IGI3 449 Building accounts of Parthenon, 434/3 BC

Building accounts of Parthenon, 434/3 BC

IG I³ 449 Date: 434/3 BC

(370) (375)

For the overseers (epistatesi)^[1] to whom Antikles was secretary;^[2] in the fourteenth Council, to which Metagenes was first secretary,^[3] in the archonship of Krates for the Athenians.^[4] The following are the receipts for this year:

1470 dr. (380) 74 27 and a sixth (385) 25,000 dr. (390) 1,372 dr. 1,305 dr. 4 ob.

Remaining from the previous year: Gold staters Lampsakene; Gold staters Kyzikene.^[5] From the treasurers responsible for the property of the Goddess, to whom Krates of Lamptrai was secretary; from the sale of gold, weight 98 dr.: price of this; from the sale of ivory, weight 3 talents 60 dr.: price of this.^[6]

(395) [(≥) 904 dr. 1 ob.] 1926 dr. 2 ob. (400) 16,392 dr. (≥) 1,831 dr. 2 ob. (405) 74 27 and a sixth

Expenses: for purchases (onematon); for wages (misthomaton): to workers (huporgois) at Pentele: who also place stones on the wheels; to the sculptors of the pediment sculptures (enaietion), wages (misthos); for monthly wages. Surplus for this year: Gold staters Lampsakene Gold staters Kyzikene

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References:

IG I³ 449 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

ML 59

Fornara, Translated documents 120

OR 145

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Robin Osborne

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Account

Fragment a - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6679)
Fragment h - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6674)
Fragments d, e - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6677)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription relates to what we call the Parthenon, but was referred to by contemporaries as the Hekatompedon, "Hundred-footer", the new temple of Athena whose construction was ascribed to Pericles by Lykourgos F9.2 Conomis and later authors (these terms were also used to refer to specific parts of the Parthenon, IG I³ 329 n. 2). It belongs to one of a number of sets of accounts of building works on the acropolis from ca. 450 onwards (IG I³ 433-97). For the accounts of Pheidias' chryselephantine statue of Athena for the Parthenon see IG I³ 458, for the Erechtheion IG I³ 474, the Propylaia IG I³ 462-66. Each project was assigned to an annually changing board of overseers (epistatai), who were allocated sums of money from the treasury of Athena and other sources, and accounted for expenditure both on materials and wages. The Parthenon accounts (IG I³ 436-51) were laid out on a stele, 1.6 m. high and 1.8 m. wide, with the first six years’ entries, from 447/6 to 442/1, on the front, the next seven years’ on the back, and years 14 and 15 on the two narrow faces of the stele. The accounts translated here are for year 14 of the project (434/3) and are the best preserved. Work on the doors of the temple was accounted for separately (IG I³ 461 with Theophrastos Hist. Pl. 3.14.1, 5.3.5, 5.4.2). The accounts allow us to follow the course of the building works, starting in 447/6 with cutting and transporting the stone and work on the road from the quarries of Mount Pentelikon, and including in later years purchase of pine and ivory and wood, and payment for work on columns and doors, and in gold and silver. In 438/7 there is more quarrying but also payment to sculptors working on pedimental sculpture, and similar payments are made in subsequent accounts down to these of 434/3. What appears to be the final year of accounts, for 433/2, preserves no detail of expenditure. [2] First attested as under-secretary to the epistatai of the Parthenon project in 443/2, Antikles took over as secretary in 436/5 and continued in that capacity to the end of the project. [3] At this period the Council held office for a solar year of 365 or 366 days, independent of the archon's (lunar) calendar, and divided into 10 prytanies (periods during which one of the Council's ten tribes served as its executive committee). The epistatai held office for a conciliar year and this was the fourteenth year of the project. The secretary of the Council changed every prytany and the Council's year was named after the secretary in office for the first prytany. Probably from 403/2 BC the Council's year became coterminous with the lunar year (cf. AIO Papers 5, 2-3 and AIO Papers 7) and from the 360s the secretary of the Council held office for a full year (cf. IG II³ 1, 323). [4] The specification that Krates was archon "for the Athenians" is unusual in an Athenian inscription and, like the tribute lists, confirms that the whole project was aimed at a Panhellenic audience (cf. IG I³ 259, n. 5). [5] These amounts in non-Attic currency remained unspent at the end of the year. [6] The accounts show that money for the Parthenon came from various sources, including, apart from some contributions from individuals, the Hellenotamiai, who were responsible for the collection of the tribute of Athens' allies, and surpluses from funds for wall and trireme construction, which derived at least in part from tribute. The lion's share, however, was paid from the treasury of Athena, whose coffers were swollen by her 60th share of the tribute (see IG I³ 259). In 434/3 the epistatai received just 1,470 dr. from the previous board (plus the Lampsakene and Kyzikene staters), ca. 2700 dr. from the sale of gold and ivory (this was perhaps surplus from another job - the ivory was sold cheap and may have been scrap), and, in comparison with other years, a relatively modest 25,000 dr. from the treasurers of Athena. The structure of the building was by this stage complete and the main payments are to sculptors working on pedimental sculptures, one of the last parts of the building to be put in place. The accounts suggest that the Parthenon as a whole cost at least 500 talents (compare the cost of Pheidias' statue, over 700 tal., IG I³ 460, reference to "thousand-talent temples" at Plut. Per. 12.2, and the, it seems exaggerated, claim of Heliodoros ap. Harp. s.v. Propylaia tauta that the cost of the Propylaia was 2,000 tal.).

Added: 20 Jan 2016
Updated: 23 Jul 2017
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