BÉ 1976: Attributed to Laodicea.
CIIP III: Appears to have been misplaced in the storeroom of the IAA by 1993; present whereabouts unknown.
CIIP III: The weight was first published in 1971 in the archaeological report on the excavations in Ashdod by M. Dothan. According to the editors of the report, the inscription begins with ΑΓΟΡΑ|ΝΟΜΟΥΝ|Τ(ΟΣ), followed by “a number of letters that cannot be read” (Dothan 68). A few years later, B. Lifshitz came up with the reading of the entire text as: Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|το[ς] Ὤμ|βρ[ου ἔ]τ(ους) αρ´ (or αο´) | μητρο|πολη(τείας). This reading has been reproduced without alterations in a number of subsequent publications (SEG 26, 1666; BE 1976, 43). Lifshitz assigned the weight to Caesarea, which acquired the status of metropolis under Severns Alexander (222–235 CE); this, in turn, resulted in dating the item to the end of the third or beginning of the 4 c. CE. Attribution to Laodiceia in Syria was suggested by L. Robert (BE 1976, 43). The weight is currently unavailable for examination, having apparently been misplaced in the storeroom of the IAA. However, its photograph and, especially, the drawing of the inscribed side that the excavators provided (Dothan, pl. XXV,5 and fig. 30,7) would argue for a reappraisal of Lifshitz’ reading and dating. The drawing from the report is reproduced here. The first firm conclusion that can be made from it is that the weight belongs to the Hellenistic period. The four-bar sigma and the decoration of semicircles are familiar features on local weights of this period. Neither has been attested so far for the Roman period (A. Kushnir-Stein, Israel Numismatic Research 6, 2011, 35-59 at 54, 56). According to the drawing, ll. 3–5 have ΤΟΣ Α|ΡΙ[.]ΤΑΡ̣|Χ[..]ΤΟ, which can be read naturally as giving the name of the agoranomos as Aristarchos. As against this, one may have hard time in trying to reconcile the surviving letters with το[ς] Ὤμ|βρ[ου ἔ]τ(ους) αρ´ (or αο´) | μητρο suggested by Lifshitz. In order to conform to Lifshitz’ text, one has to read the final Α of l. 3 as Μ, then to read the first letter of 1.4 (Ρ) as Β (with no justification from either the drawing or the photograph), then to reconstruct the following iota (Ι) as Ρ (again without justification) and then to insert three more letters (ΟΥΕ) for which there is not enough space. The reading of l. 5 as μητρο involves ignoring the first letter, chi (Χ), given by the drawing and visible also on the photograph, as well as turning ΤΟ at the end of the line into ΤΡΟ. The text given by Lifshitz thus appears too forced to be true. Reading ll. 1–5 in a way suggested by the drawing, i.e. Ἀγορα|νομοῦν|τος Ἀ|ρι[σ]τάρ|χ[ου] would be a more appealing alternative. The meaning of the letters ΤΟ at the end of l. 5 and of the entire l. 6 is difficult to determine from either the drawing or the photograph. L. Di Segni (DGI) suggested reading them as a date [ἔ]το(υς) | ηορ´. (“year 178”). Counting from the Seleucid era (312 BCE), she arrived at 135/4 BCE (DGI 478). However, the placement of the date at the end of the inscription, as well as the use of the word ἔτους (instead of the sign ), would be highly unusual for the period in question. What we do have in this period, is the use of the article τοῦ before a patronymic (Kushnir-Stein 53f.). The reconstruction of the end of the inscription as a patronymic introduced by -rou thus appears to be a more likely, although possibly not definitive, solution.