A Petition to Hadrian of 129 CE

Resumen

A bilingual inscription discovered in the 1970’s at Sapcılar Köy, Turkey, the ancient Hyrgaletikon
pedion on the Upper Maeander, contains a petition to the emperor Hadrian dated to 129. The petitioner, Hermogenes, asks for permission to make a copy from the emperor’s commentarii concerning a case that he has recently heard between Hermogenes and Apollodotos of the neighbouring Dionysopolis. Though the stone is damaged, the document can be seen to contain, as well as the petition, the imperial subscription granting the request and part of the extract from the commentarii. This extract, containing the emperor’s judgement in the case, may throw light on the procedure known as interlocutio de plano. The whole document is also important for Hadrian’s movements in 129 and for the phenomenon of Greco-Roman bilingualism.