Abstract:

The epigraphical part of the contribution deals with three votive inscriptions (4th-6th cent.) found in the synagogue of Sardis, they have been published several times but their reading and understanding can be improved: No. 1 is the fragment of a verse inscription (the only one of this group of dedications): A lady (or several ladies) offered a part of the building “on behalf of the child­ren and the husband(s)”, the preserved rest of the hexameter seems to be inspired by the Post­home­rica of Quintus Smyrnaeus. No. 2 is the dedicatory inscription of a [Ma]rkell[e]inos (former read­ing: [Au]r. Kelainos), he had given a portion of the marble revetment as ex-voto “on behalf of his relatives and [- -]adia, his nurse” (the latter word had not been understood from the preserved let­ters). The graffito no. 3, scratched into the marble floor, had been understood as “Vow of Ma­pa(?)”, the first letter of the enigmatic MAPA is in fact a Lambda. The vow had thus been made by a man called Lapâs, a name attested elsewhere, derived from the verb laptô, “lap with the tongue, drink greedily”, probably an allusion to a weak spot of its bearer.

Keywords: