Letter of Paulus Fabius Maximus and Decrees by Asians Concerning the Provincial Calendar

The first part of this document is a letter directed by Paulus Fabius Maximus, the proconsul of Asia, to the Provincial Assembly. He suggests that, in view of the distinctiveness of Augustus' birthdate as the beginning of a new era for humanity, it would be, appropriate to adopt the natal day of Augustus as the beginning of the official year in the province. He recommends that the solar reckoning of the Julian calendar, developed in 46 B.C.E., replace the local lunar method but with retention of the Macedonian names of the months, except that the first month, beginning on 23 September, be called "Caesar" instead of "Dios."

Impressed by the originality displayed by their governor, the 'Asians' respond with two decrees. In the first, they echo Fabius' fulsome rhetoric in praise of Augustus' benefactions and resolve to honor the proconsul with a crown for his unique proposal that the inaugural ceremonies for local magistrates coincide with the birthday of Augustus. This arrangement would ensure maximum cognition of the imperial presence. In his sagacity Fabius undoubtedly perceived that by having the local magistrates enter office on Caesar's birthday their own political fortunes would more readily be aligned with the interests of Rome. The second resolution decrees that elections are to be held in ample time before Caesar's birthday, so that all winning candidates may assume office on the first day of the new year.

The date of the document cannot be determined with certainty, and the customary association with 9 C.E. is to be considered only approximate.

Editions: Sherk, no. 65; Th. Mommsen-U. von Wilamowitz Mol lendorf, "Die Einführung des Asianischen Kalenders," AthMitt 24 (1899) 288-293; OGI 458; Priene 105; SEG IV, 490; MAMA VI, 174 and 175; Ehrenberg-Jones, no. 98; Umberto Laffi, "Le iscrizione relative alI' introduzione nel 9 a.C. del nuovo calendario della Provincia d'Asia," SCO 16 (1967), 5-98: a comprehensive presentation of the texts, with detailed comment. The letter and accompanying documents were published in numerous cities of Asia. The most complete copy is from Priene. Fragments have been recovered notably at Apameia (CIG Ill, 3957; CIL Ill, 12240); Eumeneia (CIG llf, 3902~Dorylaion (CIL lrJ, 13651); And Maioneia (see Laffi above), Further. bibliographical data in Sherk, pp. 328-329.

TRANSLATION

I. Letter of the Proconsul in Praise of Caesar (Lines 1-30)

[Paulus Fabius Maximus to the Asian League, greeting.- - -] It is subject to question whether the birthday of our most divine (emperor) Caesar spells more of joy or blessing (5), this being a date that we could probably without fear of contradiction equate with the beginning of alI things, if not in, terms of nature, certainly in terms of utility, seeing that he restored stability, when everything was collapsing and falling into disarray, and gave a new look to the entire world that would have been most happy to accept its own ruin had not the good and common fortune of all been born: CAESAR. Therefore people might justly assume that his birthday (10) spells the beginning of life and real living and marks the end and boundary of any regret that they had themselves been born. And since no other day affords more promise of blessing for engagement in public or private enterprise than this one which is so fraught with good fortune for everyone; and since this day practically coincides with the inaugural day for local magistrates in all the cities of Asia, (15) and quite apparently through divine intention, and in such a way that the (provincial) observance seems to have provided a model for the others so that there might be a starting point for rendering appropriate honors to Augustus; and whereas on the one hand it is difficult to render thanks in proportion to the many benefits he has conferred - unless, of course, we pondered carefully how we might in some way requite them one by one; and whereas on the other hand it may be presumed that people will more readily celebrate as a birthday a day that is already observed in common by all, (20) especially if it offers them a measure of leisure because it coincides with the (local) inaugural observance, it is my judgment that the one and the same day observed by all the citizens as New Year's Day be celebrated as the birthday of Most Divine Caesar, and on that day, September 23, all elected officials shall assume office, with the prospect that through association with observances connected with the existing celebration, the birthday observance might attract all the more esteem (25) and prove to be even more widely known and thereby confer no small benefit on the province. Therefore it would behoove the Asian League to pass a resolution that puts into writing all his aretai, so that our recognition of what redounds to the honor of Augustus might abide for alI time. And I shall order the decree to be inscribed in (Greek and Latin) on a stele and set up in the temple.

