Vatican Museums

The inscription, which is part of a group of texts by which the kings and cities of Asia Minor (Turkey) paid homage to the conquering Romans, expresses in Latin and Greek the official gratitude of the people of the city of Laodicea, located on the river Lycus in Phrygia, in Denizli, towards the people of Rome, whose valour and benevolence is honoured. Indeed the Romans had acted as a saviour and benefactor to the Laodiceans, pardoning them, as we are able to deduce from other sources, for having delivered a Roman general to Mithridates VI, King of Pontus (a coastal region on the Black Sea), who besieged them during the so-called first Mithridatic War. This monarch, who wished to rule over all of Asia Minor, was finally defeated by the Roman army in 63 B.C., the year of his death, after three long and bloody wars.