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I. LOCATION

i.	Geographical area	Aegean Islands
ii.	Region	Rhodes
iii.	Site	City of Rhodos Lartos, territory of Lindos

II. NAME

i.	Full name (original language)	Σαραπιασταί, IG XII.1 162, l. 4.
ii.	Full name (transliterated)	Sarapiastai

III. DATE

i.

Date(s)

ii - i BC

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii.

Name elements

Theophoric:

The Egyptian god Sarapis: see H. van Gelder Geschichte der alten Rhodier (The Hague, 1900) 344-45; Poland 1909, 219; D. Morelli, I culti in Rodi. SCO 8 (Pisa, 1959) 67-9, 174-75. For its introduction into Lindos, see I.Lindos II 102, ll. 7-8, and 167, l. 8.

V. SOURCES

i.	Source(s)	IG XII.1 162, l. 4 I.Lindos II 656, l.6
	Note	For the date of IG XII.1 162 (2nd cent. BC), see Syll. 1114, contra Poland 565 (B 273) and Blinkenberg (commentary on I.Lindos II, 656, l. 6). The date of 1st cent. BC for I.Lindos II 656 is based on the letter forms.
	Online Resources	ClRhod 2 (1932) 203, no. 36 I.Lindos II 656, l. 6
i.a.	Source type(s)	Epigraphic source(s)
i.b.	Document(s) typology & language/script	IG XII.1 162: Dedicatory-honorary. I.Lindos II 656: Dedicatory-honorary. In Greek.
i.c.	Physical format(s)	IG XII.1 162: described only as a large base. I.Lindos II 656: Fragmentary statue base of Lartian marble. Originally it was furnished with an entablature on which the first (and now not extant) part of the inscription was carved, and which supported the statues of two persons. C. Blinkenberg (I. Lindos II 656, comment ad loc.) considers it probable that the statues depicted a man and his wife.
ii.	Source(s) provenance	IG XII.1 162 was discovered near the old city of Rhodos ('Ad viam quae Sümbüllü fert ante domum Χατζῆ Χαβούς': Hiller von Gaertringen's note to IG XII.1. 162). I.Lindos II 656 was discovered in a site south of the village Lartos, Lindos, close by the sea.

VII. ORGANIZATION

iii.

Members

Those portrayed by the statues supported by the base I.Lindos II 656 were almost certainly members of the association.

IX. MEMBERSHIP

ii.	Gender	Men Women
	Note	If C. Blinkenberg's view about the individuals to whom the monument belonged is correct (see above), then a man and his wife were among the members of this association.
iii.	Age	Adults
iv.	Status	The persons honoured in I.Lindos II 656 are called χρηστοί (chrestoi). If, as has been argued, this indicates non-citizen status, i.e. foreigners and especially slaves (L. Robert, Etudes Anatoliennes, (Paris, 1937) 369; P.M. Fraser, Rhodian Funerary Monuments (Oxford 1977), then I.Lindos II 656 would concern non-Rhodians. However, this theory is still in need of formal proof.

X. ACTIVITIES

iv.

Honours/Other activities

In IG XII.1 162, the Sarapiastai honoured an unknown person with the award of a gold wreath (χρυσέωι στεφάνωι, chryseoi stephanoi). In the same inscription, similar honours are bestowed by:
the Haliastan Athanaistan Hermaistan Aristeideion koinon
the Dios Soteriastan Sarapiastan koinon
the Meniastan Aphrodisiastan koinon
the Soteriastan Asklapistan Poseidoniastan Herakleistan Athenaistan Aphrodisiastan Hermaistan Matros Theon koinon and
the Hestiastan koinon

In I.Lindos II 656, the Sarapiastai honoured the two persons concerned together with at least three other associations, of which the names of only two are (partially) preserved : the Adoniasta[i] and the Hermaistai. Since the honorary award of most of the other bodies in this inscription consists of a gold crown (χρυσέωι στεφάνωι, chryseoi stephanoi), this may also have been the honour bestowed by the Sarapistai.

XI. INTERACTION

i.

Local interaction

Since this association is attested in the city of Rhodes and in Lartos in Lindos, it may have interacted with both places.

XII. NOTES

i.	Comments	It should be noted that all the other associations listed in IG XII.1 162 carry the generic description koinon. The absence of this description from the Sarapiastai might simply be due to the stone cutter's decision to economise on the space of line 4. Here, the Sarapiastai mentioned in two inscriptions found in two different localities are identified as one association. Two arguments support this identification. Firstly, associations wishing to use this popular element are seen to have incorporate it in composite names. Secondly, associations which wished to use only this theophoric element in their name seem to have added some other, non-theophoric marker (e.g. a locality) in order to distinguish themselves from homonyms: see e.g. Tit.Cam. 78: Σαραπιασταὶ τοὶ έν Καμείρωι, Sarapiastai toi en Kamiroi.
ii.	Poland concordance	B 273 (for IG XII.1 162)

XIII. EVALUATION

i.	Private association	Certain
	Note	The theophoric name makes it certain that it was a private association.

CAPInv. 78: Sarapiastai