A peacock drinking water in the backyard of Antalya Museum (Feb. 11, 2022). Photo by author.

Repurposed inscription

A peacock drinking water from the foot holes of a statue base.

This is the dialectic of life, I guess. A peacock drinking water from the empty foot holes of the upper part of an inscribed statue base — without a statue.

Upper part of an inscribed statue base. Antalya Museum. Photo by author.
A peacock drinking water in the backyard of Antalya Museum (Feb. 11, 2022). Photo by author.
A peacock drinking water in the backyard of Antalya Museum (Feb. 11, 2022). Photo by author.
A peacock drinking water in the backyard of Antalya Museum (Feb. 11, 2022). Photo by author.
Antalya Museum, 2022. Photos by author.

As we learn from epigraphic sources,1 it was a statue of someone named Sextus Paccius Valerianus Flaccus. 2nd century AD.

A repurposed inscription, at least twice. Looks weary, but still alive.

Upper part of an inscribed statue base. Antalya Museum. Photo by author.
Bean 20; SEG 17 578, inscribed statue base. Antalya Museum, 2022. Photo by author.

Transcription

Ὁ δῆμος καὶ οἱ συνπολιτευ‐
όμενοι Ῥωμαῖοι ἐτείμησαν
Σέξτον Πάκκιον Σέξτου
υἱὸν Οὐαλεριανὸν Φλάκκον,
ἱερατε[ύ]σαντα Ῥώ[μ]ης δὶς
—-

Translation

“The People and the Romans living in the city honored Sextus Paccius Valerianus Flaccus, son of Sextus, who was twice priest of the goddess Rome —-”

Footnotes

  1. Bean 20 (Belleten 1958, 22-85, pp.21–91); SEG 17, 578. ↩︎

Ali Riza Esin

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