Abstract:

Muratdede/Masdat is a modern village located at the western edge of a large agricultural field, six km southwest of Hacıbaba Mountain and 35 km direct west of Karaman (Laranda). At Avgın, a place 1 km north of the village, there are some foundation walls of buildings and architectural blocks belonging to an ancient settlement on the southern slope of a hill known as Avgın Tepe. Some inscribed gravestones were found in the village of Muratdede and its surrounding during our survey in 2013-2014. This article presents three of these inscriptions set up for Roman soldiers. The first commemorates one Julius Diomedes and possibly dates from the third or fourth century A.D. The second gravestone was erected for Nestor, a duplicarius veteranus, by his sons and his wife Vettia, probably after 212 A.D. The last inscription was carved on the tomb built by the son of the veteran Herakleides for his mother Aurelia Matron and his brother Heraklides, probably also after 212 AD. The epigraphic evidence suggests that the settlement of Muratdede played some role in Rome's effort to exercise control over the people of Isauria.

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