IGII2 1201 Decree of Aixone honouring Demetrios of Phaleron

Decree of Aixone honouring Demetrios of Phaleron

IG II² 1201 Date: ca. 316/5 BC

Gods. Aristokrates son of Aristophanes proposed:^[1] since Demetrios son of Phanostratos of Phaleron is a good man concerning the Athenian People (5)and the deme of the Aixoneans, and when war broke out (genomenou) in the country (chōrai) and the Piraeus and the city were separated because of the war, having served as an envoy (presbeusas) he reconciled the Athenians and restored unity and obtained peace (10) for the Athenians and the country (chōrai),^[2] and chosen as -^[3] by the Athenian People he established good [laws] [in the interests of the city],^[4] and later . . . . . .

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References:

IG II² 1201 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 28.101 (PHI)

SEG 44.163/1 (PHI)

Syll.³ 318

Ackermann, Aixone, 143-156 no. 6

Russo, Ripartizioni, D16

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Images: Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Aixone)

Findspot: Aixone (EM 7731)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] On the deme Aixone and its inscriptions see Ackermann no. 1, with notes. Unlike the seven other inscribed honorific decrees of this deme, and most decrees of other demes of this period (for a typology of honorific decrees of demes according to honorand see C. Lasagni, in E. Culasso Gastaldi ed., La Prassi della democrazia ad Atene, 2004, 91-128 = SEG 55.39), it honours not a deme member, but a distinguished outsider, namely Demetrios of Phaleron, who controlled Athens between 317 and 307 BC in the interests of the Macedonian Kassandros, son of Antipater. There is little contemporary literary record for the history of Athens in these years (the major narrative source for the period is Diod. 18, based largely, it is thought, on Hieronymos of Cardia, Ackermann, 152, with n. 274), during which the Assembly ceased inscribing decrees at its own initiative and expense (for the one significant exception and its implications for the character of Demetrios' regime see AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 1). This decree is thus a valuable record of Demetrios' reception by his Athenian citizen contemporaries. He is also mentioned from a negative point of view with Kassandros and other Macedonians and pro-Macedonians on the curse tablet, SEG 54.398, of uncertain date (cf. Ackermann, 143 n. 240; on his reception in the literary record, 151-52). Under his regime active citizenship was limited to those with property of over 1000 dr. (a more moderate property qualification than that of 2000 dr. imposed by Antipater after the Lamian War). These property qualifications most likely excluded some deme members from participating in deme meetings.

Unusually among decrees of the demes, Demetrios had no known specific connection with Aixone. It is possible that there was in fact some connection not revealed by the decree as preserved (some speculations are documented by Ackermann), but in honouring a prominent individual on the wider stage, the decree is somewhat like the 3rd-cent. BC decrees of Eleusis and Rhamnous honouring king Antigonos (I Eleusis 193, I Rhamnous 7), though in those cases the militarised character of the demes in question was doubtless relevant. Numerous statues of Demetrios were said to have been erected, all of which were destroyed on his fall from power, except one on the Acropolis (perhaps a votive statue). Cf. Diogenes Laertius 5.75-77; Ackermann, 151. In recent years it has been thought uncertain whether a statue set up by the deme Sphettos, SEG 25.206, was of Demetrios or his homonymous grandson (Tracy, ADT 39 n. 19, discussed by Ackermann, 151; for the grandson cf. IG II³ 4, 281). However, it more likely relates to the Elder Demetrios (see the notes to SEG 25.206). Whether this decree of Aixone also provided for erection of a statue is not known, but it is not unlikely. The date of this decree followed Demetrios' activity as legislator (cf. n. 4, below), but perhaps antedated the deterioration of Athens' external situation in the face of the growing power of Antigonos following his declaration at Tyre in 315 BC of the freedom and autonomy of the Greeks (leading e.g. to the liberation of Delos from Athenian control, 314 BC, and the conquest of Euboia and Oropos, 312 BC. Ackermann, 156).

