SEG 48.122 Honorific decree of the front-runners (<i>prodromoi</i>)

Honorific decree of the front-runners (prodromoi)

SEG 48.122 Date: ca. 330-285 BC

Gods. - son of Diogenes of - proposed: for good fortune, the front-runners (prodromois) shall decide: since . . . (5) . . . and Philodemos [as secretaries?] both previously have shown love of honour (ephilotimounto) in all matters towards the cavalry, and have now taken care of all the cavalry and the front-runners (prodromōn) (10) well and fairly (dikaiōs) with respect to the dole of grain for the horses, showing their love of honour (philotimian) towards the cavalry and . . . (15) . . . ^[1]

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Greek text

References:

SEG 48.122 (Translated text) (AIO)

Bugh, Cavalry Inscriptions 2

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (prodromoi)

Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 7551)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The front-runners (prodromoi) were a light cavalry force, armed with javelins (Xen. Hipparch. 1.25). Troops of the same name in Alexander's army served as skirmishers, scouts, and couriers (Arrian Anab. 1.14, 3.7-8, 3.18). In the Athenian army, the front-runners seem to have replaced the corps of horse-archers (hippotoxotai) at the end of the fifth century BC and were perhaps superseded in turn by the Tarantinoi by the early third century (Bugh, Hesperia 67, 1998, 81-83 [SEG 48.122]; on the Tarantinoi: SEG 46.167). Lead tablets found in the Agora and Kerameikos show that their horses were evaluated by the Athenian state with the rest of the cavalry (Ag. IL 1593; Ath. Mitt. 85, 234 n. 565). On the grain allowance for the cavalry, cf. SEG 21.525, l. 19, SEG 46.167, ll. 7-9; IG II² 1264, l. 7; G. J. Oliver in P. van Alfen, Agoranomia. Studies ... Kroll (2006), 109-24, esp. 115-6. For secretaries of the cavalry, uncertainly restored as the honorands here, cf. SEG 21.525, l. 40, SEG 46.167, l. 40.

Added: 2 Apr 2019
Updated: 2 Apr 2019
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ID: AIO_1705