Stable URL: http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1178Download as PDF
Last Updated on 20 May 2019

Author: Benedikt Eckhardt

CAPInv. 1178: hoi philagrippai symbiotai

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Ionia
iii. Site Smyrna

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) οἱ φιλαγρίππαι συμβιωταί (I.Smyrna 331, ll. 1-2)
ii. Full name (transliterated) hoi philagrippai symbiotai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 23 BC - 150 (?) AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Personal:philagrippai, symbiotai

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Smyrna 331 (23 BC - 150 (?) AD)
Online Resources I.Smyrna 331
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Grave inscription, greek
i.c. Physical format(s) Blue marble table, with inscriptions on both sides
ii. Source(s) provenance Smyrna

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects The associations erects a mnemeion for its member (synbiotes) “Marion, also called Mareis, from Adana”.

VII. ORGANIZATION

iii. Members A single member was called synbiotes.

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship Harland 2003: 95 thinks that the association worshipped Agrippa as a god, but this would be more likely if the group was called Aggripiastai.

XII. NOTES

i. Comments It is likely that the name “friends of Agrippa” refers to M. Vipsanius Agrippa. This would date the person referred to, but not necessarily the association, to the late first century BCE. Pleket dates the inscription to the first century AD, but notes that the letter forms seem to suggest for a later date; Petzl in I.Smyrna points out the importance of the inscribed other side of the stone: A local oikonomos had originally (in the first century AD?) used the stone for a dedication to Agathe Tyche, and the association re-used it (rather than the other way around, as Pleket argues). This would separate the philagrippai from the person they presumably honored through their name by more than a century.
iii. Bibliography Harland, P.A. (2003), ‘Imperial Cults within Local Cultural Life: Associations in Roman Asia’, AHB 17: 85-107.
Pleket, H.W. (1958), The Greek Inscriptions in the 'Rijksmuseum van Oudheden' at Leyden. Leiden: 11-7.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note It seems certain that the "friends of Agrippa" were not a civic institution, but a private association.
ii. Historical authenticity Certain