Letter of Paullus Fabius Maximus on the calendar of Asia — edition ὰ τῶν πρότερον παρειλήφαμεν τῶν θεῶν εὐμενὲς καὶ πότερον ἡδείων ἢ ὠφελιμωτέρα ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ θειοτάτου Καίσαρος γενέ- θλιος ἡμέρα, ἣν τῆι τῶν πάντων ἀρχῆι ἴσηι δικαίως ἂν εἶναι ὑπολάβοιμεν, καὶ εἰ μὴ τῆι φύσι, τῶι γε χρησίμωι, εἴ γε οὐδὲν οὐχὶ διαπεῖπτον καὶ εἰς ἀτυ- χὲς μεταβεβηκὸς σχῆμα ἀνώρθωσεν, ἑτέραν τε ἔδωκεν πάντι τῶι κόσμωι ὄψιν, ἥδιστα ἂν δεξαμένωι φθοράν, εἰ μὴ τὸ κοινὸν πάντων εὐ- τύχημα ἐπεγεννήθηι Καῖσαρ. διὸ ἄν τις δικαίως ὑπολάβοι τοῦτο ἁτῶι ἀρχὴν τοῦ βίου καὶ τῆς ζωῆς γεγονέναι, ὅ ἐστιν πέρας καὶ ὅρος τοῦ με- ταμέλεσθαι, ὅτι γεγέννηται· καὶ ἐπεὶ οὐδεμιᾶς ἂν ἀπὸ ἡμέρας εἴς τε τὸ κοινὸν καὶ εἰς τὸ ἴδιον ἕκαστος ὄφελος εὐτυχεστέρας λάβοι ἀφορμὰς ἢ τῆς πᾶσιν γενομένης εὐτυχοῦς, σχεδόν τε συμβαίνει τὸν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἐν Ἀσίαι πόλεσιν καιρὸν εἶναι τῆς εἰς τὴν ἀρχὴν εἰσόδου, δηλονότι κατά τινα θήαν βούλησιν οὕτως τῆς τάξεως προτετυπωμέ- νης, ἵνα ἀφορμὴ γένοιτο τῆς εἰς τὸν Σεβαστὸν τιμῆς, καὶ ἐπεὶ δύσκο- λον μέν ἐστιν τοῖς τοσούτοις αὐτοῦ εὐεργετήμασιν κατʼ ἴσον εὐχαρισ- τεῖν, εἰ μὴ παρʼ ἕκαστα ἐπινοήσαιμεν τρόπον τινὰ τῆς ἀμείψεως· ἥδειον δʼ ἂν ἄνθρωποι τὴν κοινὴν πᾶσιν ἡμέραν γενέθλιον ἀγάγοιεν ἐὰν προσγένηται αὐτοῖς καὶ ἰδία τις διὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἡδονή, δοκεῖ μοι πασῶν τῶν πολειτηῶν εἶναι μίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν νέαν νουμηνίαν τὴν τοῦ θηοτάτου Καίσαρος γενέθλιον, ἐκείνην τε πάντας εἰς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐνβαίνειν, ἥτις ἐστὶν πρὸ ἐννέα καλανδῶν Ὀκτωβρίων, ὅπως καὶ περισσότερον τειμηθῆ προσλαβομένη ἔξωθέν τινα θρησκήαν καὶ μᾶλλον πᾶσιν γένηται γνώριμος· ἣν οἴομαι καὶ πλείστην εὐχρηστίαν τῆι ἐπαρχήᾳ παρέξεσθαι. ψήφισμα δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῆς Ἀσίας δεή- σει γραφῆναι πάσας ἐνπεριειληφὸς τὰς ἀρετὰς αὐτοῦ, ἵνα τὸ ἐπινοη- θὲν ὑφʼ ἡμῶν εἰς τὴν τειμῆν τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ μείνῃ αἰώνιον. προστάξω δὲ χαραχθὲν ἐν τῇ στήλῃ τὸ ψήφισμα ἐν τῷ ναῷ ἀνατεθῆναι, προστά- ξας τὸ διάταγμα ἑκατέρως γραφέν.