II. First Decree of the Asian League (Lines 30-76) (30)

Decree of the Greek Assembly in the province of Asia, on motion of the High Priest Apollonios, son of Menophilos, of Aizanoi: WHEREAS Providence that orders all our lives has in her display of concern and generosity in our behalf adorned our lives with the highest good: Augustus, whom she has filled with arete for the benefit of humanity, (35) and has in her beneficence granted us and those who will come after us [a Savior] who has made war to cease and who shall put everything [in peaceful] order; and whereas Caesar, [when he was manifest], transcended the expectations of [alI who had anticipated the good news], not only by surpassing the benefits conferred by his predecessors but by leaving no expectation of surpassing him to those who would come after him, (40) with the result that the birthday of our God signaled the beginning of Good News for the world because of him; and whereas, after the assembly of Asia decreed in Smyrna - [during the administration of the proconsul] Lucius Volcacius Tullus, when Papion, [son of Diosierites], was clerk - that a crown he awarded to the person who came, up with the best proposal for honoring our God; (and whereas) the proconsul.Paul Fabius Maximus, benefactor of the province, who had been dispatched for its security (45) by (Caesar's) authority and, decision, besides alI the other benefits that he had already conferred on the province, so many in fact that no one would be able to calculate them, has contributed yet one more, and so has discovered a way to honor Augustus that was hitherto unknown among the Greeks, namely to reckon time from the date of his nativity; therefore, with the blessings of Good Fortune and for their own welfare (50) the Greeks in Asia Decreed that the New Year begin for alI the cities on September 23, which is the birthday of Augustus; and, to ensure that the dates coincide in every city, alI documents are to carry both the Roman and the Greek date, and the first month shall, in accordance with the decree, be observed as the Month of Caesar, (50) beginning with 23 September, the birthday of Caesar, and that the crown be awarded to Maximus the proconsul for his proposal of the best way to honor Caesar, and at each celebration of the Contest held in Pergamon in honor of the Roman (59) Augusti it shall be proclaimed:

Asia Crowns Paullus Fabius Maximus For His Most Pious Proposal of Honors For Caesar (60)

And the same announcement shall be made in all the cities where the Contests are held in honor of the Caesars, and the rescript of the proconsul is to be inscribed together with the Asian decree on a stele of white marble, which is to be placed in the temple precincts of Roma and Augustus, and the public advocates who serve annually shall make provision (65) that both the rescript of Maximus and the Asian decree be inscribed on a white-marble stele in the cities designated as centers for adjudication, with the stelai themselves to be placed in the temples of Caesar. The months shall be observed as follows:
Caesar, 31 days;
Apellaios, 30 days;
Audnaios, 31 days;
Peritios, 31 days;
Dystros, 28 days;
Xandikos, 31 days;
Artemisios, 30 days;
Daisios, 31 days;
Panemos, 30 days;
Loos, 31 days;
Gorpiaios, 31 days; (70)
Hyperberetaios, 30 days;
a total of 365 days; but in leap years Xandikos shall be observed as 32 days. And in order that the months and days might start now, the current month Peritios shall be observed through the fourteenth and we shall observe January 24 as the first day (75) of Dystros, and each month thereafter the beginning of the new moon will fall on the ninth day before the kalends, and the intercalation shall always take place when Xandikos falls in a leap year, with two years always intervening.

III. Second Decree of the Asian League: Date of Elections (Lines 77-84)

Decree of the Greeks in charge of Asia, by motion of the chief priest Apollonios, the son of Menophilos of Aizanoi. WHEREAS, in accordance with the orders of Proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus as well as the decree of the province of Asia, the first day of the month that marks the entry into the magistracies ought to be the same for (80) all cities, yet local election procedures conflict with this temporal arrangement, be it resolved that the elections be held within the first ten days of the tenth month as is also written in the Cornelian Law.

Commentary

1-4. These lines are so fragmentary that only the conventional greeting can be conjectured.

