A Family of Eumolpidai and Kerykes Descended from Pericles

Abstract

The inscription on a statue base (I 7483) found in the Agora Excavations provides information from the late second and early third century A.D. on intermarriage between families of the Eumolpidai and Kerykes, specificallythe Casiani of Steiria of the genos of Eumolpidai and the Claudii of Melite of the genos of Kerykes. It allows us also to identify with high probability members of the Casiani with Eleusinian priests whose names have hitherto been known to us only in their hieronymous form. In addition, it provides important new evidence from the third century A.D. of the display of noble ancestry.