A Victor’s Message

Abstract

Carved on the bottom molding of one of the columns of the Temple of Artemis in Sardis is an inscription that declares: “My torus and my foundation block are carved from a single block of stone. … Of all the columns I am the first to rise.” In addition, the base is fashioned as a victory wreath. The torus—decorated by horizontal laurel leaves gathered by a fluttering ribbon—and a bronze medallion glorify the column as the winner of a competition. In A Victor’s Message: The Talking Column of the Temple of Artemis at Sardis, Fikret K. Yegül analyzes this phenomenon of competitive and celebratory inscriptions and decorative carvings, in particular the message and metaphor voiced by the victorious column of Sardis, to illustrate a wide web of cultural relationships connecting the city to its proud past and auspicious future. The transformation of an architectural element into a victory wreath, which was probably influenced by the base of Trajan’s Column in Rome, is unique in Asia Minor. Equally rare, perhaps even unique, is a column speaking in the first-person singular, using an archaizing mode and message, particularly appreciated in the memory-inspired urban culture of Asia Minor during the Second Sophistic.