Proxeny

Selon une idée généralement répandue, grâce aux réformes de Lycurgue, les Lacédémoniens n'ont jamais connu de tyrannie ; ils furent « a-tyranniques » (atyranneutoi). En même temps, Sparte nourrissait une haine désintéressée à l'encontre de la tyrannie en générale (misotyrannos polis) et, en conséquence, l'élimination des tyrans des autres cités grecques allait devenir le mot d'ordre et l'objectif réalisé dans la politique spartiate de l'époque archaïque tardive. Et puisque la tyrannie archaïque comme l'usurpation du pouvoir visait, par la force des choses, l'aristocratie qui détenait le monopole du pouvoir, toujours selon cette idée, les Lacédémoniens en tant qu'ennemis de la tyrannie sont, paradoxalement (parce que malgré leur régime qui n'était pas typiquement aristocratique), devenus « le gendarme du Péloponnèse » et, avec le temps, de la Grèce tout entière, ce gendarme qui a sauvegardé l'ordre aristocratique. Ainsi, de la côté de Sparte nous aurions affaire à une sorte de doctrine d'interventionnisme, de la côté des cités de Peloponnèse dirigées par les élites aristocratiques, les décisions sur l'adhésion à l'alliance avec Sparte, serait une manifestation idéologique d'appartenance à la famille de poleis, gouvernées par eunomia aristocratique.

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.

Known from ancient authors such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato, and more than 2,500 inscriptions, proxeny (a form of public guest-friendship) is the best attested interstate institution of the ancient world. Proxeny and Polis offers a comprehensive re-examination of our evidence for this important Greek institution and uses it to examine the structure and dynamics of the interstate system of the Greek world, and the way in which they were transformed as a result of the establishment of the Roman Empire.

Based on a detailed analysis of the function of the formulaic language of honorific decrees, this volume presents a new reconstruction of proxeny and explores the way in which interstate institutions shaped the behaviour of individuals and communities in the ancient world. It draws extensively on proxeny lists, which have not been systematically exploited before, to reconstruct the proxeny networks of Greek city-states. This material reveals the extraordinary density of formal interconnections which characterized the ancient Greek world before the age of Augustus and allows us to reconstruct the patterns of trade and political interactions which resulted in these institutional networks.

The volume also traces the disappearance of both proxeny and the broader institutional system of which it was part. Drawing on nuanced analysis of quantitative trends in the epigraphic record, it argues that the Greek world underwent a profound reorientation by the time of the Roman Principate, which fundamentally altered how Greek cities viewed relations with each other.

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This article presents editions of 42 inscribed fragments belonging to 37 different Greek and Latin inscriptions unearthed between 1968 and 1978 on Temple Hill in ancient Corinth. They date from the early 6th century b.c. to the 6th century a.d. and include a new fragment of a previously published sacrificial calendar on stone, a new fragmentary sacrificial calendar on lead, eight new decrees, and several new fragments that join to, or can be associated with, previously published decrees or other kinds of public documents.

Der vorliegende Band bietet eine Zusammenstellung aller bekannten Proxenieurkunden aus dem Schwarzmeerraum. Die Inschriften werden im griechischen Original und in rumänischer Übersetzung präsentiert, je gefolgt von einem eingehenden Kommentar. In Verbindung mit den statistischen Erhebungen und übergreifenden Auswertungen wird so ein wichtiger Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis der Geschichte des antiken Schwarzmeerraumes sowie weiter noch insgesamt zur Institution der Proxenie und damit auch zu den Außenbeziehungen der griechischen Städte in der Antike geleistet.

The paper proposes a research on the proxeny in the Black Sea area, based on analysis of published documents. The novelty of the approach comes from the fact that the research will not have the main target individual decrees but an exhaustive analysis of documents to highlight a "Dorian Pontic space", clearly delimited from an "Ionian Pontic space". Once the statistics are created, the attention is drawn to the sanction formula and the author(s) of proposal, the nature of services rendered, the granted privileges, the places for the display of documents, and finally, to the origins of the honored individuals. From the proxeny’s institution point of view, when it is appropriate to retain the importance of the proxenoi in the configuration of the cities foreign affairs one can witness the setup of a network.

