342 Stephan Witetschek 508). The undated inscription IvE 638 refers to him as [to;n aj]siavrchn kai; [gu]mnasivarcon [ka]i; pruvtanin kai; [ne]wkovron. In the heavily damaged inscriptions IvE 425; 425A (not clearly datable) (24) he figures presumably as tri;" ajrciereu;" th'" ΔAsiva" (25), and in IvE 424 (102-114 CE) (26); 5101; 5113 (after 110) (27) he is tri;" ajsiavrch" (in IvE 424 also newkoro") (28). v Assuming that ajsiavrch" and ajrciereu;" th'" ΔAsiva" are two distinct offices, one would have to postulate that Ti. Claudius Aristion had some unattested terms of office both as asiarch and as high priest of Asia in order to reach the total of three terms as asiarch by 110-114 and three terms as high priest of Asia at an unspecified time — altogether six terms of office in most prestigious positions. This would certainly be an enormously strong indication for a consistently high social standing and popularity as well as for the will and the ability to spend large sums of money (29) for almost three decades, but it is not a priori impossible. It certainly weakens this case that some terms of office are not attested in the enormously rich epigraphic corpus of Ephesos and have to be postulated. But it should be kept in mind that, although the extant material is still impressive, many inscribed marble blocks were later re-used as building material (and accordingly damaged or destroyed) or ended up in medieval and early modern lime kilns. Therefore there are always gaps in the epigraphic evidence. On the other hand, assuming that ajsiavrch" and ajrciereu;" th'" (24) Both marble-blocks have been re-used in other buildings, and the inscriptions on them are heavily damaged. (25) The iteration is deduced from a rho in a lacuna on the left of ajrc[i]ereva in IvE 425,2, which is best restored to [t]r[iv"]. (26) This inscription on the Nymphaeum Traiani contains a dedication to the Imperator Nerva Traianus Caesar Augustus Germanicus Dacicus. Trajan had assumed the title “Dacicus” in autumn 102, and in August 114 he added the title “Optimus”; cf. D. KIENAST, Römische Kaisertabelle. Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie (Darmstadt 21996) 123. (27) Ti. Iulius Aquila, whom these two inscriptions mention as consul, was consul suffectus in 110, see the commentary to IvE 5101. (28) It should be pointed out that, in Greek city religion, priesthood was not primarily a matter of vocation and life-long commitment, but rather analogous to a public office which prominent citizens held for a certain period, often one year; cf. e.g. F. PIRENNE-DELFORGE, “Personnel du culte: monde grec. II. Prêtres et prêtresses”, Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (eds. V. LAMBRINOUDAKIS – J.C. BALTY) (Los Angeles, CA 2005) V, 3-31. (29) The building inscription IvE 424 as well as the honorific inscription IvE 425 explicitly point out that Ti. Claudius Aristion erected “public” buildings with his own money (ejk tw'n ijdivwn).