The region around Kibyra has yielded an enormous number of inscriptions from antiquity. In 2002, Thomas Corsten published a first volume of the inscriptions found in the territory of Kibyra in the series Inschriften griechischer Städte in Kleinasien, vol. 60 (I.Kibyra). In the preface there, he promised two more volumes of inscriptions from the territory of Kibyra. In 2019 and 2024, Ludwig Meier, a former colleague of Corsten in Vienna, published two volumes of inscriptions from this city (Kibyra in hellenistischer Zeit: Neue Staatsverträge und Ehreninschriften and Neue kaiserzeitliche Inschriften aus Kibyra). ‘New’ inscriptions from Kibyra were also recently edited by Şenkal Kileci (Oannes 6, 2024, 389–94, nos. 2–3) and by Şenkal Kileci and Nihal Tüner Önen (in New Research on Greek Epigraphy in Lycia, edited by Fatih Onur and Christof Schuler [Istanbul 2024], 123–41). With the book under review, Corsten is now presenting the follow-up to his corpus published in 2002. In total, 135 inscriptions are included in this volume (136 numbers, with nos. 115 and 117 left blank for separate publications, and nos. 84 and 84a counted twice). Two have recently been edited by Meier (see below), but most of the inscriptions are in fact unpublished, although some have been mentioned in field work reports or preliminary publications. Corsten found and investigated many of the stones himself; nine (nos. 54, 55, 57, 65, 69, 70, 74, 75, 92) were recorded by Julius Jüthner and Rudolf Heberdey in the late 19th century. Their records are kept in archive of the former Kleinasiatische Kommission in Vienna (now called Forschungsgruppe Epigraphik), but have remained unpublished. The publication of no. 66 is based on notes by Louis Robert (now in the Fonds Louis Robert, Paris).
The meticulous editions are accompanied by 150 photos. This means that each inscription is covered by at least one high-quality photograph, making it easy for the reader to check Corsten’s readings. Both the editions and the commentaries show the editor’s familiarity with the epigraphy and history of this region on every page. His intimate knowledge allows him, for example, to trace the hitherto unknown toponym Τανγαράων (attested in no. 39) back to the 19th century name of a village, “Dengere”, which is now called Bölmepınar.
As one might expect, most of the inscriptions are gravestones, but there are some other inscriptions of special interest. No. 1 is a fragment of a dedication to a Julio-Claudian emperor and to Livia who is honoured here as ‘new Demeter.’ As he states in the preface (10, n. 5), four other fragments have been excavated and the complete inscription has now been published by Kileci and Tüner Önen in New Research on Greek Epigraphy in Lycia (see above, 129–32, no. 2; Corsten’s text is fr. B). It might be useful to give the full text here:
Διῒ Πατρῴωι Σεβαστῶι καὶ Νέαι Δήμ[η]τρι Σεβαστῆι ἐκ τῶν χρημά[των, ἃ εἰσήνεγκε] μ̣ὲν Τιβέριος | (2) Καῖσαρ Σεβαστὸς εἰς ἀνακτισμ[ὸ]ν τῆς πόλεως, ἀνέσωσε δ[ὲ καὶ προσανήλω]σε Τιβέριος | (3) Κλαύδιος Δρούσου υἱὸς Καῖσαρ Σεβ[ασ]τὸς Γερμανικὸς ἀρχιερεὺ[ς μέγιστος δημ]αρχικῆς ἐξου-|(4) σίας τὸ ἕκτον αὐτοκράτωρ γῆς [καὶ] θαλάσσης πατὴρ πατρίδ[ος ὕπατος ἀποδ]εδειγμένος | (5) τὸ τέταρτον [καὶ ὁ κ]τίστης τῆς πό[λεω]ς̣ διὰ Κοΐντου Οὐηρανίου π[ρεσβευτοῦ καὶ] ἀντιστρατή-| (6) γου τοῦ ἐπιμ[εληθέ]ντος τ[ῶν σεβαστῶν ἔρ]γων καὶ καθιερώσαντο̣ς, K[ιβυρατ]ῶ̣ν ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ̣ δ̣ῆμος.
The dedication to Διῒ Πατρῴωι Σεβαστῶι (line 1) could in fact refer to Augustus rather than Tiberius. Nevertheless, Corsten’s discussion of each line can be taken as an example of working with fragmentary inscriptions, and his restorations prove correct in several cases. The inscription can be dated to the year 46 on the basis of Claudius holding the tribunicia potestas for the sixth time (line 3–4).