The proposer of this decree, Aristokrates son of Aristophanes, was an honorand of the decree of Aixone, datable probably to 340/39 BC, Ackermann no. 5. As remarked in the notes to that decree, it is not implausible that the honorand of a decree in 340/39 might have proposed this decree honouring Demetrios, which must have been of considerable political sensitivity, as a senior deme member some 23 years later. It is probably not coincidental that his services in Ackermann no. 5 appear to have been of a financial character, which is suggestive as to the complexion of the supporters of Demetrios' regime. [2] The "war" referred to here was that between Kassandros and his representative at the head of the Macedonian garrison in the Piraeus, Nikanor, and Antipater's nominated successor, Polyperchon (supported by Alexander's mother, Olympias), thanks to whose influence a short-lived democracy was re-established at Athens in early 318 BC. This resulted in the separation of the city from the Piraeus, alluded to in the decree. Polyperchon suffered military reverses in 317 BC, inducing the Athenian democrats in the city to negotiate with the representatives of Kassandros in the Piraeus, including the partisans of Phokion (who had been executed by the democracy in 318 BC), among them Demetrios of Phaleron. Demetrios played the leading role in these negotiations, reaching an agreement in summer 317 BC by which the city and Piraeus were reunited, and Athens became an ally of Kassandros (cf. Diod. 18.68.1-3 and 74.1-3). Athens was to retain its autonomy in internal affairs, but under the control of Kassandros' representative, Demetrios. [3] Among the restorations that have been proposed (discussed by Ackermann, 152-55) are: epimeletes, a term used in reference to Demetrios by Diod. 18.74.3 (but in Ackermann's view this represents a general description of Demetrios' role from a Macedonian perspective, rather than the specific title of an Athenian office); strategos, "general", but the generalship was an annual office and the only evidence that Demetrios was general is now Polyain. 4.7.6, in reference specifically to the year 308/7 BC; nomothetes, "lawgiver", i.e. holder of a special commission as law-maker, on similar lines to Draco and Solon. Ackermann adduces good, if not perhaps decisive, arguments in favour of nomothetes, first suggested by S. Dow and A. H. Travis, "Demetrios of Phaleron and his Lawgiving", Hesperia 12, 1943, 144-65 (= SEG 28.101). [4] Demetrios' work as legislator is well attested (cf. Parian Marble, FGrH 239 B 13, Demetrios nomous etheken Athenesin, "Demetrios made laws at Athens", in reference to the year 317/6 BC, Ackermann, 156) and was discussed by Demetrios himself in a series of works (summarised, with key bibliography at Ackermann, 150; note especially A. Banfi, Sovranità della legge: la legislazione di Demetrio del Falero ad Atene, 2010; M. Gagarin, in W. Fortenbaugh et al. eds., Demetrius of Phalerum. Text, Translation, Discussion, 2000, 347-65; L. O'Sullivan, The Regime of Demetrius of Phalerum in Athens, 2009, 45-103). His lawmaking was heavily influenced by his membership of the Aristotelian School, and, apart from establishing the property requirement for exercise of citizen rights demanded by Kassandros, included sumptuary legislation which impacted on the epigraphical record for the long term in terminating the series of figurative Classical funerary monuments (see AIUK 3 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), pp. 31-33; AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments), p. 2), establishing the gynaikonomoi, possibly the nomophylakes, and abolishing or at least radically restructuring the Classical liturgy system (on the abolition of the choregia see IG II³ 4, 518, with notes; the latest evidence for it in the demes is the decree of Aixone, Ackermann no. 3, 317/6 BC). It seems that none of his laws was inscribed; and decrees passed by the Assembly during his period in power were not inscribed at public expense (on this development, most likely connected ideologically with the curtailment of figurative funerary monuments, see AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 1, with notes). On his fall from power in 307 BC he went into exile at Alexandria, where he advised Ptolemy on the Alexandrian lawcode (Diog. Laertius 5.37; Aelian, VH 3.17).

Added: 19 Jul 2022
Updated: 3 Nov 2023
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