Artemis and Asiarchs 343 ΔAsiva" are two designations for one and the same office, the following scenario could be drawn from the extant inscriptions: Ti. Claudius Aristion was high priest for the first time in 88/89, for the second time in 92/93 (now called asiarch) and a third time between 110 and 114 CE, so that he could be designated “three times high priest” and “three times asiarch” (30). By implication, this would provide a date for IvE 425; 425A. However, this elegant solution leaves his high-priestly career with a gap between 93 and (at least) 110. Could it be that he disappeared from the public scene for almost two decades, or that he held other offices in that period? The gap may find some explanation when we consider that, under Trajan, Ti. Claudius Aristion seems to have become a somewhat controversial figure and even had to face trial before the emperor. Pliny the Younger (Ep. 6,31,3) reports: “Claudius Aristion pleaded his case, the foremost of the Ephesians, a generous man and respected beyond reproach. Hence came envy, and by entirely inadequate people was an accuser sent forth. So he was acquitted and vindicated”. However, the precise date of this trial seems to be unknown, and the question remains whether this affair damaged him for such a long period – or whether the trial was only the last act in a longer drama. We do not know. A closer look at the two honorific inscriptions IvE 425 and 638 makes things even more difficult. Both texts belong to the same genre and celebrate Ti. Claudius Aristion for his building activity (IvE 425: e[rga [?]; IvE 638: ajnaqhvmata), by which he has adorned the city of Ephesos. But while in one inscription (IvE 425) he is, among other things, a high priest of Asia, the other inscription (IvE 638) mentions him, among other things, as asiarch. If both designations referred to one and the same office, one would expect the same term to be used in these two very similar texts. Moreover, neither of these inscriptions lists all the offices Ti. Claudius Aristion ever held — IvE 425 mentions his three terms as high priest of Asia and service as secretary and prytanis (i.e. as priest in the city’s cultic centre, the prutavneion), but not his service as temple-warden (soon after his first term as high priest, see above) or as gymnasiarch; IvE 638 mentions the offices of asiarch (31), (30) Cf. also most recently KIRBIHLER, “Les grands-prêtres”, 116. (31) The inscription is damaged before the word “asiarch”. The lacuna could have contained the article, as reconstructed in the edition: [to;n aj]siavrchn, but in theory it could also have contained div" or triv" to indicate the iteration. Therefore it is not entirely sure that this inscription looks back on only one term as asiarch.