Plaster Cast: Tabula Ansata, Votive Ansate Tablet

Marble relief of two human ears in the upper corners of the field reflecting their position on the sides of the head. There are two trapezoidal handles on each side of the ears.
Text: Latin inscription in the field below the handles, with the average height of the letters: 2.2 cm.
CVTIVSHASAVRISGALLVSTIBIVOVERATOLIM
(with IM as a ligature with raised I joined to the left stroke of M)
PHOEBIGENAETPOSVITSANVSABAVRICULIS
Cutius has auris Gallus tibi voverat olim
Phoebigena, et posuit sanus ab auriculis.
Translation: Cutius Gallus once vowed these ears to you,
offspring of Phoebus, [now] being healthy as regards [his] ears.
In the 1st century BCE/CE Gallus may be either his name or his place of origin, Gaul. The latter is more likely if he were a freedman but his original owner’s name might still have had the cognomen “Gallus.” Some scholars have associated Cutius with a Gallic praefectus of royal blood, Cottius or Cutius, but most reject this as fanciful, thinking that the Epidaurian priests would not have missed the opportunity to mention the status of Cutius/Cottius if this connection was thought to exist in order to enhance the importance of this miraculous healing and publicize it further. The “offspring of Phoebus” was Asklepios, the god of healing and medicine, the son of Apollo.

CIL III, Sup. 1, 1311, no. 7266 = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. III, Northern and Eastern Provinces of the Empire (including Greece), Supplement 1, 1311, no. 7266.

IG IV2 1, 440 = Inscriptiones Graecae vol. IV part 1, Inscriptiones Epidauri, (1929) no. 440.

ILS II, 1, 3853 = Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, vol. II, part 1, no. 3853.

Weinreich, 1912 = AthMitt 37, 63ff = MDAI(A) 37, 63ff. = Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung. v.37 (1912) p.63f.

Versnel, H. S. 1981. Faith Hope and Worship. Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion 2. Leiden: Brill. 122, no. 14.2. Available on Google books.com.

Hollander, Eugen. Plastik und
Medizin. Stuttgart, Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, 1912. p. 216, Fig. 125.