1. "[Paulus Fabius Maximus]". See lines 57 and 59. On this Fabius see Groag, RE 6:1780-1789, no. 102, esp. cols. 1782-1783; PIR, 3:103-105, no. 47.

5. "beginning of alI things": The idea of a birthday of the universe was very popular in the ancient world. Jean R. Bram, Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice: Matheseos Libri VIII by Firmicus Maternus (Park Ridge, N.J.; 1975),
p. 310, note 48 on Book 3. 11, shares the view that the conception be associated with the New Year's festivals of Egypt and Baby Ion.

10. "his birthday spells the beginning of Iife and real living" (archen tou iou kai tes zoes gegonenai). The formulation is similar to that of OGI 56.26, in commemoration of the birthday of Ptolemy III: "whose birthday proved to be the beginning of many good things for alI people" (he kai polIon agathon arche gegonen pas in anthropois). Compare OGI 493. 24-25. Through ready association the term archegos may be used, as in No. 31. 47, where Ptolomey's birthday and assumption of the reign are evaluated as the source of alI good things for everyone hai de pollon agathon archegoi (p)asin eisin. The powerful initiator of benefactions may of course himself be termed archegos, as in Acts 3:15, where the emphasis, as in our inscription, is on the origination of life (ton de archegon tes zoes apekteinate), see arso Hebrews 2:10 (ton archegon tes soterias auton, the founder of their salvation); see Paul Wendland, "SOTER,"
ZNW 5 (1904) 350.

10-11. "marks the end and boundary of any regret": the benefactor restores happiness to depressed humanity. Later, in the year 37, the people of Assos declare that the world's prayers are answered in the reign of Gaius (begun
16 March 37) and it might as well give up hope of finding an instrument that will adequateIy measure humanity's joy: ouden de metron charas heurek[e]n ho kosmos (SIG 797.7=IGR IV, 251). Similarly, Luke 2:10 associates joy with the birth of Jesus (euaggelizomai hymin charan megaIen). The focus on Augustus and the absence of any mention of Goddess Roma is in harmony with the preference accorded him in cultic observances elsewhere: see Walter Otto, "Augustus Soter," Hermes '45 ( 1910) 448-460. Suetonius Augustus 52 states, however, that Augustus would not accept a temple in a province, but he does not say what Augustus proposed to do if they insisted on the honor. With the fulsome praise in this inscription compare the adulation expressed in Kaibel, Epigrammata 978.

20. "it is my judgment": dokei moi. The proconsul is quite diplomatic in presenting his unique proposal

32. "Providence": pronoia. This theme and others in the preamble recall BMI 894, which also emanates from Asia Minor; see Martin P. Charlesworth, "Providentia and Aeternitas," HThR 29 (1936) 107-132.

35. "[a savior]": [sotera]. The qualifications that follow make this conjectural restoration certain. On the theme see Nendland (cited above, line 10), pp. 335-353. Compare IGR III, 719. 3-5, which describes Augustus as "Benefactor and Savior of the entire world" (ton euerget[en]| kai sotera tou sympanto[s] |kosmou). Quite evidently calendaric matters relate to proper provincial observance of the imperial cult; see Abbott-Johnson, p. 168.

36. "everything [in peaceful] order": kosmesonta [de eirenen]. In No. 43. 2. 13 (Res Gestae) Augustus boasts that during his principate gates of the Temple of Janus Quirinus were closed three times. Compare OGI 56. 12 (of Ptolemy III): 116. 8 (of Ptolemy VI). Luke 2:14 emphasizes eirene as a promised feature of the New Age begun with the birth of Jesus, and the Evangelist's association of this birth with the name of Augustus (verse 2) was calculated to capture the imagination of Luke's public, who were well familiar with the contributions of that Caesar to the welfare of humanity. See Wilhelm Nestle, "Der Friedensgedanke in der Antiken Welt," Philologus Suppl. 31/1 (1938) 1-79, esp.
pp. 60-61.

"[manifest]": [epiphaneis], participle. The verb epiphainomai and the noun epiphaneia are standard terms for expressing the manifestation of deities; see Pfister, RE Suppl. 4 (1924) 277-323.

