IGII2 1202 Decree of Aixone honouring Kallikrates and Aristokrates, 340/339 BC (?)

Decree of Aixone honouring Kallikrates and Aristokrates, 340/339 BC (?)

IG II² 1202 Date: 340/339 BC (?)

Relief In the archonship of Theophrastos (340/39?), at the principal meeting;^[1] the Aixoneans decided; Glaukides son of Sosippos of Aixone proposed: that the Aixoneans shall resolve; since Kallikrates son of Glaukon of Aixone and (5) Aristokrates son of Aristophanes of Aixone are good men and honour-loving (philotimoi) concerning the deme of Aixone, to praise them for their excellence and justice towards the deme of Aixone and crown them with a gold crown of five hundred drachmas each; (10)and the money for the crowns shall be paid from the surplus money from the budget (dioikēseōs) of the year of Theophrastos' archonship (340/39?); and Hegesileos the demarch and the treasurers shall give them the money for the crowns; and they shall announce at the (15)Dionysia in the comedies at Aixone in the theatre, that the deme of the Aixoneans crowns them for their excellence and justice towards the deme of Aixone and the common property (koina) of the Aixoneans; and the demarch Hegesileos and the treasurers shall inscribe (20)this decree on a stone stele and stand it in the theatre at Aixone. Crown Crown

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References:

IG II² 1202 (Translated text) (PHI)

Lawton 155

Tracy, ADT 99-100 (date)

Ackermann, Aixone, 126-143 no. 5

Csapo and Wilson II, 68-70

Russo, Ripartizioni, D17

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Aixone)

Original location: Aixone (theatre)

Findspot: Pirnari (= Aixone) (Hermitage GR 15520 (A1105))

Transliterations on Places on

[1] On the deme Aixone and its inscriptions see Ackermann no. 1, with notes.

Discovered in the mid-19th century in an excavation at Pirnari (= east of Glyphada, cf. Ackermann, 126-27), this honorific decree of the deme Aixone, like four others (Ackermann no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, no. 4), was originally set up in the Aixone theatre (20-21, precise location unknown). Like nos. 2-4, honouring choregoi, it honours two men, but unlike them, the services for which they are honoured are unspecified. It has been speculated that they too were choregoi, but this is doubtful (Ackermann, 129-30). Neither erection of the decree in the theatre (cf. no. 1), nor announcement of the honours at the local Dionysia, nor even the Dionysiac character of the relief (see below), necessarily imply that the services related to the Dionysia itself; and the virtues for which the honorands are commended, excellence (arete) and justice (dikaiosyne), are different from those for which the choregoi are commended in 2 (philotimia and epimeleia), 3 (philotimia and ?), and 4 (not stated, but emphasis again on philotimia) and more suggestive of holders of public office than a deme liturgy. There are indications that the service was financial in nature: at this period the reticence of the decree would be consistent with that (see further below); and the emphasis placed on the honorands' contribution to "the common property" of the demesmen (koina, 17-18; for the translation cf. N. Jones, Rural Athens under the Democracy, 2004, 105-6 no. 10; Ackermann, 128) would seem to imply it. Note too the unusually technical financial language used to specify the source of funding for the crowns: "from the budgetary surplus" (11, ek tes dioikeseos ek ton perionton chrematon); dioikesis is more commonly used in connection with the city's budgeting (later in the decade Lykourgos was to hold the city office, epi tei dioikesei, "in charge of the financial administration", cf. IG II³ 1, 445, with notes. In the deme Acharnai: SEG 43.26, ll. 12-14, 315/4 BC). One might speculate that the honorands had been deme treasurers, except that it is unclear in that case why this wouldn't have been stated.

The damaged relief depicts a bulky figure standing to the left (Papposilenos?), preparing to pour wine from an oinochoe, held over a small altar towards the figure to the right (Dionysos?), also standing, and carrying a kantharos. A large krater stands in the left corner.

The key issue with this decree is its date, as there were archons named Theophrastos in both 340/39 and 313/2 BC. This also determines the date of Ackermann no. 4, which has the same archon, demarch and proposer. Numerous more or less inconclusive arguments have been adduced; and recently Humphreys and Csapo-Wilson have favoured the later date, Ackermann the earlier one (for another inscription of this deme dating to the 340s see Ackermann no. 7, of 345/4 BC). Two arguments weigh strongly for the earlier date: (a) the mason who cut this decree is Tracy's Cutter of IG II² 244, who was active between 340/39 (or earlier) and ca. 320 BC (the Addenda to the list of inscriptions cut by this mason at Horos 26-31, 2014-2019, 41, includes Agora XIX P20, dated by Langdon to 350/49 or 345/4 BC); (b) the absence of specificity in the decree about the services of the honorands. I note that this accords with a reticence about financial benefactions which characterised the Classical Democracy, but which began to break down in the Lykourgan period. The crucial inscription in this respect at local level is I Eleusis 95, of 321/0 or 318/7 BC, which refers to a law requiring an honorific decree to specify what benefit the honorand has done for the city. No honorific decree of a deme dating after that is as unspecific as our decree (for a fuller discussion of this in relation to the dating of the decree of the deme Piraeus honouring Kallidamas of Cholleidai, see AIUK vol. 4.3A (BM, Decrees of Other Bodies), no. 3). Perhaps the most weighty argument in favour of the later date is that one of the honorands, Aristokrates son of Aristophanes, was proposer of the decree honouring Demetrios of Phaleron, in ca. 317 BC, Ackermann no. 6; but it is not implausible that a financial benefactor in 340/39 might have proposed what must have been a decree of considerable political sensitivity as a senior deme member some 23 years later. The other honorand, Kallikrates son of Glaukon, is perhaps identifiable with the Kalikrates who proposed a decree of Aixone honouring the ephebes of Kekropis in 334/3 BC, IG II² 1156, l. 26. His son, Glaukon, was choregos in 317/6 BC, Ackermann no. 3, l. 6.

Unusually for the inscriptions of this deme, the proposer and honorands are given their demotic. It is unclear what, if any, significance there is in this (cf. Ackermann, 129; did the honorands hold an office that was open to non-demesmen?).

This decree was passed at the deme's "principal meeting" (kyria agora, 1). At city level there were normally four meetings of the Assembly in a prytany in the 4th cent. BC, one of which was designated the "principal Assembly" (Ath. Pol. 43.3-6). This is the only occurrence of this designation in a deme.

Added: 19 Jul 2022
Updated: 25 Nov 2023
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