AIO 2618 Decree of Marathonian Tetrapolis honouring their archon, Charidemos of Probalinthos

Decree of Marathonian Tetrapolis honouring their archon, Charidemos of Probalinthos

AIO 2618 Date: ca. mid-4th cent. BC

Gods.^[1] Kephisokles son of Kephisokleides of Probalinthos proposed: that the Tetrapolitans shall decide, since Charidemos of Probalinthos exercised the office (5) of archon well and justly and made all the sacrifices to the gods and the heroes on the specified days and at the appropriate times,^[2] and managed the other common affairs (koinōn) well and justly,^[3] (10) the Tetrapolitans shall resolve, to praise Charidemos son of Charidemos of Probalinthos and crown him with a gold crown of 1000 drachmas^[4] for his excellence and justice towards the Tetrapolis; and the herald (15) shall announce it (scil. the crown) in the Dionysia at the tragedies, that "the Tetrapolis crowns Charidemos son of Charidemos of Probalinthos for his excellence and justice towards the Tetrapolis"; and he shall have a seat of honour (proedrian);^[5] (20)and to inscribe this decree on a stone stele and stand it in the Dionysion.^[6]

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Greek text

References:

AIO 2618 (Translated text) (AIO)

I Rhamnous 402

Csapo and Wilson II, 192-4

Takeuchi, Tetrapolis, 93-5 (Grammateion)

Knoepfler, Trésor documentaire, 89-94

Takeuchi and Wilson, New Attic Dionysia, 1-50

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Tetrapolis)

Original location: Dionysion [at Marathon?]

Findspot: Rhamnous (Rhamnous Fortress 2118 Φ)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. This decree of the Marathonian Tetrapolis, discovered at Rhamnous in 1998, was first fully published by Petrakos in 2020 (I Rhamnous 402); early reports of it were the basis for remarks by Lambert, ZPE 130, 2000, 69-70; and AIO Papers 1, 2014, pp. 8-9 no. 4; and by Csapo and Wilson, pp. 193-4. AIO's text is that of Petrakos (I Rham.), as amended by Takeuchi.

This decree, discussed most recently and in depth by Takeuchi and Wilson, New Attic Dionysia, is one of two extant decrees of the Marathonian Tetrapolis, an ancient association of four “cities” of north-eastern Attica, Marathon, Probalinthos, Oinoe, and Trikorynthos. These demes (all in the coastal trittys of Aiantis, except Probalinthos in Pandionis, coastal trittys, Traill, Political Organization, 1975, city trittys, Demos and Trittys, 1986) returned respectively 10, 5, 4 and 3 men to the Council of 500, suggesting that they accounted for ca. 4.5% of the Attic population, or ca. 1300 adult male citizens in the 4th century BC. (No quota for any deme of Aiantis, except arguably Phaleron, is directly attested before 307/6 BC, and the conventional quotas are inferred from those that applied after 307/6, cf. Traill, Political Organization, 22. Probalinthos: IG II³ 4, 21, 55-60, Agora XV 42, 161-166, Agora XV 43, 57-67, IG II³ 4, 26, 55-60). For the other Tetrapolis decree see IG II² 1243. For its sacrificial calendar, SEG 50.168. For another sacrificial calendar, perhaps deriving from the same area, IG I³ 255; for a dedication to Dionysos by the Tetrapolis, IG II³ 4, 224; for a private dedication to Dionysos from this area, IG II³ 4, 978. The Tetrapolis organised theoriai to Delphi and Delos, FGrH 328 Philochoros F75 (from Philochoros' book on the Tetrapolis), cf. P. Ismard, in C. Taylor and K. Vlassopoulos eds., Communities and Networks in the Ancient Greek World, 2015, 90-92; J. Mikalson, Religion in Hellenistic Athens, 1998, 269-70 (for relevant Hellenistic inscriptions from Delphi see FD III 2, 8, with note 4). The most recent full discussions of the Tetrapolis are (in French) by P. Ismard, La cité des résaux, 2010, 239-49 and 435-41 (map); and 2015 (in English, referred to above), 80-97.

