Wer ließ in der Grabinschrift I.Milet VI 2,570 sieben Zeilen eradieren?

Abstract

Abstract Who got seven lines erased in the funeral inscription I.Milet VI 2.570? In a funeral inscription from Miletus, well known since 1843, two passages have been neatly erased already in Antiquity. Recently they were carefully reconstructed by Praust and Wiedergut. This contribution aims to deepen the social and legal meaning of the text being not fully grasped by the authors. Surprisingly, among the persons entitled to be buried the owner of the grave monument did not mention his wife, and he restricted his sons to being sheer participants in the grave. On the other hand, he entrusted an outsider woman and her children (probably his own offspring) with power of disposal over the grave. Because of this woman his wife might have quitted the wedlock and claimed her dowry. After the owner’s death the dispute was settled resulting in the two erasures: the younger son, objecting the compromise, had been completely excluded and the former wife finally was admitted being buried in the monument.