doi: 10.2143/AWE.16.0.3214934 AWE 16 (2017) 63-95 A FUNERARY RELIEF OF A ‘BARBARIAN’ FROM SOUFLI IN THE ALEXANDROUPOLIS COLLECTION (GREECE)* DIMITRA ANDRIANOU Abstract Relief no. 4 from the Alexandroupolis Collection is an exceptional relief in many ways. It is part of a register-stele (Stockwerkstele), now partially preserved. The lower and better preserved register depicts a rider hunting in the heroic fashion; a smaller figure stands above the legs of the horse. Certain details allow us to identify the rider as a soldier in the Roman auxilia and the smaller figure as his clerk. The relief is important not only for its iconogra- phy, but also because it provides evidence for the presence of auxilia in the Hebros region in the late 2nd or 3rd century AD. Aegean Thrace, a modern, conventional designation, is the south-western and small- est section of ancient Thrace, bordered by the Nestos river to the west, the Hebros river to the east, Mt Rhodope to the north and the Aegean Sea to the south, all natural borders.1 Being a fruitful plain, it was already inhabited in the Palaeolithic period and according to the literary sources and the rapidly emerging archaeological evidence, various Thracian tribes dwelt in the area before Greek colonisation and lived side-by-side with the Greek colonists. The literary sources clearly state that Thracians resided on Thasos and Samothrace before the arrival of the Greeks and were their adversaries at Abdera and in the Strymon valley.2 The first Greek settlers arrived before the middle of the 7th century. They came from Clazomenae, on the Asia Minor coast, and founded Abdera.3 Around 680 BC, * I am most grateful to Prof. B.S. Ridgway and my colleagues Dr Vana Machaira and Dr M-G. Parissaki for discussing various aspects of this study and for offering valuable advice. 1 Aegean Thrace encompasses the modern prefectures of Xanthi, Rhodope and Hebros. The Ephorate of Antiquities of Thrace was founded in 1942 and included two of the three prefectures, namely Rhodope and Hebros. The prefecture of Xanthi was, until 1973, part of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala. Consequently some of the funerary reliefs are still stored at the Museum of Kavala. In 1973 all three prefectures came under the aegis of the same Ephorate, based in Komotini, and the geographical boundaries followed the historical and archaeological unity of south-western Thrace. 2 Damyanov 2015, 297. Herodotus (7. 108–111) locates Paitoi, Kikones, Bistones, Sapaioi, Der- saioi, Edonians and Satrai between the Hebros and Strymon rivers. 3 IThrAeg 126; Skarlatidou 2010, 31–32. 64 D. ANDRIANOU Fig. 1: Relief no. 4 (Alexandroupolis Collection). A FUNERARY RELIEF OF A ‘BARBARIAN’ FROM SOUFLI 65 the Parians colonised the neighbouring island of Thasos. Between the end of the 7th and the 5th century BC the Thasians crossed over to the coast of Aegean Thrace to settle the Thasian peraia (between the Strymon and Nestos rivers), becoming the island’s easternmost colony. Before the middle of the 7th century, the Chians colo- nised Maroneia, located on the shores of a territory belonging to a Thracian tribe known as the Kikones. In the 7th century, Aeolians from Alopekonnesos, Mytilene and Kyme established a colony at Ainos, on the south-eastern coast of Thrace.4 Not long after, in the second quarter of the 6th century BC, the Samians settled Samo- thrace.5 As a consequence of all this activity, Aegean Thrace soon became a melting pot of Ionian and Aeolian influence.6 Of particular interest are the inscribed and uninscribed figured tombstones from the time of the Greek settlers to the 3rd century AD because they provide a reflec- tion of this multifaceted melting pot. The relief under discussion here (Fig. 1) is part of a larger, synthetic study on the figured tombstones unearthed in Aegean Thrace during these nine centuries.7 The relief, now housed in the storerooms of the Museum of Komotini, first appeared in the Archaiologike Ephemeris of 1973 with only a brief mention by Evangelos Pentazos as part of the archaeological research conducted in Thrace in 1969.8 Lacking a proper museum, the sculptural pieces from the Hebros region were gathered in the town hall of Alexandroupolis, where a special room was dedicated to the storage of antiquities. As Pentazos notes, antiquities that had been stored in the town hall of Soufli and the elementary school of Kornofolea were recorded by the school’s director Angelos Poimenidis.9 Our stele is referenced as no. 4 in the short list of antiquities from the ‘Alexandroupolis Col- lection’ provided by Pentazos in the Archaiologike Ephemeris, and is said to have been transported there from Soufli. This is all the information that we have regard- ing the stele’s origin. Stele no. 4 is an exceptional relief in many ways.10 It belongs to the group of Stockwerkstelai11 with two superimposed and well defined registers. This type is known in north-western Asia Minor since the early 3rd century BC and echoes the 4 Homer Iliad 4. 