AIUK46 no. 80 Casualty list for Athenians who fell in 424/3 BC

Casualty list for Athenians who fell in 424/3 BC

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 80 Date: 424/3 BC

col. i

[tribe V Akamantis] -ras[y] . . . o[s] . . . philos(?) Aristonymos Ai[schi]nes (5)Sm[ikytho]s

Of (the tribe) Oi[neis]^VI Lysippos Kalliphon Spoudias (10)Pherekles Pausiades Philippides

Of (the tribe) Kekropis^VII Lykomedes (15)Theodotos Lykinos Anaitios Menekles Phrynichos

(20)Of (the tribe) Hippothontis^VIII Theotimos Skyrokles Charias Euangelos (25)Nikostratos Thrasymachos Phanias Kallikles Exopiades

(30)Of (the tribe) Aiantis^IX Kratinos

Of (the tribe) Antiochis^X Aristomedes Ameinokles (35)Aischines Pantakles Charidemos Timoxenos Antiphanes (40)In Poteidaia: Pantakles Hagnodemos Archias In Amphipolis: (45)Philophron In Thrace: Eukrates In Pylos: Hegesias (50)In Sermylia: Polymnestos In Singos: Pausias (53a)⟦Antiphanes⟧

col. ii

[tribe V Akamantis] . . . ipha- - (55) . . . stra- - Timan Eubou[l- -] Mnes- -

Of (the tribe) Oineis^VI (60)Telepha[nes] Charis- - Demostrat- -

Of (the tribe) Kekropis^VII Lykon (65)Timodemi[des] Soinaut[es] Leochare[s]

Of (the tribe) Aiantis^IX Glauko- - (70)Thrason

Of (the tribe) Antiochis^X Antiophemos Epitelid[es] Euthymachos (75)Nikippos

Enrolled (?): Hieron Antiphanes Archers: (80)Philippos Naupaktos Dexios Mnesagoras Herakleides (85)Herophilos Onesimos Hierokles Anaxi- - Foreigners: (90)Athenodoros Euphraios Chairigenes Posei[di]ppos Menon (95)Straton^[1]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 80 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG I³ 1184 (IG Online)

GIBM I 38

Clairmont, Patrios Nomos, no. 49

Translation by: Robert Pitt

AIO Images: 1 2

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary (Public)

Findspot: Athens, recorded in Plaka by Fourmont (BM 1816,0610.173)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This casualty list in the British Museum was aquired for Lord Elgin by his agent Lusieri (cf. AIUK 4.1, no. 2), although it had been recorded at Athens already in the 18th century. On this genre of inscription see IG I³ 1147.

This inscription is the lower half of a tall stele with two columns of casualties, likely with headings at the top announcing the two principal spheres of war and perhaps including an epigram (cf. AIUK 4.6, no. 79). Since the fragment begins halfway through tribe V (certainly in col. I, likely in col. II), we have around half of the stele. The two lists continue in official tribal order, each tribe and its dead separated from the next by a vacant line. The tribes in the first list lost 34 men, those of the second 18 (there are no casualties from tribe VIII in the second list), giving an estimated total losses of around 70 and 40 Athenians in each case. Following the tribal dead, column I continues with names under six geographical rubrics where only small numbers perished, which should represent minor skirmishes from this year, or else were casualties discovered to be missing from other lists. The right column ends with non-Athenian casualties under three headings: enrolled (?) (two dead), archers (nine), and foreigners (six). The inclusion of the archers in a list which contains no other such military designations perhaps implies they were foreign, and without ethnics perhaps they are more likely to be mercenaries than allies. The foreigners (xenoi) are named here without ethnics (non-archer mercenaries?).

The dating of our inscription is complicated by the fact that we only have the geographical rubrics for the minor skirmishes. All the places listed, however, are from the north of Greece, with the exception of the single casualty from Pylos. This suggests that the rest of the stele dealt also with this area, and so it would be one of a series dealing with different fronts during the campaign season. The battles commemorated are generally agreed to have taken place in 424 to 423, with the list set up for the funeral commemorations of the Winter to early Spring of 423.

Several Athenian casualty lists bear additions and corrections made after the stelai were erected, as evidenced by erasures, divergences from the textual layout, and letters carved by different masons. No doubt these were needed as information about casualties became clearer in the months following the public burial. Our stele exhibits a number of such intriguing alterations to the text. In line 11, Pausiades was engraved over a partly erased name, probably Pausanias; it is perhaps not coincidental that in line 53, in the list of those under extra geographical rubrics, one Pausanias was corrected to Pausias, these names perhaps being confused in the original report. A cutter has added the name Antiphanes at line 39 in larger letters within the vacant space left before the following tribal heading. The same name had been inscribed at the very end of column I (53a), again in larger letters, and was then erased. It seems that a second cutter must have been employed to add this man to the stele, first placing him at the bottom of a campaign list, and then realising he should in fact be placed higher up in his tribal contingent under a different battle. The final name of column II (line 95) was most probably also a later addition to the list of foreigners. A simple correction of spellings has also been undertaken with the erasure and reinscription of a few letters within names in lines 49 and 83, while the heading ‘archers’ in 79 has perhaps been corrected from something else and compressed together. Such a notable series of alterations provides remarkable evidence for the official nature of the inscribed versions of these lists, demonstrating a very detailed procedure of subsequent checking of spellings (did family members notice these mistakes?) and the addition of further dead whose circumstances were perhaps discovered too late, as well as the moving around of men within the lists as mistakes were realised. For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments), no. 80.

Added: 6 Apr 2022
Updated: 6 Apr 2022
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