IGII34 657 Dedication (genos Bakchiadai)

Dedication (genos Bakchiadai)

IG II³ 4 657 Date: ca. 120-110 BC

Pistokrates and Apollodoros sons of Satyros of Auridai^[1] having conducted the procession (pompostolēsantes)^[2] and having been archons of the genos of the Bakchiadai^[2] dedicated (this).

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References:

IG II³ 4 657 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 2949 (PHI)

SEG 35.142

SEG 38.174

Tracy, ALC 175 (cutter)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Salvatore Tufano

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Altar

Inscription type: Dedication (genos Bakchiadai)

Findspot: Athens, theatre of Dionysos (In situ NK 292)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The inscription is on a round altar in the precinct of the theatre of Dionysos, by the temple of Dionysos Eleuthereus. It is decorated with Dionysiac motifs: four satyr masks, a garland and rosettes. The brothers had participated in the Pythais as children, Pistokrates in 128/7 BC (F.Delphes III 2, 12, l. 10), Apollodoros in 138/7 BC (F.Delphes III 2, 11, ll. 12-13). On the location of the deme Auridai see now N. Papazarkadas, Grammateion 8, 2019, 11-14. [2] J. von Freeden, ZPE 61, 1985, 215-18, related this to participation by the brothers in the procession of the City Dionysia as ephebes, suggesting a date ca. 123/2-121/0 BC. Lambert, Historia 42, 1998, 394-403, doubted this, arguing that the verb ought to imply not mere participation in the procession, but financing and/or organisation of it, as at IG II² 971, ll. 39-42, and suggesting that the genos Bakchiadai (for whom this is the only evidence) were here playing a role in the City Dionysia analogous to that of other gene in city festivals (cf. e.g. RO 37, Salaminioi, IG I³ 7, Praxiergidai; the “archons” of the genos might be eponymous archons or officials appointed for the organisation of the festival; both kinds of archon are attested e.g. in the Salaminioi). C. Sourvinou-Inwood, Athenian Myths and Festivals (2011), 312-39, doubted that it is plausible that the Bakchiadai played such a role in the City Dionysia, suspecting that the genos was a Hellenistic creation. Hellenistic creation of new gene is doubted in turn by [Aleshire and] Lambert, in J. H. Richardson and F. Santangelo, Priests and State in the Roman World (2011), 557-59.

Added: 1 Jul 2019
Updated: 3 Dec 2023
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ID: AIO_1825