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Last Updated on 18 Jun 2019

Author: Stella Skaltsa

CAPInv. 1215: phratra Chaironis

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Aiolis? or Ionia?
iii. Site Kyme? or Phokaia?

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) φράτρα Χαιρωνίς (I.Kyme 55 l. 2)
ii. Full name (transliterated) phratra Chaironis

III. DATE

i. Date(s) Hell. (?) - Imp. (?)

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Personal:Chaironis: according to Stephanus Byzantius (678.12) Chaironis is the female name of Chaironeus, the founder of the city of Chaironeia in Boiotia.
iii. Descriptive terms φράτρα, phratra

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Kyme 55 (unknown date)
Note Seyfarth 1955: 35 no. 6.
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Funerary inscription in Greek of Artemidoros son of Apollonios of the phratra Chaironidos.
i.c. Physical format(s) Stele.
ii. Source(s) provenance Nea Foca.

IX. MEMBERSHIP

ii. Gender Men
Note The deceased is designated as being member of the phratra Chaironis.

XII. NOTES

iii. Bibliography Seyfarth, J. (1955), 'Φράτρα und φρατρία im nachklassischen Griechentum', Aegyptus 53: 3-38.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Possible
Note The deceased was member of the phratra Chaironis. In creating this entry, I followed Seyfarth (1955) who considers the term phratra for Roman Asia Minor as standing for a private association and not for a civic subdivision. However, I have some reservations as to Seyfarth's suggestion with regard to this specific inscription. The date of the inscription is unknown. Unlike other funerary stelai where the phratra appears as the body setting up the gravestone, in this particular case the deceased is designated as belonging to the phratra Chaironis. In one of the decrees for Archippe, the great benefactress of late Hellenistic Kyme, two men who were appointed to administer Archippe's affairs after her death belonged to the phratra Aristarchidos I.Kyme 13 VIII l. 39). In the light of this, I would be inclined to consider phratra Chaironis as a civic subdivision of Kyme, though I cannot rule out the possibility that we may be dealing with a private association. The evidence at hand is inconclusive.