Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, cilt.64, sa.3, ss.397-416, 2024 (AHCI)
T HIS PAPER presents a group of name lists of foreign judges discovered in the excavations carried out by a team of archaeologists from Atatürk University in Erzurum led by Prof. Dr. Ali Tavukçu in the Carian city of Alabanda in the 2021 and 2022 campaigns. The ancient settlement lies approximately 7 km west of the Çine District of Aydın Province; it was regarded as one of the most important cities of inner Caria according to Strabo.1 The first seasons of the excavation have concentrated on the bouleuterion, which has yielded numerous interesting name lists, some of which form the subject of this paper. Four marble blocks with inscriptions were found in front of the scaenae frons of the bouleuterion, constituting a single monument. After a brief assessment, it was understood that these name lists documented foreign judges visiting the city of Alabanda. The institution of foreign judges is a well-known phenomenon attested in the epigraphy of the Hellenistic period, serving to reduce potential civic complaints and disturbances arising from judicial impasses.2 There is a gap between the late Hellenistic period and the end of first century A.D. in terms of attested foreign judges, yet it is indisputable that the practice persisted throughout the High Empire, even though there was a certain decline in its use;3 and the inscriptions from the Imperial period no longer fall in the category of honorary decrees for judges in gratitude for their integrity in carrying out their duties, but appear in the much more condensed, frequently abbreviated form of lists of the members of each foreign delegation.4 It is doubtful that these show a general continuation of the institution into the High Empire;5 it appears to be confined to Mylasa, Stratonikeia, Thessaly(?), Sparta, the so-called Lycian metapempta dikasteria, and now Alabanda.6 We present here the first edition of the new texts together with commentary.