AgoraXIX H84 Boundary marker of a mortgaged house

Boundary marker of a mortgaged house

Agora XIX H84 Date: 309/8 BC

In the archonship of Demetrios (309/8), boundary marker (horos) of a house mortgaged (pepramenēs epi lusei)^[1] for 700 dr. to (the) friendly society (eranistais).^[2]

Agora XIX H78 follows

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References:

Agora XIX H84 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 65.2

Finley, Horos Inscriptions, 71

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Horos

Inscription type: Boundary marker

Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 1978)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Literally “sold subject to release” (i.e. from the sale, conditional on repayment of the loan). In effect the house is security for the loan and the marker serves the purpose of advertising that the property is encumbered. On the terminology of security transactions see E. M. Harris, CQ 38, 1988, 351-81; and the discussion in P. Millett, "M. I. Finley's Studies in Ancient Athenian Land and Credit Reconsidered". This one is unusual in being dated. [2] The ca. 300 surviving markers (horoi) of property subject to security transactions in Attica show loans being made both by individuals and, less commonly, collectives, including demes (cf. IG II² 2761 deme Halai, Agora XIX H92 deme Kerameis, IG II² 2670 deme Phlya, SEG 63.156 deme Myrrhinous, Agora XIX H99 deme Phegaia). On loans by demes in general, see D. Whitehead, Demes of Attica, 1986, 158-60 (rightly sceptical about the attempt of M. I. Finley to belittle the significance of deme loans).

Around 1-4 markers of loans respectively by demes, phratries, genē, and tribes are extant (C. A. Thomsen, GRBS 55, 2015, 154-75 at 165 n. 31 = SEG 65.2). A much larger number (ca. 22, Thomsen, 154) record loans by eranistai, a term denoting an association formed on the basis of contributions from members (cf. English “friendly society”. Aristotle, EN 1160a 19-20 gives thiasoi and groups of eranistai as examples of associations formed for pleasure, i.e. sacrifice and social intercourse). Sometimes these associations were formed ad hoc for the purpose of a loan, and this is demonstrably the case with IG II² 2721. The relatively large number of extant markers of loans by eranistai in comparison with other types of association suggest that the other eranistai recorded by these markers were also mostly of this ad hoc type, though some of them may have been more permanent associations (cf. Thomsen). For dedications by eranistai see IG II³ 4, 634, 640, 649, 654, 655, 661.

Added: 12 Jul 2017
Updated: 28 Sep 2024
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