A01.031.0.pdf

ROMAN PERSONAL NAMES IN ELEIA
person in the Olympic games. The monument was financed by L. Vettulenus Florus:
Τιβέριον Κλαύδιον Ι Άφροδείσιον, νεικήΐσαντα κέλητι τελείω Ι επί της ση' "Ολυμπιάδος, Ι
Αούκιος Βετιληνός Φλώρος Διί Όλυμπίω.
Remarks: About his Olympic victory see Moretti, Olympionikai, 781. Cf. also Zoumbaki, Elis
und Olympia, Κ 56 for the person and his possible kinship with the family of
Vettuleni, since he bears the gentilicium of the wife of Vettulenus Florus, Claudia
Alcinoa (EL 114).
138. ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΣ ΚΑΑΥΔΙΟΣ ΑΠΟΔΑΩΝΙΟΣ ΑΠΟΑΑΩΝΙΟΥ
[1] IvO 220 facsimile [16 B.C. (?)].
Olympia; a large base, maybe for a chariot monument, erected by the person for the Olympic
victory of his patron, Tib. Claudius Nero, the future Emperor Tiberius:
Τιβέριον Κλαύδιον Τι[βε]Ιρίου υίόν Νέρωνα, νικήΐσαντα "Ολύμπια τεθρίππω
τελείω Ι ,Ι 5 "Απολλ[ώ]νιος "Απολλώνιου ύός Ι "Ηλείος ό καί Τιβέριος
[Κλ]αύδιος, Ι τον εαυτού πάτρωνα καί εύεργέΐτην, Διί Όλυμπίω.
[2] ΙνΟ 369 facsimile [15 B.C. or shortly before].
Olympia; a large statues pedestal erected by him for his patrons Tib. Claudius Nero and Drusus,
i.e, the future Emperor Tiberius and his brother; a posteriori, perhaps shortly after the
monument's erection the name of Tiberius's son Drusus, born in 15 B.C., was added on the
stone: ...Τι[βέριος Κ]λαύδιος "Απολλώνιου υιός ο καί "Απολλών[ιος τού]ς εαυτού
[πάτρ]ωνας Ι κα[ί εύ]εργέτας...
[3] ΙνΟ 424 facsimile [last decades of 1st c. B.C.].
Olympia; a base for a statue erected for him by the polis of Elis:
Ή πόλις ή "ΗλείωνΙ Άπολλώνιον "Απολλώνιου Ι τον καί Τιβέριον, αρξαντα Ι τάς μεγίστας
αρχάς, Ι 5 αρετής ένεκεν καί φιλαγαθίας Ι της εις έατήν Διί "Ολυμπίω.
Remarks: He is the first Elean attested as a Roman citizen. He obtained the citizenship and
gentilicium by his patron Tib. Claudius Nero, the future Emperor Tiberius, before his
adoption by Augustus and renaming as Iulius. Apollonius is a characteristic example
of the incorrect use of the Roman onomastic formula in Greek inscriptions of this
early period. The phrase "ο καί" is always incorrectly used in the name of Apollonius
(ο καί "Απολλώνιος, τον καί Τιβέριον), since it does not indicate a surname but,
rather, one of the three basic elements of his Roman name.
The Olympic victory of Tiberius ([1]) is dated in the period 20-8 B.C. by
Dittenberger and Purgold, excluding the period before 20 B.C. when Tiberius was
not yet mature, and the period of Tiberius's exile on Rhodes, 6 B.C. till A.D. 2;
Moretti, Olympionikai, 738: before 4 B.C.; id., Nuovo supplemento al catalogo degli
olympionikai, MGR 12, 1987, 74. A new date between 6 and 2 or even 1 B.C. is
proposed by M. Kaplan, Greeks and the imperial court, from Tiberius to Nero (New
York 1990) 223-226. If this date is correct, we should accept that Apollonius
455