Settlement E of Boubon

71. Dedication of a statue to a god (Ares?)

5	[- - - - - - - - -] κ̣αὶ Ἑρμ[ ̣. . . . . (10). . . . . ] [Ἐ]παφρᾶ Βουβωνεῖ̣[ς ἀγο]– [ρα]νομήσαντες κ̣[α]– τεσκεύασαν τὸν [ἀν]– δριάντα ἐκ τῶν ἰδί[ων] τῷ θεῷ σὺν τῇ βάσ[ει κα]– θὼς ὑπέσχοντο Βο[υβω]– [νέων τῇ] π̣ό̣λ̣[ει].

... and Herm[...] of Epaphras, citizens of Boubon, having exercised the office of market inspector, set up the statue and the base at their own expense, as they had promised the city of Boubon.

One of two inscribed statue bases (cf. no. 72) found close to the present-day road between İbecik and Altınyaıla/Dirmil, ca. 3 km E of Boubon and among the ruins of a structure that is perhaps to be identified as a rural sanctuary of the god Ares (see below). This stone is now broken up into small fragments.

Height: at least 151 cm; length: 81 cm; depth: 67 cm; letters: 2.5-3 cm.

Schindler 1972, no. 3 (pl. 1.3: squeeze); BullÉp 1973, no. 452; Milner 1998, p. 3, no. 2.1;

L. 1 : Probably Ἑρμαῖoς, attested eleven times in Boubon: nos. 33; 37; 41; 53; 54; 61; 62; 65; 67; 69; 78. It is a common name, particularly widespread in Pisidia and Lycia and probably connected with native formations; cf. Zgusta 1964, no. 108 and Milner 1998, 3.

L. 2 : Ἐπαφρᾶς (gen. Ἐπαφρᾶ) is an abbreviated form of Ἐπαφρόδιτος¹², a Greek theophoric name that "gains steeply in popularity" in the imperial period ¹³.

L. 2-3 : On the responsibilities of the agoranomoi, see most recently Jakab 1997, pp. 70-85 and Brélaz 2005, 72f.

L. 6-8 : The market inspectors of Boubon had promised the city that they would raise a statue of the god, probably Ares (see no. 72), at this location.

Two heavy slabs in situ on the north side of the road leading from İbecik past Dikmen/Boubon to Altinyayla (earlier Dirmil). They appear to mark the entrance of an ancient building with at least three rooms. It was once part of a settlement, the scanty remains of which are spread along the south side of a mountain known locally as Kale Tepe. At the summit of this mountain there is a large fortified site. It is likely that either the lower settlement surrounding this structure or the fortified site at the top of the mountain coincided chronologically with the city, which, then, had at least one dependent village in its territory. Of the two inscribed bases, no. 72 lies E of the entrance in what was presumably the interior of the building or a court, and is reasonably well preserved. However, the stone that carried inscription no. 71, which was seen by Bean and Schindler next to no. 72 in 1966, had disappeared¹⁴. As we discovered in 2004, the stone had been crushed into small, in some cases letter-sized, pieces. We found several of them in the immediate vicinity of no. 72 and were able to identify the larger pieces (those containing remains of more than one line). We transferred all pieces we could recover to the Burdur Museum. The lettering of inscription no. 71 was carved deeper in the stone than that of no. 72 and appears much more regular. Its date, consequently, is almost certainly earlier.

The site has apparently been visited by scholars before, but their evidence is confusing. The architectural remains surrounding the two bases are referred to by Schindler as kleine Anlage (small facility), which they locate at a distance of ca. 5.5 km from Boubon, between the territory of this city and the plain of Dirmil¹⁵. Robert, BullÉp. 1973, no. 452, p. 172, connects this building as mentioned in Schindler's corpus, with the ruins reported in Spratt and Forbes 1847 I, 266, on the way from İbecik to Dirmil (now Altınyayla): "From Ebajik we rode to Tremeely... On our way we visited an ancient fortress, of singularly rude construction, crossing a low hill. The walls are three feet thick, and formed of uncemented unhewn stones, of no great size, very irregularly put together". Robert points to those ruins on Kiepert's map, where they are marked with "Ru" on the north side of the way leading from İbecik to Dirmil, NNE of Boubon. This may indeed be the building to which the two bases belonged, but there are also reasons for doubt: on p. 262, when describing their journey from Cibyra (Horzum) to Boubon, Spratt and Forbes write that they rode northwards towards "Ibejik". This, of course is impossible, since both Boubon and İbecik are located south of Gölhisar (then Horzum)/Cibyra. At least in part, this should shake our trust in the accuracy of Spratt and Forbes' details concerning this region. Bean, on the other hand, relating on his trip to the region in 1952, writes (Bean 1956, p. 140): "a little more than an hour to the E of İbecik, directly above the pass on the road to Dirmil and Balbura, is the fort marked on Kiepert's map. It bears the ubiquitous name Asar Tepe. On the summit, 1250 metres above the sea, is a confused complex of dry rubble walls 70-80 cm. thick; at the foot, in the pass, is a ruined building of some size, said to have formerly contained an inscribed stone, recently broken up." Apparently, Bean saw both the structures by the modern road, at a location that can well be described with Spratt and Forbes as a "low hill", and the fortified site on the summit of the same mountain. At that time, none of the two bases known today had in fact been broken up, since Bean and Schindler found them during their later visit. But of course more than one inscribed stone may have been broken up.

Referring to the structure by the road, Milner 1998, p. 3, speaks of "a substantial late building, perhaps a church". We found no indications as to the date of this structure, no sign that it was a church, and no certain signs of spolia in the remains of the walls of this building. The lower part of a statue base appears to have been built at least partly into one of the inner walls, but closer investigation would be necessary to determine whether the base was in fact reused as building material or whether it is found here in its original position. As the only evidence available to determine the function and date of this building is the two epigraphic texts, we might tentatively assume that a sanctuary to the god Ares was located here. On the cult of Ares in this region, see now Gonzales 2005. Gonzales (p. 273, n. 40) speculates that a man named Thoas, who made a dedication to Ares at Oinoanda (a rock relief; see Robert 1983, p. 572), might be of the same family attested here (ll. 2-3). Other dedications to this god include those at Zekeriaköy on the southeast coast of Lake Caralitis, Swoboda, Keil and Knoll 1935, pp. 101-103; dedications by the Legetai and Skodes in the territory of Sagalassos, Robert, op. cit., pp. 582–583; [Opl]es and Obrimotos, priests of Ares at Termessos, TAM III 107 and 212. One of two inscribed circular silver plates said to have been unearthed 6.5 km N of Oinoanda and now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was also dedicated to Ares (Gonzales, op. cit. pp. 274-279). IK Side 2 377 and 378 are two examples of dedications to this god from Side in Pamphylia.

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