Iphigeneia Leventi 71 70 Roman period, mostly from central hessaly and the region of Larissa (Pelasgiotis), but also from Perraivia, Magnesia and elsewhere. he chief problems addressed here are the methods and criteria for the establishment of their chronology. his efort proves extremely diicult due to the lack of datable sculptures from Roman hessaly to serve as stylistic parallels, a situation that can be traced back both to their scarce production, as well as to the lack of published material. Dating criteria can be established by using external means, that is, comparison with similar monuments that are better dated from Macedonia in the North, as well as Attica in the South; two regions with a high production of grave reliefs in the Roman Imperial period. For all the typological and iconographical diferences with stelai of these other regions, the hessalian reliefs also display some similar stylistic traits, and especially hairstyles. Stelai bearing female busts with a Classicizing coifure, that is the hair parted in the center over the forehead, arranged symmetrically on either side of the face and bound at the back of the head under a veil, are especially problematic, because this hairstyle ofers few clues for dating other than the presence of extensive drilling in later examples. However, a certain number of hessalian reliefs represents women with distinctive hairstyles that accord well with the Roman Imperial female coifures. A similar situation can be observed as regards the reception of Imperial coifures and even facial traits on male portraits of individuals on stelai. Another criterion for dating is the form of the inscription, which changes over time and is later assimilated to the formula of Macedonian grave inscriptions. Prosopography can sometimes also be used as a method of dating the hessalian grave reliefs. Internal criteria within the group of hessalian grave reliefs of Roman date that refer speciically to the development of style, iconography and typology are also valuable. Early examples of bust reliefs that can be dated by the form of the script to the late st century On hair divided by a central part worn by Roman women as a standard gendered trait, Bartman , pp. -. in the vocative, points to the late st century B.C. or to the early st century A.D. he bust type and script of the inscription are comparable to those of the fragmentary stele of Saconda Lailia, Larissa Archaeological Museum inv. no. , and especially that of Stratonikos Stratonikou, Larissa Archaeological Museum inv. no. , which is dated on prosopographical grounds to the early st century A.D. On the second stele, Neikasipolis is greeted as a heroine, an allusion to the informal heroization of the deceased person, male (hero) or female (heroine) in a narrow, possibly family circle; this is a common practice, characteristic of the Hellenistic and the Roman Imperial hessalian stelai. An incised sketchy herm below on the shaft of the stele, is also a common trait of several hessalian tombstones of Hellenistic and Roman date, denoting an appeal to Hermes Chthonios, responsible for the transition of the deceased in the underworld. he tall arched stele that Kassandros erected for his wife Artemo, now in Larissa, Archaeological Museum inv. no. / (Fig. ), portrays a woman down to the waist; she carries the bust of a little Helly , p. . IG IX , ; Helly , p. , no. , pl. XLI ( century B.C. – century A.D); Leventi , pp. -, ig. . Stratonikos Stratonikou is referred to as a victor in a list of an equestrian contest held in Larissa in the Augustan period and known from another hessalian inscription. he deceased may, however, have been his son bearing the same name (Stratonikos III). See, Leventi , pp. -, with n. , ig. . See Helly , pp. -, nos. -. Cf. Rizakis –Touratsoglou , p. with n. ; Rizakis –Touratsoglou , pp. - (Macedonian stelai). Cf. Avagianou , on Hermes Chthonios on hessalian stelai. H.: . m. Possibly from Gomphoi. Tziafalias , pp. -, pl. δ (second half of the century A.D.); Fraser – Matthews , s.v. Ἀτεὼ, p. , no. ; s.v. σσαδ, p. , no. . B.C. or early st century A.D. portray the deceased like a herm, that is the treatment of the bodies in the portrait busts is generic and schematized like a rectangle, lacking anatomical details and especially the arms, which may be a hint of heroization. he igures wear garments with a symmetrical arrangement of sparse pleats, and in the case of women, they have symmetrically placed long locks of hair across the neck or, more often, the vertical edges of their mantles veiling their heads and falling over the breasts and shoulders. Using these