ASIA MINOR. Uncertain, 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Weight of 1 Litra (Lead, 64x68 mm, 422.00 g, 12 h), Ulpius Menander Flaccus, asiarch and panegyriarch. ΛΕΙ/ΤΡΑ within square incuse.
Rev. ΟΥΛ ΜΕΝΑΝ/ΔΡ[ΟΥ Φ]ΛΑΚΚ/ΟΥ [ΑΣΙΑΡΧΗΟΥ ΠΑΝ]ΗΓΥ/ΡΙΑ[ΡΧΟΥ] in five lines. Pondera 14453 = P. Weiss: Jenseits der Agoranomie. Neue und alte griechische Marktgewichte der Kaiserzeit, in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 200 (2016), p. 248-249, I 1 (
this weight). Handle broken
, otherwise, very fine.
From a Swiss collection of ancient weights and from the collection of Prof. Dr. Peter Weiss, Gorny & Mosch 276, 19 April 2021, 757 and ex Kovacs XI, 19 June 1993, 414.
The exact nature of the office of asiarch is unclear, but he likely presided over the koinon, the provincial assembly, and was perhaps expected to finance the public games in honor of the gods and the emperor. Curiously, our Ulpius Menander Flaccus also held the office of panegyriarch, which means he temporarily took over the office of agoranomos (in full, he was panegyrikos agoranomos), perhaps in the context of a local agon.