The honorary inscription no. 5, published in 2019 by Meier, Kibyra in hellenistischer Zeit, 75–6, no. 11, is restored in a different way by Corsten, who tries to offer restorations that better match the traces of the fragmentary letters. No. 12 now offers the complete text of an inscription of which only the right-hand part was known (published as I.Kibyra 155). The missing left-hand fragment was found in 2003 and confirms Corsten’s restoration of the father’s name as Φίλητος in I.Kibyra 155. The whole text has also recently been published by Meier, Neue kaiserzeitliche Inschriften aus Kibyra, 74, no. 38 (SEG LXIX 996).
No. 57, the longest inscription in the present volume, is a dedication by priests of the rider-god Sozon. In addition to a reconstruction of the text, which is preserved in three fragments, Corsten provides a detailed commentary (80–107). The first line is an invocation of the Ὀφθαλμόθεοι (“eye-gods”), who are only attested in this text. According to the editor, these gods are watching, i.e. they control human behaviour (86–7). Regarding the Aberkios inscription that Corsten refers to in his commentary (87, n. 21), one can now also consult A. Blank, Die Grabinschrift des Aberkios: Ein Kommentar (Regensburg 2023).
No. 83 is an honorary inscription for an ὄχλος, which here refers to the inhabitants of a village and is not used, as Corsten reasonably argues, in a pejorative way. The letter forms and the cross at the end of no. 84A point to a date in the early Byzantine period. Only the last three lines (of a total of six) are legible: δοῦλος | ἀ̣δελ̣|φῷ̣ +. As Corsten rightly observes, this seems to be the gravestone of a slave, although one might expect, at a date this late, a Christian expression like δοῦλος θεοῦ. If we consider only the text, no. 97 might not catch the reader’s ardent interest. It is a signature by the artist Apelles, son of Apollonios. But the text is inscribed on a circular stone shield with a diameter of six feet, i.e. 2.40m (cf. figs. 107–8; see also the impressive photograph of a similar shield in G. E. Bean, ABSA 51 [1956] 142–3, Plate 39e). Although other shields have survived, their purpose has not yet been clarified sufficiently.
No. 126 is remarkable because, despite the dedication to καὶ τοῖς ἐπι|φανεστά|τοις Καί|σαρσιν, only one emperor, Constantius Chlorus, is mentioned as Caesar (for the historical background, see I. König, Chiron 4 [1974] 567–76). One could add that ἐπιφανέστατος is not only used as an honorary epithet, but was a title reserved for emperors from the early fourth century onward; cf. Paul Koch, Die byzantinischen Beamtentitel von 400 bis 700, diss. Jena, 1903, 99–101; Fritz Mitthof, ZPE 99 (1993) 97–111.
The grave inscriptions provide new material for onomastic studies. On the basis of the evidence collected in the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, for which Corsten was the main editor of the Asia Minor volumes, he argues that ΡΗΤΘΡΙΚΟΣ in no. 19 should be understood as a personal name, Ῥητ<ο>ρικός, rather than as an occupation ῥητ<ο>ρικός. The gravestone no. 29 (Κακεις καὶ Νεο|πτόλεμος | Καλλιόπῃ θῇ θρε|πτῇ μνήμης χάριν | καὶ Ἀγορανόνμ[ῳ] | τειμίῳ θρεπτῷ) is unusual, in that the mother’s name appears before the father’s name. What is even more remarkable, however, is that Agoranomos is attested here for the first time as a personal name. Although the name Λουκᾶς was used extensively by Christians, no. 105 is a rare example of a pre-Christian use. Among the funerary inscriptions, no. 17 stands out as an epigram from the Imperial period that, as is to be expected, contains many allusions to epic poetry. For the use of ἔτρεφεν (fr. C, line 9), which is not unusual in texts of this sort, see also G. Staab, Gebrochener Glanz: Klassische Tradition und Alltagswelt im Spiegel neuer und alter Grabepigramme des griechischen Ostens (Berlin and Boston 2019), 248. No. 60 is a gravestone for a painter (ζωγράφος), a profession rarely found in funerary epigraphy. In no. 119, Helios and Selene are called “protectors of the grave”; in no. 131, the grave monument is described as ἡμικύκλιον.
The author offers careful restorations of the inscriptions, and the historical and philological commentaries, which are accompanied by indexes and concordances, are always balanced and detailed. Although not all inscriptions are spectacular texts, Corsten succeeds in making them speak. To give just one example: No. 77, a small dedication to Augustus erected on a rural estate, is interpreted as an indicator of Roman influence on the countryside. In sum, the volume is a fine contribution to epigraphy and the history of Southern Asia Minor.