key points, one can trace a development towards more realistic bust forms as regards both the rendering of the body forms and the drapery details, from the st to nd centuries A.D. At the end of the series, rather coarse examples of workmanship, characterized by repetitive drapery styles and generic renditions of human anatomy may belong to the rd century A.D. We begin with two apsidal stelai with female busts that display a plain, classicizing coifure under a veil and belong to the early type of the hessalian reliefs described above. he garment is arranged in symmetrical folds on both sides of a central ridge. hese are the reliefs of Demophila Sopatrou in Larissa, Archaeological Museum inv. no. / (Fig. ), and of Neikasipolis Charidemou, also in Larissa, Archaeological Museum inv. no. /, which are so similar in type and iconography that they may come from the same workshop. he form of the accompanying inscriptions with the female name H. . m. Possibly from Gyrton. Fraser – Matthews , s.v. Δφα, p. , no. ; s.v. ατ, p. , no. . he oblique lines incised on the undecorated mass of hair on top of her head may imply the existence of a braid. H.: . m. Possibly from Malloia. Biesantz , p. , ig. ; Fraser – Matthews , s.v. (ε)ασ, p. , no. ; s.v. αδ, p. , no. . Grave reliefs of the Roman period from hessaly, a region in central Greece, are virtually unknown in modern research. Nevertheless, they have a distinct character in their typology and iconography in comparison with monuments from other regions in the Roman Empire. For the most part, they consist of stelai with relief busts or less often depictions of the hero equitans or even a combination of both motifs in an orthogonal or, more characteristically, an apsidal frame with a central peak. heir production begins in the late st century B.C. (represented by the stele of Eumela in Volos, Archaeological Museum inv. no. L , dated through archaeological and especially epigraphical criteria), but more examples are known from the st century A.D. Over time, especially from the nd century A.D. onwards, architectural frames, iconography and even accompanying inscriptions conform to some degree to those of grave reliefs in the region of Macedonia. he hessalian grave reliefs with busts tend to represent a conventional heroization of the deceased person both by the form of the inscription, as well as by his or her depiction. hough clearly local products, these stelai exhibit inluences in their development not only from Macedonian, but also from Roman Metropolitan or Italian grave reliefs. Never, however, do we encounter here the multi-bust grave reliefs that display the whole family, which are known in Macedonia. his paper presents the irst results of a thorough investigation undertaken by the writer on the hessalian grave reliefs from the Both types of architectural frames of the hessalian grave reliefs, the apsidal and the tall orthogonal originate from the hessalian Hellenistic stelai lacking relief decoration and harking back to the local Classical tradition: Wolters , pp. -, e.g. pls. -. Leventi , p. , ig. . We may have up to three busts in the same ield on hessalian stelai. Cf. on the contrary for the Macedonian stelai, Alexandrescu-Vianu , p. . Iphigeneia Leventi Grave Reliefs from Roman Thessaly Die thessalischen Grabreliefs der römischen Zeit sind auch heute noch recht unerforscht. Ihre Form zeichnet sich durch die spitzförmige Apsis aus, und der Verstorbene wird gewöhnlich als Büste präsentiert. Diese Grabreliefs werden vom Ende des 1. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. bis zum 3. Jahrhundert. n. Chr. hergestellt. Darauf wird der Verstorbene durch die begleitende Inschrift oder mit ikonographischen Mitteln quasi als Held ausgezeichnet. Ab dem 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr. weisen die thessalischen Grabstelen Ähnlichkeiten zu entsprechenden Monumenten aus Makedonien auf. Im folgenden Beitrag werden die äußeren und inneren Kriterien für die Datierung dieser Stelen anhand von konkreten Beispielen diskutiert. Key words Thessaly, stele/stelai, grave relief, bust, hero equitans, apsidal, heroization, deceased * I am thankful to the Head of the Ephoreia of Classical Antiquities in Larissa, Dr. A. Batziou Eustathiou, and the former Ephors of Antiquities A. Tziafalias and K. Gallis, for the permission to publish this material. I am also obliged to Prof. B. Helly and Dr. R. Bouchon for their help with the inscriptions, and to Prof. J.M. Barringer and O. Seel for corrections of the text. 1. Stele of Demophila Sopatrou, Larissa, Archaeological Museum, inv. no. 1993/48. Photo: author. *