IGII34 234 Dedication by a komarch (Acharnai)

Dedication by a komarch (Acharnai)

IG II³ 4 234 Date: 340/39 (or 313/2?) BC

. . . with a revel? (-kōmōi) . . . in the archonship of Theophrastos (340/39 or 313/2) Antiphanes son of Ep- was victorious as komarch (5)Uninscribed space archon(s) . . . ^[1]

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References:

IG II³ 4 234 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 3104 (PHI)

Csapo and Wilson II, 47-49

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Julian Schneider

Monument type: Base (?)

Inscription type: Dedication (komarch)

Findspot: Menidi (ancient Acharnai) (Unknown)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual note We follow the text of Csapo-Wilson, which differs from IG as follows: 3 [- - Ἀχαρνεὺς] IG (Kirchner). There is little doubt that Antiphanes was from Acharnai (see below), but it is not certain that his demotic would have been included on this monument in his own deme. 4-5 [τοὺς συν]|άρχοντ[ας] IG (Koehler) "was victorious over his fellow archons"; Csapo suggests rather ἄρχοντ[ες κωμῶν] vel sim., followed by a list.

This dedication (which has a round cutting in the top) is from the site of the largest Attic deme, Acharnai, and would seem to imply that, as in the Tetrakomoi, it hosted a competition involving komoi, "revels" (cf. IG II³ 4, 228). In the Tetrakomoi, the competing units also had an institutional identity as komai, "villages" (see IG II³ 4, 225, with notes), and the term "komarch" is ambiguous between "village chief" and "leader of the revel". Whether this was also the case in Acharnai is unclear (cf. D. L. Kellogg, Marathon Fighters and Men of Maple: Ancient Acharnai, 2013, who notes, 26, that Acharnai was comprised of at least three separate settlement sites, but we do not know that these were designated as komai). As Csapo and Wilson note, the "revels" might plausibly have taken place at the well-attested Rural Dionysia in Acharnai (cf. IG II³ 4, 500), though this is uncertain (the context of the komoi in the Tetrakomoi does not seem to have been a local Dionysia). Antiphanes of Acharnai (l. 3) is father of an infant, Antias, on the funerary monument of ca. 340-317 (?), IG II² 5783 (cf. D. Whitehead, The Demes of Attica, 1986, 415). The suggestion of Lauter, Attische Landgemeinden (1993), 137, that this is actually an inscription of the Tetrakomoi (referring X- in l. 1 to the kome Xypete), seems unlikely, given the distance of the Tetrakomoi from the findspot. A more plausible possibility is that it relates to the Trikomia of Eupyridai, which neighboured Acharnai to the west, on which cf. IG II² 1362, with notes. On the other inscriptions of Acharnai see SEG 21.519, with notes.

Added: 28 Jun 2018
Updated: 25 May 2023
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ID: AIO_1551