There are no extant inscriptions issued by the component demes of the association, suggesting that the Tetrapolis as a whole was the predominant locus of communal identity in the region. The individual demes did, however, make some collective impact on the epigraphical record. Marathon, the largest of the Tetrapolis demes, and location of the famous battle, was one of the main Attic regional harbours: M. C. McHugh, ABSA 114, 2019, 207-40 (map), and D. M. Lewis, Pnyx 1, 2022, 81-101, at 90-94 (map). It is also the location of the first set of sacrifices in Face A, col. 2 of SEG 50.168, (at least) two of which are allocated to the demarch of Marathon; IG I³ 2 is an early (ca. 500 BC?) Assembly (?) decree from Marathon, of uncertain character; on the other side of the same stone is IG I³ 3, an Assembly decree, ca. 490-480 BC, establishing the Herakleia festival at Marathon. For a recent discussion of the deme and its members see Humphreys, Kinship, 1151-55 ("Marathon did not produce any demesman of great distinction", 1154). Probalinthos, located south of Marathon at the southern end of the Tetrapolis, was the deme of Euboulos, the well-known 4th-century politician, who is perhaps identifiable with the Euboulos in whose archonship of the Tetrapolis SEG 50.168 was produced (A col. 2, ll. 39-40; on Euboulos see now N. Futás, Chiron 51, 2021, 277-324); on this deme see Humphreys, Kinship, 895-98. Oinoe (name preserved in modern village of Ninoi), inland north-west of Marathon, had a Pythion connected with the theoria to Delphi, the Pythais (Philochoros F75, cited above), and a cave of Pan and the Nymphs (cf. Lambert, ZPE 130, 2000, 56, on SEG 50.168, A col. 1, ll. 44-45). It sold two estates at Oinoe in the Lykourgan public land sale programme, Rationes F7B, ll. 27-32, cf. Lambert, Rationes Centesimarum (1997), 185-6 no. 30; and provision was made for cults at Oinoe (probably Aiantid, rather than its Hippothontid homonym) at the end of the 5th cent. BC in the revision of the city's sacrificial calendar, SEG 52.48a, F12; on this deme see Humphreys, Kinship 1155-57. Trikorynthos, on the east coast between Marathon and Rhamnous, was the location of the sacrifices to Hera and Kourotrophos at SEG 50.168 A col. 2, 54-56; cf. Humphreys, Kinship, 1157-58 (who notes no prominent members of either of the two smaller Tetrapolis demes).

This decree honours the archon, chief official of the Tetrapolis. Appointed annually, he was the equivalent of the eponymous archon of the city or the demarch of a deme, and is attested in an eponymous role in the sacrificial calendar of the association (SEG 50.168, A col. 2, 39-40), in the association's dedication to Dionysos, IG II³ 4, 224, and may have been referred to in the other extant decree of the Tetrapolis, IG II² 1243. A religious role is implied in general terms by those texts and the parallel roles of the eponymous officials of the city and the demes, but ll. 5-8 of this decree appear to imply that he was generally responsible for the sacrifices of the Tetrapolis. The only sacrificing official named in the extant text of the sacrificial calendar is the demarch of Marathon, named twice in the right hand column of the calendar in the section relating to Marathon (SEG 50.168, A col. 2, 1-2 and 23), but the thinner left hand column might have contained a calendar or calendars of the Tetrapolis as a whole, for which the archon may have been responsible.