In Rahmen einer breiteren monographischen Untersuchung zur Proxenie im pontischen Raum versucht der Autor mit dieser Gelegenheit zwei weitere Aspekte zu besprechen – Verleiher bzw. Empfänger der Proxeniedekrete. Die systematische Erforschung der 173 Belege von ateleia, proxenia und politeia in den ionischen und dorischen apoikiai des Schwarzmeerraumes ermöglicht die Formulierung von glaubwürdigen Bemerkungen zu den Verleihern (gewöhnlich der Rat und die Volksversammlung) und Empfängern (proxenoi) der Proxeniedekrete. Neben den allgemeinen-griechischen Eigenschaften und vor allem dem von Athen ausgeübten Einfluss gibt es viele lokale Besonderheiten. Diese bezeugen, dass eine von außerhalb des Schwarzmeerraumes übergenommene Institution während der ca. sechs Jahrhunderte ihrer Existenz die Unterscheidungsmerkmale in Abhängigkeit von der Art und Intensität der Kontakte jeder städtischen Gemeinschaft mit der Außenwelt entwickelt hat.

In 1973, among the fi nds of his excavations from Dodona, Sotirios Dakaris reported the discovery of a narrow lead tablet on which was written in letters, which he dated to the fourth century BC, a question submitted to the oracle of the shrine. 1 The text, as he read it, was a question put to the oracle by a community (either a πόλις or a league) concerning whether they should grant πρoξενία to an individual, whom he tentatively suggested was called Κλεολαεύς:

The number of recovered inscriptions in the Greek language which can be dated to the third and second centuries BC is enormous. The ancient Greeks had long been fond of inscribing texts on stones, which would serve as or become part of public monuments, but during the early Hellenistic era the publication of Greek inscriptions seems to have known an all-time high. This is undoubtedly partly due to a process now known as ‘hellenization’, set into motion by the conquests of Alexander the Great and his Successors. By installing Greeks in the elite positions of many newly founded or re-founded cities all over their territories, these Hellenistic kings made sure that an extent of Greek culture was now to be found from Massalia (modern Marseille) in the west to as far as Ai Khanoum (in modern-day Afghanistan) in the east. What bound these cities together were not only cultural similarities, but also various types of diplomatic interactions, to which many of the inscriptions recovered from this period are connected. Through the evidence provided by these texts, decrees of varying length which were issued by the boulē (Council) and the dēmos (‘people’, or Assembly) of Hellenistic cities, our image of the Hellenistic world has become defined by its high degree of interconnectivity.
While the function of the public inscription of state-issued decrees in the Greek world has received ample attention, literature on these practices has mostly focused on Classical Athens and the publicity of decrees in their town of origin. An important feature of the body of Hellenistic inscribed decrees throughout the Greek world is however the genre of so-called ‘travelling decrees’, texts which were sent along with embassies to be published on stone slabs (or stēlai, singular stēlē) in other towns, often pertaining to some sort of diplomatic exchange that had taken place. It is remarkable how much effort went into sending these embassies and financing the inscriptions, even while the dēmos had often already put up a similar decree in its own town. The importance of this type of decrees for our understanding of the interstate interactions that are so characteristic of the Hellenistic period has been acknowledged. However, the how and why of the publication of decrees in foreign cities and their function as a cultural medium has not yet received much attention.
In this paper I propose to examine the function of these travelling decrees with the use of several modern theories. Processes of mediatization and globalization, which are now increasingly used to make sense of our own society and the changes it is going through, will prove to be equally useful in considering a historical period as far removed as the early Hellenistic era. Interpreting the medium of the travelling decree in the light of network theory and the concept of ‘common knowledge’ as formulated by Michael Chwe, I will show how these inscriptions shaped the customs for interactions within the intensive inter-city networks of the Hellenistic world. In short, this paper aims to investigate how the medium of travelling decrees contributed to the creation of networks of common cultural knowledge between Greek cities in the Hellenistic world.

RESUMEN El autor del artículo reedita y estudia-con un extenso aparato crítico, comentario y traduc-ción española-un decreto de proxenía de Aptera (Creta) de época helenística (ICr. II 3, 3) en honor del médico Calipo de Cos, basándose para ello en la autopsia del documento. Del decreto objeto de estudio se ofrece además un análisis paleográfico detallado y una datación más precisa que la aceptada hasta hoy. ABSTRACT «Proxeny decree from Cretan Aptera, honoring Kallipos, doctor, of Cos». The author of the paper, after revision of the stone, republishes and studies-with extensive ap. crit., commentary and Spanish translation-a proxeny decree from Cretan Aptera, honoring Kallipos, doctor, of Cos, which date from the Hellenistic age. It is also offered a detailed palaeographic analysis and a dating more accurate than the commonly accepted so far.

