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Last Updated on 11 Jul 2019

Author: Andreas Victor Walser

CAPInv. 1048: hoi peri ton Dionyson hieroneikai kai techneitai

I. LOCATION

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

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) οἱ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον ἱερονεῖκαι καὶ τεχνεῖται (Milet I.3 156)
ii. Full name (transliterated) hoi peri ton Dionyson hieroneikai kai techneitai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 48 AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Professional:τεχνεῖται, techneitai, ("artists")
Status-related:ἱερονεῖκαι, hieroneikai, ("winners in sacred contests")
Theophoric:Dionysos

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) Milet I.3 156
Note Oliver, Greek Constitutions, no. 29; cf. Milet VI.1 ad n. 156 with further literature.
Online Resources Milet I.3 156
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Letter of the emperor Claudius to the association. Greek.
i.c. Physical format(s) Grey marble block, most probably part of a statue base
ii. Source(s) provenance Delphinion

VII. ORGANIZATION

ix. Privileges The emperor's letter refers to privileges granted by previous emperors and the Senate and confirmed earlier by Claudius. The emperor promises to try to further augment this privileges. What these privileges actually were we do not know.

XI. INTERACTION

ii. Interaction abroad It is not clear what the relation of the Milesian association of Dionysian artists and sacred victors to the corresponding world-wide guild are. Cf. below XII.i.

XII. NOTES

i. Comments The internal organization of the world-wide association of Dionysian artists in the Roman Imperial period still remains largely unclear. It seemed to have been a centrally organized association active in all parts of the (eastern) empire. The organizational and legal relationship between the world-wide structure and the local, polis-based branches eludes us. Cf. Aneziri 2009: 223; 229.

Cf. also the letter of the emperor Hadrian to the Dionysiac artists from Alexandreia Troas (Petzl and Schwertheim 2006). In ll. 18-19, Hadrian explains that he has written to the Milesians (and the Chians) and has ordered them to "restore to you (sc. the artists) the contests which they omitted" because they had diverted the funds destined for the contests to other purposes.
iii. Bibliography Aneziri, S. (2009), 'World Travellers: The Associations of Artists of Dionysus', in R. Hunter and I. Rutherford (eds.), Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture. Travel, Locality and Pan-Hellenism, Cambridge: 217-236.
Petzl, G. and Schwertheim, E. (2006), Hadrian und die dionysischen Künstler. Drei in Alexandria Troas neugefundene Briefe des Kaisers an die Künstler-Vereinigung (Asia Minor Studien 58). Bonn.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note The Dionysiac technitai present all features of a private association. Cf. XII.i Comments.