The inscription was dated by the first editor, Petrakos, to ca. 350-300 BC. The relatively high (0.08, Ο 0.06), broad and plain letters, without serifs or apices, inscribed close together, features of the individual letters (e.g. nu with right vertical somewhat higher than left), and the orthography (which has no features characteristic of the early or late 4th cent.) suggest the upper end of that range. The apparent allusion to the sacrificial calendar of the Tetrapolis, SEG 50.168, which probably dates ca. 375-350 BC, also pulls in that direction. The proposer of the decree is not otherwise known. The honorand, or possibly his father, was most likely the father of the guarantor -exandros son of Charidemos of Pro[balinthos] and of the lessee -os son Charidemos of Pr[obalinthos] in this area of Attica in Agora XIX L9.30-31 and 35-36 (Takeuchi). [2] As noted by Takeuchi, the language here, "on the specified days and appropriate times" (en tais hemerais tais rhetais kai tois chronois tois prosekousin) appears to allude to the association's sacrificial calendar, SEG 50.168. [3] "Common affairs" (koina) in this kind of context has a financial connotation, cf. IG II² 1203, l. 4. [4] At this period gold crowns awarded by the city and by demes were usually of 500 or 1,000 dr. For a 1,000 crown in a deme cf. e.g. AIO 2550, l. 7 (Ikarion); in an Assembly decree: IG II³ 1, 379, ll. 7-8. [5] The announcement (by demarch or herald) of a crown in the tragedies at the (Rural) Dionysia and the award of a seat of honour (proedria) are common provisions in honorific decrees of the demes, e.g. in Eleusis (demarch), I Eleusis 68; 70, ll. 20-25; 72, ll. 22-28 (no proedria); 80, ll. 13-21; 99, ll. 9-18 (proedria "in the deme"); in Piraeus (herald) IG II² 1214, ll. 19-20; 28-33 (proedria "in the theatre"); in Ikarion (announcer unspecified), AIO 2550, ll. 8-9 (no proedria). For the comparable provision in Assembly decrees of announcement by the herald of honours at the City Dionysia and award of proedria in the city theatre see AIUK 4.2 no. 7, ll. 15-21; cf. AIUK 2 no. 1, ll. 27-29 (proedria only). In addition to the Dionysion at Marathon attested already by other evidence (presumed location of the dedications IG II³ 4, 224 and IG II³ 4, 978; it or some other Dionysian location was the place of erection of a copy of IG II² 1243, cf. next note), these provisions probably imply the existence of a theatre at Marathon, and the celebration there of a Tetrapolitan Dionysia (on the "Rural" Dionysia see IG II³ 4, 498, with notes). [6] It is a puzzle why this decree, which according to this provision, was to be erected in the Dionysion (scil. at Marathon, cf. IG II² 1243) was found outside the territory of the Tetrapolis in the fortress of Rhamnous. As noted by Petrakos and Knoepfler, it would not seem to be a "pierre errante". It is apparently of local Rhamnousian marble (Petrakos) and was found together with its base in a context which suggests it had been in Rhamnous since antiquity. Petrakos suggests that it was commissioned by the Tetrapolis from a Rhamnousian stonemason and for some reason (perhaps the death of the honorand) never delivered; Knoepfler that, as with IG II² 1243, erected in the Marathon Dionysion and on the acropolis at Athens, there were two copies of the decree, one erected in the Dionysion in Marathon and a second, made as an afterthought (and for that reason omitted in the inscribed erection clause), erected at Rhamnous. On the basis of early reports of the inscription’s discovery, before its full publication, I raised the possibility that, for some reason (for example ongoing building works), the decree could not be erected in the Marathon Dionysion, and that it was placed instead in the closest neighbouring Dionysion, namely that at Rhamnous. There would be a parallel of sorts in IG II³ 1, 416, an Assembly decree of the 330s BC honouring Piraeus priests and hieropoioi, originally intended, it seems, to be erected in the theatre of Dionysos in the Piraeus, but eventually in fact erected in the city theatre; but in that case the erection clause was corrected on the stone. In our case, there can be little doubt that the decree’s words imply erection in the Marathon Dionysion. As Csapo and Wilson observe, the new decree also awards proedria, and “it is difficult to see how the Tetrapolis could take it upon itself to erect a permanent document of its own within the sanctuary at Rhamnous and to award prohedria at a theatre that was not its own.” Petrakos' explanation perhaps remains the most plausible. This is not the only Tetrapolis inscription to have been found at a disconcerting location. The sacrificial calendar itself was found, again apparently in situ, up in the hills well to the west of Marathon at Kukunari, and the 5th century sacrificial calendar which seems to have originated in the Tetrapolis area, IG I³ 255, was found in Chalkis on Euboea. On this point see now the throughgoing discussion of Takeuchi and Wilson, New Attic Dionysia, 23-6.

Added: 27 Apr 2023
Updated: 26 Oct 2024
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ID: AIO_2618