Some Thoughts on the Julio-Claudian Period of Nysa ad Maeandrum in the Light of a Private Portrait from the City

Abstract

The Carian city of Nysa ad Maeandrum was established during the Early Hellenistic period. Strabo mentioned the city where he was educated in his youth, defining Nysa as a dipolis - a double city. Excavations carried out in the city have unearthed a network of streets, numerous buildings, and sculptural fragments. The subject of this study is a marble head recovered as spolia in a Late Antique building located at the intersection of Street 1-plateia (western part) and Street 6W. Despite some discrepancies, the head is coherent with the male portrait types of the Julio-Claudian family. In this context, it represents a private portrait reflecting the public honoring practice of Nysa. The evidence for that period in the city is limited, and the existence of monumental buildings is known by indirect sources, mainly from Strabo’s accounts. Besides the public honorings of civic officers, imperial honoring is attested by an inscribed statue base. Numismatic data indicate the Nysaeans’ gratitude for Tiberius and provides insight into the city’s social context during the Julio-Claudian period. The typological classification of the marble head makes it the first Julio-Claudian sculpture of the city and sheds light on Nysa’s history during that period.