An Honorific Decree from Classical Siphnos

2016

New Research on Greek Epigraphy in Lycia. Proceedings of the Symposium at Antalya, Turkey, 28-30 March 2022 (please email me for the full paper ([email protected]), 2024

AIO Papers 8, 2017

This paper discusses two important inscriptions for the history of the Athenian Empire, the Chalkis decree of 446/5 (or 424/3?) BC (IG I3 40) and the tribute reassessment decree (“Thoudippos’ decree”) of 425/4 BC (IG I3 71). Based on English translations of the most up-to-date and authoritative Greek texts, the paper sets out to explain the inscriptions in historical context, without assuming prior knowledge of ancient Greek or of the history of Athens and the Athenian Empire. To help the reader new to the study of Athenian inscriptions, the Paper includes an introduction to inscribed Athenian decrees of the fifth century BC. This paper will be useful for researchers, teachers and learners of Greek History at University level, but is also designed to help teachers and students in UK 6th forms studying Ancent History A-level (H407, LACTOR4 1.78 and 138). Note: minor corrections were incorporated on 28 June 2017. Hard copies are available at: http://www.andromedabooks.gr/product.asp?catid=38457.

AIO Papers 4, 2014

After exploring features of the history and methodology of Attic epigraphy, this paper surveys the corpus of 121 Athenian decrees of 229/8-198/7 BC recently published as IG II3 1, 1135-1255 (sections I-II of IG II3 1 fascicule 5). It reviews the decrees by category, discussing some historical aspects and proposing some improvements to the texts. It is designed to be read with the translations of these inscriptions published on AIO.

In this paper I investigate the formulaic language of fifth-century BCE honorific decrees and the extent to which the Athenians used specifically democratic language: were men honoured for benefiting the city or specifically the democracy? Despite the general belief that the rhetorical formula ‘being good towards the demos’ had a democratic meaning, consideration of all the readable fifth-century BCE honorific decrees demonstrates that a standard formula to indicate the addressee of the benefits did not exist; rather, it is apparent that honorific decrees enacted under the democracy used indifferently the formulae ‘being good towards the demos’, ‘being good towards the polis’ and ‘being good towards the Athenians’. Moreover, a final consideration of an oligarchic honorific decree will show that oligarchs were perhaps more careful with their language (avoiding ‘demos’ and preferring ‘polis’) than the democrats might have been.

AIO Papers 9, 2018

The main purpose of this short paper is to draw attention to the significance of 357/6 BC as the year that dedications by Athenian officials begin to refer to the crowning of officials by the Council and/or People (section 2). It also makes a case for lowering the accepted date at which the Athenians began honouring more than one Council prytany per year from ca. 340 BC to after 307/6 BC (section 3) and proposes consequential changes to the editions of some relevant inscriptions in IG II3 4 fasc. 1, mainly to dates (section 4). The paper concludes with a brief note on historical context (section 5). [Minor corrections were incorporated in August 2018].

Hesperia, 1985

T HE FOLLOWING INSCRIPTION is now stored in the so-called Byzantine baptistery on the site of the Asklepieion on the south slope of the Akropolis. I Akropolis Ephoreia Inv. No. NK ( = South Slope) 424. Plate 30. Fragment of a pedimental stele of white (Pentelic) marble. Broken on the right and bottom; its smooth left side and rough-picked back are original. The broken right side has traces of mortar. The exact finding place is uncertain, but it may be the stone described by P. G. Kalligas in \EXAr 18, B' 1, 1963 [1965], p. 18, as "a small fragment of a decree of the fourth century B.C.," found built into a modern house to the east of the Theater of Dionysos, in any case not far from the Asklepieion. Height, 0.198 m.; width, 0.212 m.; thickness, 0.108 m. (line 1), 0.105 m. (lines 2-5). Height of letters, 0.009 m. (0.007-0.012 i.). Stoichos, 0.016 x 0.016 m. 326/5 a.

S. D. Lambert (ed.), Sociable Man. Studies in Ancient Greek Social Behaviour in Honour of Nick Fisher (Swansea), 2011

The Journal of Juristic Papyrology 42 (2012) p. 31-88, 2012

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2020

In Athenian honorific decrees of the 5th century, grants of proxenia appear formulaically together with the recognition of the honorands’ euergesiai. In IG I³ 125, however, despite the record of two lavish benefactions, Epikerdes from Kyrene is never proclaimed a proxenos. This aberration has been explained as Epikerdes’ unwillingness to become an Athenian proxenos, or him being one already, or some other Kyrenean holding the honor. This paper argues not only that our records contradict these three hypotheses, but also that the enigmatic case of IG I³ 125 allows for a reevaluation of the parameters governing grants of proxenia. Specifically, after an examination of all proxenic decrees where the honorands' citizenship is preserved, it appears that Athens, as the center of an empire, recognized the services of non-Athenians, but reserved proxenic honors only for citizens of political entities that would promote its imperial ambitions.