AIO 3708 A deme honours its select troops (<i>epilektoi</i>)

A deme honours its select troops (epilektoi)

AIO 3708 Date: 318/7 BC ?

[- proposed:] the [demesmen] shall decide:^[1] since those of the demesmen who served among the select troops (epilektois) were good men (5)and when the enemy . . . walls at night . . . in battle and repelled them, and killed and captured [not a few of them alive?], and (10)having stripped them of their weapons, they brought them up to the [acropolis],^[2] and in other respects they have continued to be well-disciplined among the select troops (epilektois), the demesmen shall decide to praise and (15)crown each of them with a gold crown of 500 drachmas for their [excellence] and manly virtue^[3] . . .

Previous - AIO 3687 Next - AIO 3709

References:

AIO 3708 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 1209 (PHI)

Russo, Ripartizioni, D106

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Kazuhiro Takeuchi

Images: Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (unknown deme)

Findspot: Unknown (EM 7728)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. We follow the text of IG, except that Takeuchi reads Κ at the end of 6 in place of IG's Ν̣, undermining IG's ν̣|[ικῶντες αὐτοὺ]ς, "defeating them", and points out that the restorations at the start of ll. 5, καὶ ἐλθόντων], "and having come (scil. the enemy)" and 6 π̣|[ρὸς αὐτὰ τὰ τεί]χη, "to or against the very walls", are also insecure.

ln this decree an unidentifiable deme honours its epilektoi, select troops (or "special forces") organized on a tribal basis that are well attested in Hellenistic Athens. See G. J. Oliver, War, Food and Politics in Hellenistic Athens (2007), 179-80 (who observes that they do not appear to have served in the garrison demes, as the adult citizen troops which manned them at this time were not tribally organised).

The decree was dated already in the 19th century (by Köhler) to the context of the conflict between Antipater's son, Kassandros, and Antipater's nominated successor as regent, Polyperchon, that followed the death of Antipater in 319 BC; and since the publication of Agora XVI 105 in 1935 (SEG 21.319) it has been generally supposed that it might belong to the same context as that inscription, which is an Assembly decree of Gamelion (i.e. winter) 318/7 BC honouring the epilektoi of Kekropis (note the apparent verbal echoes, especially between ll. 7-8 of our decree and l. 5 of that one). On this, and the problems with identifying the precise historical context see Woodhead's notes in Agora XVI; (briefly) C. Habicht, Athens from Alexander to Antony (1997), 51; L. O'Sullivan, The regime of Demetrius of Phalerum (2009), 243-47 (SEG 59.16). On the categorisation of this decree among the honorific decrees of the demes see C. Lasagni, in E. Culasso ed., La Prassi della democrazia ad Atene (2004), 91-128 (SEG 55.39). On the decree as evidence for the "aesthetics of war" in Hellenistic Greece see A. Chaniotis, War in the Hellenistic World (2005), ch. 10 and index s.v. this inscription (SEG 55.2118). [2] I.e. they dedicated the captured weapons on the acropolis, cf. IG I³ 517. [3] The award of multiple gold crowns of 500 dr. is an unusually expensive honour for a deme. It suggests that the number of epilektoi supplied by the deme was quite small and/or that the deme was directly impacted by their actions (i.e. perhaps it was an intramural urban deme. The only such deme of Kekropis was Melite, which is accordingly a candidate for the deme that passed this decree. See Traill's map, which in its most recent version is at P. J. Rhodes and A. Makres eds., Grammata Archaia .... Studies ... David M. Lewis, 99. For other inscriptions of the deme Melite see AIO 2841). On demes in general cf. RO 46, with notes.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
Feedback

ID: AIO_3708