New Readings in the Demostheneia Inscription from Oinoanda

Extract

The inscription with which these notes are concerned relates to the institution of a musical festival at Oinoanda in northern Lycia by C. Iulius Demosthenes in the A.D. 120S. Carved on a block of limestone measuring 1·87 m. (height) × c. 1·05 m. (width) × 0·25 m. (depth), it was discovered in June 1967 by J. Borchhardt at Kemerarası, an ancient site below the hill of Oinoanda on its northern side, just across the river (the upper Xanthos or Seki Çay). The stone had been reused in the construction of a fountain, as was shown by the presence of two large holes containing the remains of lead water-pipes. The text informs us that the inscription was set up in the stoa in front of the provision market (ἀγορὰ βιωτική) given to the Oinoandans by Demosthenes, and, whilst the precise location of the market with the three stoas (of which two were one-storeyed, one two-storeyed) facing it has not been established, there is no doubt at all that it was in Oinoanda itself, and that the Demostheneia inscription, like at least three blocks of the inscription of the Epicurean philosopher Diogenes, was brought down to Kemerarası in late antiquity, perhaps when the hill-top site was abandoned after the failure of the water-supply system.