Matthaiou2019 97-116 Alliance with Thracian kings

Alliance with Thracian kings

Matthaiou, Ἔξι Ἀττικὲς ἐπιγραφὲς 97-116 Date: 357 BC

. . . ^[1] . . . ^[2] . . . cities . . . shall help [according to the treaty which?] the Athenians and the allies [made] with Berisades son of [Seuthes] and Amadokos son of Medodokos and Kersebleptes (5) son of Kotys;^[3] and if one of the cities that . . . is liable to pay tribute (phorous) to Berisades and Amadokos and Kersebleptes and also . . . to the Athenians, does not pay the Athenians . . . , Berisades and Amadokos (10) and Kersebleptes shall exact them as far as possible; and if . . . they do not pay to Berisades or Amadokos or Kersebleptes the tribute (phorous) . . . , the Athenians and the [generals] in charge of the force (dunamei) shall exact it as far as possible; and the Greek cities [in the area of Thrace?] (15) paying the traditional tribute (phoron) to Berisades and Amadokos and Kersebleptes and to the Athenians . . . shall be free and autonomous, being allies of the Athenians as they swore, and of Berisades and Amadokos and Kersebleptes;^[4] and if (20) any of the cities defects from the Athenians, Berisades and Amadokos and Kersebleptes shall help . . . . . . ; but if . . . . . . ^[5]

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Greek text

References:

Matthaiou, Ἔξι Ἀττικὲς ἐπιγραφὲς 97-116 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 126 (PHI)

SdA II 303

RO 47

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes

Images: Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council/People)

Fr. a - Findspot: Athens (EM 6965)
Fr. b - Findspot: Unknown (EM 4617)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. Matthaiou published fr. b (containing the left side of ll. 1-7) and thoroughly overhauled the text of the whole inscription. We note below some of the attractive, but less certain, supplements, noted in his apparatus criticus or commentary. 4 It is unclear whether Μηδοδόκ[ο contains mistaken duplication of ΔΟ, cf. below n. 3. 7-8 [τὰ τέλη τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἐμπορίω]μ, 8-9 [τὰ ὀφειλόμενα τέλη] Matthaiou. If correct, the translation of this passage would be: “and also taxes on trade to the Athenians, does not pay the Athenians the taxes owed”. Alternatively these lines may refer to the syntaxis, the allied contribution to the Second Athenian League, so e.g. 8-9 [πάσας τὰς συντάξεις] Rhodes, "does not pay the Athenians all the allied contributions". 10 [ἐάν που] Foucart or [ἐὰν ἄρα] Matthaiou. 12 [ἐντελεῖ]ς, “in full” Matthaiou. 17 [τ|ὴν σύνταξιν] Wilhelm, “the allied contribution (scil. to the Second Athenian League).” [2] The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace included the north-east Aegean coast, the Chersonese and the European coast of the Propontis. At about the end of 360 BC the king, Kotys, was murdered, and his son, Kersebleptes, was challenged by two rivals, Berisades and Amadokos. In the 360s Athens had begun to reassert her long-standing territorial interests in the region, motivated in part by her concern to secure the trade route from the Black Sea (cf. RO 38 with notes). A series of agreements was attempted, and this inscription apparently reflects the final treaty, negotiated by Chares in 357 BC (Dem. 23.163-78). The kingdom seems to have been divided for most practical purposes into three, Berisades taking the western part, Amadokos the central part, and Kersebleptes the eastern part (cf. Dem. 23.8). [3] The major advance secured by the new fr. b, apart from demonstrating that a number of earlier textual restorations of ll. 4-6 were incorrect, is that it shows that Berisades was probably son of a man named Seuthes. Since Seuthes was also the name of the father of the murdered king Kotys, the implication is that Berisades was most likely Kersebleptes’ paternal uncle. The precise ancestry of Amadokos is less easy to pin down. There is otherwise no Thracian attested with the name Medodokos, but Xenophon variously gives the name Medokos (Anab. 7, 2.32, 3.16, 7.3, 7.11) or Amedokos (Hell. 4, 8.26) to a, or the, king of Odrysian Thrace in ca. 400-390 BC, and the Amadokos of our inscription may be his son. [4] From ll. 5-10 is apparent that there were cities which were both liable to pay tribute to the Thracian kings and were under some kind of financial liability to Athens (levies on trade?, cf. Dem. 23.110, or allied contributions to the Second Athenian League?), and the Thracian kings undertook to help the Athenians exact these liabilities. In ll. 10-14 the Athenians make a reciprocal undertaking in respect of the tribute owed to the Thracian kings. Ll. 14-19 supplements these provisions in a way that is not entirely clear, but relates specifically to the "Greek cities" in the region (restored as “in the area of (i.e. coastal) Thrace”, l. 14; some earlier scholars restored here, “in the Chersonese”), and apparently confirms that they should both pay the “traditional tribute” (ton phoron ton patrion) to the Thracian kings and, if the restoration is correct, the “allied contribution” (syntaxis, l. 17) to the Athenians as members of the Second Athenian League, while retaining their "freedom and autonomy". [5] Berisades died in 357/6 BC and was succeeded by his sons, the eldest of whom was Ketriporis, and they joined Athens and others in an ineffective alliance against Philip II (cf. RO 53 with notes), who gradually advanced eastwards into Thrace. Amadokos resisted Philip in 353 BC (Diod. Sic. 16.34.1, Dem. 23.183 etc.), but in 352 his son, also named Amadokos, supported Philip in a campaign against Kersebleptes (Schol. Aischin. 2.81, Theopompos FGrH 115 F101). Kersebleptes joined forces with Athens against Philip, permitting Athens to establish cleruchies in the Chersonese (Diod. 16.34.3-4). Eventually, however, in 342/1 BC, Philip removed both Kersebleptes and Teres, who was by then ruler of the central kingdom.

Added: 29 Jul 2014
Updated: 8 Jan 2024
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