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A Deed of Foundation from the Territory of Ephesos

The ‘foundation’ in the juridical sense, ‘the establishing of an institution, together with an endowment or provision for its perpetual maintenance’, is a conspicuous phenomenon of the Hellenistic and imperial periods. Though ancient foundations vary widely in form, purpose, and organization, two kinds predominate. One, of which the fullest examples are Hellenistic, is funerary. The founder forms an association, or endows one already formed, for the cultivation of his and his family's memory by means of ceremonies conducted at the family tomb. The organization is essentially private, and those responsible for the conduct of the foundation are the members of the constituent association. An elaborate and perfectly preserved example is that of Epicteta of Thera, dated about 200 B.C. The other notable form is characteristic of the civic revival of the principate. Here the founder establishes an endowment of which the direct or indirect beneficiary is the city, or some subdivision of the citizenry such as the boule or gerousia. This foundation is essentially public, and the responsibility for administering it rests with the city officials. This type is illustrated by one of the longest of all known foundation-deeds, the dossier relative to the foundation of C. Vibius Salutaris dated to A.D. 104. As well as other kinds of foundation, such as those endowing libraries, salaries for schoolmasters, the maintenance of freeborn boys and girls (the alimenta), there are also hybrids between the two principal types already described. Thus T. Flavius Praxias of Acmoneia provides both for a college of six of his freedmen, presumably intended as a funerary association similar to Epicteta's, and for the boule and archontes of Acmoneia to see to the overall management of the foundation, including the protection of the freedmen.