A proposal that Lycian A waxssepddimi is not a name in TL44a.49, but means “man-at-arms”

Abstract

I explain in detail why waxssepddimi is a nominalised compound meaning “armed”, a military designation also used as a personal name.  This word occurs once in the Lycian A corpus, never in Lycian B’s, and, with its variant uxssepddimi, among the names of coin-issuing dynasts.  The Xanthos Stele (TL44), although a little damaged by weathering, shows waxssepddimi in a historical narrative, generally assumed to refer to one of these dynasts, but I see it as having its literal sense there.  The element waxssa/e- occurs in TL44’s Lycian B part declined as an uncompounded noun.  Some dynasts’ names are compounds, and evidence is adduced of military and social ranks being used as personal names.  The contexts of waxssa/e- and (-)pdd- allow the literal meaning of waxsse-pddimi in TL44a.49’s perplexing statement to be seen as completing a closer translation of the Greek in TL44c.29, and the stele author’s boast seems unlikely to be omitted from the more detailed Lycian A narrative.  I translate se waxssepddimi ẽti zehi hbãti C|| u[le], as “and 7 hoplite(s) within (a) day’s fullness”.  The word waxssepddimi is the Lycian equivalent of “hoplite”, and “killed” is shown to be the preceding tebete, unconnected to the final, problematic u[le].