iAph120538 (Q3440)

With good fortune. Marcus Ulpius Appuleius Eurycles, designated high-priest of Asia, of the temples of Smyrna, for the second time, greets the Magistrates, Council and People of the Aphrodisians. Since it was your wish that I make provision also for the (funds) relating to the contests,(5) because of your piety towards the very great emperor Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus, and because of the memory of those who bequeathed them, and because of the reputation of the city, and since those from the Synod had also already approached me several times, I have not failed to examine this sector as well, applying the same order and zeal as (I observed) in my curatorship. So far (10) the competitions have not taken place because the provision of money needed to be increased in accordance both with the directions of the deceased (founders) and with the reckoning of the funds from which the contests are due to be carried out. However, the contest from the will of Flavius Lysimachus has reached a total endowment of 120,000 denarii, so that it is possible from this sum (15) for the musical contest to be held every four years, as the testator wished. The funds over and above the 120,000 denarii, which are on loan, and the interest accruing to this up to the beginning of the year, makes a total of 31,839 denarii. You can therefore, when the year begins, carry out this (20) contest, with good fortune, for prizes amounting to a talent, and with competitions according to the prizes (available). The appointed time for the following period and the next four-yearly celebration will be the time between the Barbilleia at Ephesus and [?the provincial contest] of Asia. [? Farewell]