37-39. The theme of unsurpassable beneficence generates the declaration in Acts 4: 12 that salvation cannot be associated with any other benefactor who has appeared in human form except Jesus Christ. For a detailed comparison of the Augustus legend, and New Testament themes see W. Deonna, "La Legende d'Octave-Auguste: Dieu, Sauveur et Maitre du Monde," Rev HR 83 ( 1921), 42-58, 163-195; 84 ( 1921) 77-107.

40. "Good News": euangeli[on]. see BAGD for ancient usage of the term euaggelion, which is found surprisingly seldom in non-literary texts. The plural is used in 2 Kingdoms 4:10 in the sense of "reward for good tidings," and not, as LSJ indicate, "good tidings, good news." LSJ Suppl. p. 54, appropriately cites Josephus Wars 4. 10. 6 (618), heortazen euaggelia, a reference to Vespasian's accession. On euaggelion and cognates see Deissmann, LO, pp. 312-314 (LAE, pp. 366-367); A. Dieterich, "Euaggeiistes," ZNW 1 (1900) 336-338; 0. Michel, "Evangelium," RAC 6 (1966) 1107-1,160, see esp. 1110.

40-49. The reading of these lines is based on restorations made possible by A.H.M. Jones' discovery of the righthand half of the block that carried the thirteen Iines of the Apamene copy of the decree corresponding to lines 40-51 of our inscription. A Mr. W.H.C. Frend photographed the stone, whose owner, at Dinar (Apameia) informed Frend that he had recently dug it out of his garden. Jones ("An Epigraphic Contribution to Letters," CR 41 [1927] 119-121) used the publication of this fragmentas an opportunity to exhort the scholarly community concerning the high percentage of error inherent in attempted restoration of fragmentary texts, even when undertaken by so expert an epigraphist as W. H. Buckler.

42. "Lucius Volcacius Tullus": The precise identity of this official remains in question. It is not certain, concludes Sherk (pp. 334-345, note 1), that he is to be identified, as A.H.M. Jones thought ("L. Volcacius Tullus, Proconsul of Asia," CR n.s. 5 [1955] 245), with the uncle of the friend mentioned by Propertius (Elegies 1.6). This uncle was consul in 33 B.C.E. and shortly after Actium became proconsul of Asia.

"Papion": The name Papion is founa on coins of the little city of Dioshieron minted in the reign of Augustus (Jones, p. 145).

45. "authority": apo tes ekeinou dexias (from his right hand). The right hand represents power and at the same time a benefactor's prerogative to confer salvation; see Weinreich, Antike Heilungswunder, pp. 40-45. For New Testament usage see Acts 3:7 and the references, passim, to God's right hand.

49. "for their own welfare": epi soteriai.

77. "with two years always intervening," duo eton meson geinomenon. Under the old lunar pre-Julian calendar of 355 days, the months failed to align with the seasons. Julius Caesar abandoned this calendaric system' and instituted the solar calendar of 365-1/4 days. To get the months aligned once more with the seasons he had to insert 90 days in 46 B.C. Beginning with January 45, the common year consisted of 365 days. The ten extra days from the old 355-day cycle were placed at the end of different months. Every fourth year an extra day was inserted after 24 February. This added day was called bis sextum Cal. Mart.; that is, it was added after VI Cal. Mart. The figure 6 derives from the fact that the day from which one counts in this case the first of March, and the day to be designated were included in the figure. Bis sectum Cal. Mart. would therefore give February 25. Unfortunately priests (pontifices) erroneously inserted the extra day every three years: in 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, and 9. This produced twelve intercalated days, whereas only nine were needed. Augustus corrected the error by ordering the intercalation to be stopped until the year 8 C.E., after which it was inserted every fourth year. Since line 77 must refer to the erroneous system of intercalation every three years, one must assume either that the inscription was formulated in the year 9 B.C.E., or that the old error continued for a time even after its discovery by Augustus. If the, latter is true, the date of the inscription is quite uncertain. See Sherk, pp. 35-36, who draws heavily on Bickerman, Chronology, pp. 43-47; Magie, 1:480-487; 2:1342-1343, notes 39 and 40; and the detailed study by Laffi, cited above under, "Editions."