Stable URL: http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1931Download as PDF
Last Updated on 09 Jul 2018

Author: Paschalis Paschidis

CAPInv. 1931: he synethia tes tetrados

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Macedonia
ii. Region Mygdonia
iii. Site Thessalonike

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) ἡ συνήθια (l. συνήθεια) τῆς τετράδος (IG X.2.1 Suppl. 1301)
ii. Full name (transliterated) he synethia tes tetrados

III. DATE

i. Date(s) ii - iii AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:The association's name referes to the celebration of a god's birthday in the fourth day of (each?) month (Nigdelis 2016: 481-2).
Other:tetras: fourth day of (each?) month
iii. Descriptive terms συνήθια, synethia
Note The association is called a synetheia, a common term for describing associations, emphasizing the familiarity between members.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) IG X.2.1 Suppl. 1301 (ii - iii AD)
Note Other editions: Nigdelis 2016
Online Resources IG X.2.1 Suppl. 1301
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Greek funerary inscription
i.c. Physical format(s) Marble plaque
ii. Source(s) provenance The inscription was published for the first time by Nigdelis 2015: 108-10, no. 28 as a lost monument, known only from its transcription in the archive of the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, and known once to have been in the collection of the Acheiropoiitos Church.

The plaque was then somehow acquired by Major James Wilson, serving in the Australian Army during World War I, along with two inscriptions from Crete (for the Cretan inscriptions see Kritzas 1994: 213-4). All three were returned by Wilson's descendants to the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion, where the monument is now stored (inv. no. E 433). See Nigdelis 2016.

VII. ORGANIZATION

ii. Leadership The only known official of the association is its ἀρχισυνάγωγος, archisynagogos, Eulandros son of Zosimos
Eponymous office Given that the title and the name of the archisynagogos are in the genitive, his mention served for dating the inscription.
iii. Members The deceased, Titos Kathekon, is described as a συνήθης, synethes, the common term used for the members of a large number of associations in Macedonia and elsewhere.
ix. Privileges As in several associations, the members' families were entitled to financial contribution for funerary expenses. In this case, the funerary monument seems to have been paid for not exclusively by the association, but also by the deceased's widow and another female relative. This is probably an indication of the association's relatively limited financial resources.

VIII. PROPERTY AND POSSESSIONS

i. Treasury/Funds See VII.ix, above.

IX. MEMBERSHIP

ii. Gender Men
Note The only known member of the association, the deceased Titos Kathekon, is a man.
iv. Status The fact that the leader of the association, the archisynagogos Eulandros, is called a citizen of Thessalonike in a Thessalonican inscription seems to point to someone who had only recently acquired the citizenship (cf. Nigdelis 2015: 110).

XII. NOTES

i. Comments Nigdelis 2016: 483-84 discusses possible gods the association worshipped. Judging by (mostly Attic) literary sources, Herakles, Aphrodite and Hermes had cultic birthdays on the fourth of the month. The frequency of associative and other cults for Herakles and Aphrodite in Macedonia and in Thessalonike in particular makes them the best candidates, but other deities should not be excluded.
iii. Bibliography Kritzas, Ch. (1994), ‘'Αρχαίων νόστοι’, Mentor 7.32: 211-4.
Nigdelis, P.M. (2015), Επιγραφικά Θεσσαλονίκεια ΙΙ. Συμβολή στην κοινωνική και πολιτική ιστορία της αρχαίας Θεσσαλονίκης. Kerkyra: 108-10, no. 28.
Nigdelis, P.M. (2016), 'Τετραδισταί in a Funerary Inscription from Roman Thessaloniki', GRBS 56 (2016) 475-484.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note There is no reason to doubt the private character of the association, which appears to possess a structure appropriate to the Idealtyp of small, private associations in Roman Macedonia: a leader, some members and limited resources.