Perge'den bir İmparator Kültü rahibi portresini kimlikleme önerisi

Özet

Türkçe Öz Yok

Abstract

In the course of excavations at Perge in 2005, two portrait heads were uncovered in the east side of the western eighth porticus of the Colonnaded Street that extends in a north-south direction. These two portrait heads belong to a woman and a man carrying the crown of the Imperial Cult priesthood. These finds were published in an article by İ. Delemen. The iconography of the male portrait indicates a priest of the Imperial Cult, in his early forties, and of a very high social status. Stylistic and craftsmanship analyses indicate characteristics of the Antonine period, dating the portrait to ca. AD 180 (end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius - beginning of the reign of Commodus). The present study explores this male portrait in the context of inscriptions from Perge and its find-spot and makes a proposal for the identity of the person portrayed.The Imperial Cult became a useful tool when politics and religion were united in the Roman Empire. It was one of the most effective instruments in the legalization of Roman sovereignty and its propaganda. For the time being, there is no evidence at hand for the presence of an Imperial Cult Temple in Perge. Yet, there is strong evidence that some part of the palaestra of the South Baths was spared for the Imperial Cult.An inscription from the reign of Emperor Tacitus (AD 275-276) states that Perge had the title of neokoros since the reign of Vespasianus. It is claimed that the Imperial cult was initiated in Perge by C. Iulius Cornutus Bryoninus, the son of C. Iulius Cornutus (who commissioned the North Gymnasium and Cornutus Palaestra) and is of the Iulii Cornuti family of Perge. C. I. Cornutus Bryoninus was honored as head priest of the Imperial Cult by the people of Claudiconium and Konane in the province of Galatia. In other inscriptions, this person is honored by his brothers C. I. Cornutus Tertullus and C. I. Cornutus Trebonnianus. He is mentioned as the head-priest of the Imperial Cult and the agonothetes of the Great Imperial Games (Megala Kaisareia) held every ten years in connection with this cult! C. Iulius Caesius Cornutus and Gnaeus Postumius Cornutus and his brother, from the same family, also served as the head-priest of the Imperial Cult during the Flavian period. Another Pergean who held this office in the Flavian period was Tiberius Claudius Apollonius who is claimed to be the same Apollonios who, together with his brother, commissioned the Demetrios-Apollonios Triumphal Arch. It would appear from this information that the Iulii Cornuti family was responsible for the founding and establishment of this cult in Perge. In the reign of Hadrianus, on tj^e other hand, another leading family of Perge, namely the Plancii Vari, continued this office through the renowned female euer-getes Plancia Magna.There are inscriptions concerning Titus Aelius Aurelius Asklepiades and Cn. Pedanius Valerianus as head-priests of the Imperial Cult in the Antonine period. However, only the inscriptions of Cn. Pedanius Valerianus were found in the North-South Colonnaded Street and the junction of both colonnaded streets.The first inscription is found on a limestone base at the junction of the north-south and east-west colonnaded streets (IK Perge I, nr. 180). This honorary inscription in ancient Greek mentions the name of Cn. Pedanius Valerianus honored as the head-priest of the Imperial Cult by the Gerousia. Another inscription in ancient Greek concerning Cn. Pedanius Valerianus was found inside the small church (designated as U in the plan) on the north-south Colonnaded Street (IK Perge I, nr. 181). The inscription is on a rectangular limestone block belonging to a large base, then reused here. A statue of Cn. Pedanius Valerianus must have once stood on the base to which this inscribed block belonged. The inscription states that the Geraioi honor Cn. Pedanius Valerianus, who is a logistes (curator) from the equestrian class (ordo equester). Another inscription found in the southeast of the junction of both colonnaded streets reveals that Cn. Pedanius Valerianus was a citizen of Perge (IK Perge I, nr. 182). This ancient Greek inscription of the Antonine period mentions a Cn. Pedanius Saturninus Philotes who was a bouleutes, demiourgos and gymnasiarkhos at the same time in Perge and this person must have been a close relative of Cn. Pedanius Valerianus. Thus, this inscription allows us to say that Cn. Pedanius Valerianus, who was a close relative of the Pergaian bouleutes Cn. Pedanius Saturninus Philotes, was a Pergean.When epigraphic evidence at hand is evaluated together with the find-spot of a portrait, a proposal can be made regarding the identity of the portrayed personage. The portrait in question was uncovered in a large piazza covering the seventh and eighth insulae of the north-south Colonnaded Street. Inscriptions in front of many columns of the por-ticus of the piazza, as well as many statue fragments and heads uncovered in the filling, suggest this piazza was particular representational place where leading figures of the city were honored and statues of worshiped deities were erected. This piazza retained its importance through the late antiquity and Byzantine periods but was re-arranged for other purposes. The portrait in question was uncovered in a gap in the floor pavement in front of a porticus raised at a later date. Thus, it is possible to claim that this portrait and other statues mentioned above once stood at an unknown spot in this carefully arranged piazza of the Roman Imperial period, but in the late antique-Byzantine period, it was used for ground filler when the piazza was re-arranged.Almost the entire north-south Colonnaded Street has been excavated, and it is very unlikely to find another inscription honoring the Imperial Cult head-priest of the Antonine period here. Only two of portraits wearing the crown of the Imperial Cult head-priesthood from Perge were dated to the Antonine period and found in the north-south Colonnad