Below I present the editio princeps of a fragmentary honorific decree from Siphnos. An old copy of the text by L. H. Jeffery deposited at the CSAD in Oxford shows that the inscription was discovered by the British excavators of Kastro in the 1930s, although it was never published. Prosopographical evidence suggests that the honorand was an Athenian, who was, in all probability, granted proxeny by the polis of Siphnos. The lettering and the formulae used suggest a date in the late fifth or the early fourth century B.C., but the democratic institutions evident in the prescript exclude the decade 404-394 B.C., when oligarchical Sparta maintained a firm grip on the whole Aegean world.

This paper explores Athens’s role during the satrapal revolts of the 360s BC, through the study of several Attic inscriptions dating to the same period. The examination of these texts shows that there was a consistent and complex Athenian foreign policy towards the rebelling rulers and satraps. Athens granted honorary awards to many of the rebellious rulers to negotiate and establish alliances with them but stopped short of officially supporting the revolts. In this way, it maintained the terms of the King’s Peace while also cultivating diplomatic relations with the rebels.

Dans les sources de l'époque classique grecque, on observe à plusieurs reprises des exemples d'informateurs étrangers qui viennent avertir une cité de dangers qui la menacent : selon Xénophon, par exemple, le Syracusain Hérodas vint avertir les Spartiates de la préparation d'une flotte perse dans l'Hellespont pour s'en prendre aux alliés de Sparte 1 . Ce rôle des étrangers comme agents d'information est souvent fondé sur des liens particuliers entre un individu et une cité qui n'est pas sa patrie d'origine. Ces liens qui reposent sur la logique de l'hospitalité archaïque sont de plus en plus encadrés dans la cité puisqu'ils donnent aux hôtes (xenoi) une influence qui va à l'encontre de l'égalité de pouvoir entre les citoyens, que ce soit à Athènes ou dans d'autres cités comme Sparte. Les élites, premiers acteurs de l'hospitalité, sont de plus en plus contrôlées et leurs réseaux progressivement mis au service de la cité 2 . L'hospitalité perd alors son caractère interpersonnel. Les étrangers influents deviennent des hôtes de la cité tout entière par l'institution d'une relation d'hospitalité entre les individus et la cité, la proxénie, qui permet d'intégrer ces relations dans la sphère démocratique de la cité et parfois d'obtenir des renseignements importants. A. Gerolymatos a notamment développé l'idée que les proxènes menaient souvent des activités d'espionnage au service de la cité dont ils étaient proxènes 3 . Ses affirmations sont certes discutables mais on ne peut nier qu'en 354, par exemple, Démosthène, proxène des Thébains, est accusé d'espionner au service de Thèbes, et il est obligé de s'en défendre 4 ; cela montre que le proxène d'une autre cité était suspecté dans sa communauté d'être une sorte d'espion pouvant transmettre des informations à un ennemi potentiel. Mais plus largement, tout étranger pour une cité pouvait être tour à tour informateur ou espion.

The main focus of my paper is Delos during the period of its Independence, ie. 314-166 BC. The history of Delos may be largely absent from ancient historiographical narratives, but the plethora of inscriptions erected by the Delians allows us to reconstruct in great detail its history, political organization, religious, social, economic and cultural life. Through inscriptions, and especially honorific decrees, we can map the extensive network of honours that Delos created during the period of her Independence. Epigraphic evidence of this type, that is mostly honorific decrees issued by the demos and the boule of the Delians, is extremely formulaic. But despite this, honorific decrees and other epigraphic evidence reflect an extremely active honorific habit. Through the proxeny decrees, among others, we get glimpses of the diversity of social, political and economic life on Delos; meanwhile, the survival of a number of the honorands' names and ethnics allows us to create a map of the geographic spread of honours for Delos. In other words, the survival of the epigraphic attestation of honorific practices of the Delian community can provide us with the means to visualise the extensive network of honours for this small Aegean island during the Hellenistic period.

This article presents editions of 42 inscribed fragments belonging to 37 different Greek and Latin inscriptions unearthed between 1968 and 1978 on Temple Hill in ancient Corinth. They date from the early 6th century b.c. to the 6th century a.d. and include a new fragment of a previously published sacrificial calendar on stone, a new fragmentary sacrificial calendar on lead, eight new decrees, and several new fragments that join to, or can be associated with, previously published decrees or other kinds of public documents.