AIUK11 no. 1 Honours for Straton king of Sidon

Honours for Straton king of Sidon

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 1 Date: ca. 394-386 BC ?

. . . . . . of the Athenians, and has taken care that the ambassadors (presbeis) whom the People sent to the King should travel as finely as possible, and to reply to the man who has come (5) from the king of the Sidonians that, if he is also a good man in the future to the People of Athens, he will not fail to obtain from the Athenians whatever he needs. Also Straton (10) the king of Sidon shall be a proxenos of the People of Athens, both himself and his descendants.^[1] Let the secretary of the Council inscribe this decree on a stone stele within ten days and (15) set it down on the Acropolis; and the treasurers (tamias) shall give the secretary of the Council 30 drachmas from the ten talent fund for inscribing the stele; and let the Council also have tokens (sumbola) made (20) for (pros) the king of the Sidonians, so that the People of Athens may know if the king of the Sidonians sends anything when making a request of the city, and the king of the Sidonians may know whenever the People (25) of Athens sends anybody to him;^[2] and also to invite the man who has come from the king of the Sidonians to hospitality (xenia) in the city hall (prutaneion) tomorrow. Menexenos proposed: in other respects in accordance (30) with Kephisodotos; but for any Sidonians residing in Sidon and enjoying citizen status (politeuomenoi) who visit Athens for purposes of trade, it shall not be permitted to exact the metic tax (metoikion) from them, nor to appoint (35) any as theatrical sponsor (chorēgon), nor to register them for any capital tax (eisphoran).^[3]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 1 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 141 (PHI)

SEG 66.113

Syll.³ 185

RO 21

Axon 56 (Axon)

Matthaiou, Grammateion 2016 a, 72 (Cutter) (Grammateion)

Matthaiou, Grammateion 2016 b, 113-119 (= SEG 66.113) (Grammateion)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes, Chris de Lisle

AIO Images: 1

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (People), Decree (People)

Original location: Acropolis

Findspot: Acropolis (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ANChandler 2.24)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of five inscriptions acquired by James Dawkins on a visit to Athens in 1751 and donated to the University of Oxford on his death in 1757. He found it on the Acropolis, the normal location for inscribed decrees to be set up in the fourth century BC. The other four are AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 2, 3, 15, and 16.

This decree of the Athenian assembly honoured Straton, King of Sidon, a Phoenician kingdom within the Persian Empire, by making him the proxenos (hereditary friend and representative) of Athens in Sidon. Proxeny decrees are quite common in the epigraphic record, but this is the only certain example in a UK collection. It provides important insights into the Athenian relationship with Phoenicia and the Persian empire and its treatment of resident foreigners (“metics”). The background to the decree is presented in ll. 1-5: an Athenian embassy to the Persian king had passed through Sidon and received substantial aid from Straton, who then sent an envoy to Athens, which prompted this decree. The prescript, which would have given the date of the decree, is unfortunately lost. Previously it was placed in the 360s BC, but the identification of the letter-cutter as the “Cutter of IG II² 17” (active 414/3-386/5 BC) by A. Matthaiou (Grammateion 5, 2016, 71-72), means that the decree should be re-dated to 388/7 BC or shortly after. On the previous dating, the decree was interpreted as part of an otherwise unattested alliance between Athens and Sidon in connection with the Great Satraps’ Revolt from the Persian King (366-360 BC). On the new dating, the context of the decree must rather be the Athenian rapprochement with Persia following the Peace of Antalkidas, or "King's Peace", a settlement between warring Greek cities brokered by the Spartan Antalkidas under the aegis of the Persian King (387 BC). As one of the highest-ranking vassals of the Persian king, Straton was a potentially valuable ally for the Athenians. [2] These tokens (symbola) were objects, such as tablets or knucklebones, which were broken into two pieces, one of which was taken by each of the parties. The unique shape of the break acted as proof of identity, when the two pieces were fitted back together (as ll. 20-25 make clear). They were originally used in the Greek world to guarantee long-distance relationships that were intended to last a long time, such as multi-generational guest friendships (cf. Hdt. 6.86). By the fourth century BC they had largely fallen out of use. The fact that the decree’s framers had to explain in detail what they were for shows that they were not a normal feature of Athenian diplomacy in this period. [3] Menexenos’ proposal (ll. 29-36) is introduced in a rider as an amendment to the main decree. The phrasing of the amendment formula suggests that the main decree had been “non-probouleumatic,” i.e. formulated in the Assembly, rather than being based on the Council's proposal. This shows that the decree was the subject of active debate in the Assembly. The amendment exempts Sidonians from various financial obligations to which metics (resident foreigners) at Athens were normally liable, while they were “visiting” Athens. It is unclear whether this exemption applied to Sidonians who settled in Athens permanently. Either way, the exemption granted by this decree was a significant privilege. By the late fourth century, the Sidonians were a defined community or "association" (koinon, IG II² 2946, cf. IG II³ 1, 379) and erected funerary monuments in the Piraeus (for a bilingual Greek-Phoenician monument commemorating a Sidonian in the British Museum cf. AIUK 4.6, no. 11). It is unclear whether this Sidonian community already existed at the time of this decree or developed as a result of it. The amendment incidentally confirms the obligations usually imposed on metics: the metic tax (metoikion, 12 dr. a year for men, 6 dr. for women), the choregia (theatrical sponsorship, cf. IG II³ 4, 460) and the occasional capital tax (eisphora, of which the metics apparently paid a sixth, cf. IG II³ 1, 429 l. 19, Dem. 22.61).

For more detailed discussion of this inscription see AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 1.

Added: 29 Jul 2014
Updated: 1 Aug 2022
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