520; Herodotus 7. 58; Başaran [2012], 19; Damyanov 2015, 300–01. 5 Graham 2002, where the author outlines all the evidence and previous interpretations of the evidence pertaining to the colonisation of Samothrace. 6 For a recent overview of the colonisation, see Damyanov 2015, 297–301; the introductory chapters of the cities on Aegean Thrace in IThrAeg; Isaac 1986. 7 Andrianou forthcoming. 8 Pentazos 1973, 30, no. 4, pl. ΙΘα. 9 School educators often filled in when the Ephorates of Antiquities were short-staffed. 10 Dimensions: 0.635 m (W) × 0.74 m (H) × 0.105 m (Th). Assuming that the stele is two- registered and that we have the lower half of the stele, the original height would have been considerable. 11 The term was first used by Möbius in his article in AA1971. 66 D. ANDRIANOU early 5th-century Greco-Persian stelai that have their roots in the art of the Achae- menids.12 The type is especially popular in north-western Asia Minor (Kyzikos in Mysia and particularly Prusa in Bithynia, both areas with Thracian populations), upper Italy and Illyria, where stelai of considerable height with two to four super- imposed iconographic panels are found, but is almost unknown in other areas, such as the Cyclades. Register-stelai are also known in neighbouring Macedonia, though not encountered frequently.13 Such stelai continued to be produced in the Roman period, adopting local characteristics in the centres where they had survived (such as Attica and Beroia).14 Stockwerkstelai were, for the most part, not encased in an architectural framework, despite their dimensions. Evidence for this assertion comes from Macedonia (Beroia), where a stele with a tang for placement in a separate base is preserved.15 Our stele is broken on the top (Fig. 2) and bottom (Fig. 3). Part of a narrow frame is visible on the right and left edges (Figs. 4–5). The back side is worn smooth (Fig. 6). Five rectangular cuttings can be seen on the back, four in the lower part of the stele and one on the left, close to the frame. The irregular placement of these cuttings probably denotes a second use. Two modern holes were bored into the bottom of the stele for the placement of iron rods to secure it to a modern base. Traces of paint are visible on the surface of the relief (see below). This relief was included in a separate study along with a number of reliefs from the Museum of Komotini and the Archaeological Collections at Maroneia, conducted by Prof. Lorenzo Lazzarini (Laboratorio di Materiali Antichi, Venice), to identify the source of their marble.16 The isotopic analysis showed that the same stone fabric was used in another Stockwerkstele housed at the Museum of Komotini and found in modern Maximianoupolis (ΑΓΚ 25). More specifically, the fabric of our stele is described as a mosaic with large porphyroblasts, while the stele from Maximianoupo- lis is described as a mosaic with well interlocked crystals. The precise location of the local quarry from which the stone originates has yet to be identified. 12 Möbius 1971, 454; von Moock 1998, 54; Lymperopoulos, 1985, 96; Cremer 1991, 17 with earlier bibliography. 13 They are known in Beroia since the 1st century AD (Allamani-Souri 2008, 55) and there is one known example from Eordaia (Kardia, see Karamitrou-Mendessidi 1984, 99–105). For earlier register- stelai, see Kalaitzi 2016 (Rhyaki 13, Kardia 12, Notia 119). 14 For the latest Stockwerkstelai known in Attica and Beroia, see von Moock 1998, 54, no. 242, dated to the Antonine-Severan period; Allamani-Souri 2008, cat. nos. 82 (with standing figures, dated to the first half of the 2nd century AD), 137 (dated to the 2nd or 3rd century AD) and 178 (with busts, dated to the 2nd century AD). 15 Allamani-Souri 2008, cat. no. 82. Two more stelai bear marks that indicate they stood in bases, but they are both reported to be re-used stelai (nos. 137 and 178). Beroia in particular is thought to have had strong connections with Mysia and Bithynia (Allamani-Souri 2008, 43). 16 Andrianou and Lazzarini 2015. A FUNERARY RELIEF OF A ‘BARBARIAN’ FROM SOUFLI 67 Fig. 2: Top side of stele. Fig. 3: Bottom side of stele. Fig. 4: Right side of stele. Fig. 5: Left side of stele. 68 D. ANDRIANOU Iconography On the lower and better preserved register, the relief depicts a bearded rider with a lance held aloft in his right hand and spearing a boar which is under attack by two hunting dogs.