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Text written in three lines. Line 3 is slightly smaller thant the previous ones.
Well-formed letters with slight thickening at the end of the long hastae without apices. The letters are roughly the same size, except for O and Ω, which are smaller and written above the line. A with horizontal crossbar and Σ with parallel hastae. Of particular interest is the cursive writing of ω.
Letter height between
Text constituted from: MDAI(A) 27 (1902), p. 95-96, no. 87.
Other editions:
See also: Suk Fong Jim 2017; Caneva 2020; on the military background of Eumenes' victory over Prousias and the Galatian tribes and the consequent assumption of the epithet Soter, see Evans 2012, p. 35-36; Muccioli 2013, p. 169, with discussion of the earlier bibliography.
Images: MDAI(A) 27 (1902), p. 95 (squeeze).
Further bibliography:
Online record: PHI
This altar is decorated with a rosette surrounded by two bucranes and presents an inscription of good quality but with the uncommon detail of a cursive shape of omega, which may be interpreted as the influence of cursive writing on a private dedication. The stone was found in the neighbourhood of Gurnellia, situated south-east of the hill of Pergamon, in an area which was not yet urbanized in the second century, so that the original location of the altar remains unknown. The chronological limits of the dedication are provided by the use of the epithet Soter (mid-180s) and by the death of Eumenes II (159/8), after which the king was referred to with the denomination Theos.
(S. Caneva)
Of King Eumenes Soter
(S. Caneva)
Del re Eumene Soter
Since the stone was found in an area of the low city of Pergamon which was not yet part of the urban settlement in the 2nd cent. BC (Pirson 2017), it is impossible to make conclusive inferences about the original location of this altar. Comparison with the rest of the dossier of Attalid altars from Pergamon (PHRC0018, PHRC021-022, PHRC026) suggests that it may originally have stood in a sanctuary or in another public place on the Pergamon hill. In this respect, the decoration with a rosette recalls the fine altar of Attalos I found in the theatre (PHRC018). However, a domestic context cannot be excluded either (cf. PHRC023-024). By accepting the second hypothesis, we could explain the cursive ω - which as already observed by the editors is extremely rare at this early chronology in Pergamon - as the result of the influence of cursive writing in a private inscription (on this point see commentary to PHRC037). Finally, the find spot may be interpreted as the result of medieval or modern reuse, but contra, see the marble base PHRC029, an Attalid dedication probably originally placed near the sacred way towards the Asklepieion.
The chronological limits for the dedication are fixed by two major events of the first half of the 2nd century: the assumption of the epiclesis Soter by Eumenes II after his victory against the Gauls (a plausible terminus a quo, 184/3 BC, is provided by an inscription of Telmessos: Clara Rhodos 2 (1932), p. 172, no. 3; see Evans 2012, p. 35-36; Muccioli 2013, p. 169), and his death in 159 BC, after which the king was usually referred to with the title ‘theos’ (cf. PHRC026 and PHRC028).