English translation

§I. The birthday of Caesar: an encomium [ … what ] we have received from those of earlier times [ … ] the gods' goodwill and [ … ]: whether the birthday of the most divine Caesar is a matter more of joy or of benefit, a day we might justly hold to be equal to the beginning of all things — if not in its nature, then at least in its usefulness, in that there is nothing that, falling into ruin and passing into an unhappy state, he did not set upright again; and he gave the whole world another face — a world that would most gladly have embraced its own destruction, had not Caesar been born, the common good fortune of all. Therefore one might justly hold this to have been for himself the beginning of life and of living — the end and limit of regret at having been born.

§II. The fortunate day, and the problem of thanks And since from no [other] day could each take more fortunate beginnings, both for the common good and for his own, than from the day that has been fortunate for all; and since it nearly comes about that the time of entry into office for the cities of Asia is the same — the arrangement plainly having been so prefigured, by some divine will, that it might become an occasion for honour to Augustus; and since it is difficult to render equal thanks for his so many benefactions, unless in each case we should devise some new manner of requital,

§III. The proposal: the year to begin on Augustus' birthday men would the more gladly keep the birthday that is common to all if some personal pleasure, through the holding of office, were added to them: it seems good to me that the New Year's Day for all the citizen communities be one and the same — the birthday of the most divine Caesar — and that on that day, which is the ninth before the Kalends of October, all should enter upon office, so that, taking on besides some added religious observance, it may be honoured the more and become better known to all,

§IV. The decree to be written, and the edict in two languages which I think will bring the greatest benefit to the province. A decree will need to be written by the koinon of Asia, embracing all his virtues, so that what we have devised for the honour of Augustus may remain everlasting. And I shall order the decree, engraved on the stele, to be set up in the temple, having ordered that the edict be written in each of the two languages.

Critical apparatus [...]ὰ τῶν πρότ[ερ]ον παρειλ[ήφαμεν ...] — The opening of the letter is broken; the proconsul's name and the address are lost. The surviving fragments speak of what 'we have received from those of earlier times' and of 'the goodwill of the gods'. ἡ τοῦ θειοτάτου Καίσαρος γενέθλιος ἡμέρα — 'The birthday of the most divine Caesar' — 23 September, the date on which the whole reform turns. θειότατος, 'most divine', is the language of the imperial cult; here it is the proconsul's own, in his letter. τὸ κοινὸν πάντων εὐτύχημα … Καῖσαρ — 'Caesar, the common good fortune of all' — the providential reading of Augustus's birth that the encomium builds toward: the world would have embraced its own ruin had he not been born. τὸν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἐν Ἀσίαι πόλεσιν καιρὸν … τῆς … ἀρχὴν εἰσόδου — The practical hinge of the argument: the cities of Asia already tend to begin their magistrates' year at about the same season — which the proconsul reads as a divine 'prefiguring' of the reform. πολειτηῶν — Engraved πολειτηῶν for πολιτειῶν, 'of the citizen communities' — one of several non-standard, itacistic spellings of the inscription's Greek, kept verbatim (cf. θηοτάτου line 21, θρησκήαν line 23, ἐπαρχήᾳ line 25). πρὸ ἐννέα καλανδῶν Ὀκτωβρίων — 'The ninth day before the Kalends of October' = 23 September, the birthday of Augustus. The Greek transliterates the Roman date-formula directly — the calendar of the province is being re-anchored to a Roman reckoning. τὸ διάταγμα ἑκατέρως γραφέν — 'The edict written in each of the two [languages]' — the proconsul orders the document inscribed bilingually, in Latin and Greek. The surviving copies confirm it: Greek text with fragments of a Latin version.