History and Epigraphy of the Cayster Valley in Antiquity

The project was conceived as an investigation into the historical development of southern Lydia situated between the Tmolos and the Messogis mountain ranges, with the main urban centres at Hypaipa, Dios Hieron and three urban settlements of the Ano and Kato Kilbianoi - Nikaia, Koloe and Palaiapolis. The starting point for the project was provided by regional epigraphical surveys aimed at discovering and assessing unpublished documentary evidence and determining the whereabouts of the already published monuments. In addition to the fieldwork, the project comprised a study of epigraphic monuments preserved in the local museums of Tire and Odemis. During the three yearly field surveys conducted in the territory of more than 120 towns and villages 108 new Greek inscriptions on stone were found. As always, the greatest part of new inscriptions is made up of epitaphs, dating mostly from the Roman imperial period. To name just a few, we now have epitaphs of Heracleides son of Menogenes, of an anonymous daughter of Alexander (48/9 or 85/6 AD), of Thalia daughter of Midas and Zois, of Basileides son of Papias, of Herodes son of Apollonios and Meltine (233/4 or 270/1 AD), etc. One of the most valuable finds is a Hellenistic stele (mid-second century BC) with a relief, which once marked the final resting place of Menecrates son of Menecrates and his son Neoptolemos. The monument (called glyphe in the text) was commissioned by the wife and another son of Menecrates, Aristobula and Emmenides. Menecrates had, among other unspecified honours and official positions, fulfilled the post of a cavalry commander (hipparches) at Nikaia. The second part of the same inscription contains a curse against grave-desecrators, an early example of the type widely attested during the Roman Imperial period. The curse envisions the risk of funerary reliefs being damaged and the dead (?) being thrown out of their graves; therefore, both the dead and the tomb are placed under the protection of Demeter Thesmophoros. Among the more noteworthy public inscriptions is a long but poorly preserved Hellenistic list of male names engraved on a tall marble stele seen in the hilly region NW of Hypaipa in the direction of Mt. Tmolos. The top of the stele is broken and the first ten preserved lines are weathered and nearly illegible. One of the names near the end of the stele seems to belong to a logistes. An interesting inscription dated to 233/4 or 270/1 AD records the payment of a summa honoraria of 5000 denarii for the office of komarches in Dideiphyta (this village community possibly belonged to the territory of Hypaipa). New inscriptions pertaining to religion stem from the cults of Ephesian Artemis, Dionysos, Zeus Soter Karpodotes, Zeus Keraunios, Cybele, Hecate and Nemesis. Several newly found funerary and dedicatory inscriptions belong to the early Byzantine period. All the inscriptions provide rich material for the study of history, society, economy, religion and culture in the Cayster valley from the middle Hellenistic period (second century BC) until the early Byzantine period (sixth-seventh century AD).