AIO 1177 Honours for Archelaos, king of Macedon, 407/6 BC (?)

Honours for Archelaos, king of Macedon, 407/6 BC (?)

AIO 1177 Date: 407/6 BC (?)

. . . [Ar]ch[e]la[os] (?)^[1] The Council and the People decided. Akamantis^V was the prytany; Phelleus was the secretary; [Antigenes (407/6) was the archon?];^[2] Sibyrtios was the chairman; (5) - proposed: for the making of [ships] . . . the generals with Pe[rikles] . . . from the current . . . to [the shipwrights? (naupegois)]; and whatever they lend the [trireme-makers? (trieropoioi) shall pay] back to them; (10) and the [generals shall dispatch those detailed?] to sail in order to [fill the ships] as quickly as possible; and if not, they shall be brought before the court on a charge of -; and the [generals are to bring actions concerning] anyone refusing (15) to depart; and [the Council] shall take care of the bringing of whatever ships [the shipwrights] send from Macedonia,^[3] in order that [they may send them as quickly as possible] to Athens and [fill them] and [the army (stratia)] may be brought (20) to [Ionia?] and [keep] the best guard; and if anyone fails to act in accordance with these stipulations, he shall owe - drachmas, sacred to Athena; and to the [first to come] and bring a ship, a [prize (dorean) shall be given] as may be (25) [decided by the People; and since Arche]la[os] both now and in former times is a good man to the Athenians and received those Athenians who sailed out and sent off . . . to the . . . and (30) . . . the camp (stratopedon), and . . . [wood] and oars and other good things, as much as they asked from him, to praise [Archelaos because he] is a good man and keen to do whatever good he can, (35) and in return for his benefactions to the city [and the People of] Athens, to write up [him and his sons] as proxenoi and benefactors on a stone stele on the acropolis, and . . .

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Greek text

References:

AIO 1177 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG I³ 117 + Add. p. 948 (IG Online) (PHI)

ML 91

Walbank, Proxenies, 90

Fornara, Translated documents 161

OR 188

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Robin Osborne

Images: Aleshire - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6644)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Though rather fragmentary, the general sense of this inscription is clear enough: the Athenians are honouring a benefactor whose services include something to do with oars, at the end of a decree which mentions the bringing of ships from Macedonia, and which involves the generals, loans of money, potential court action and a need for speed. The detailed wording, however, is less certain; many of the restorations included in earlier editions are doubtful and we omit altogether some of the most speculative. Macedonia and Thrace were important sources of timber for naval purposes (Theophrastos, Enquiry into Plants 4.5.5; R. Meiggs, Trees and Timber in the Ancient Mediterranean World, 1982, ch. 5). Together with its silver, timber was one of the reasons why Macedon was of strategic importance (cf. Hdt. 5.23.2); and Athenian determination to establish a presence in Thrace (Thuc. 1.100.2-3) was at least partly motivated by a desire to have independent access to timber, as Thucydides makes clear when he explains why Amphipolis was crucial to the Athenians (4.108.1). In Macedonia timber was apparently a royal monopoly (M. Faraguna, Athenaeum² 86, 1998, 367–68; after defeating Perseus, Aemilius Paulus forbade the Macedonians to cut timber for ships, Livy 45.29.14). IG I³ 89, probably dating to the closing years of Perdiccas’ reign (died ca. 413 BC), is an Athenian treaty with Macedon in which the Macedonians agreed that they would export oars only to Athens. Athens’ large fleet (perhaps reaching 400 ships, [Xen.] Ath. Pol. 3.4 with V. Gabrielsen, in F. Burrer and H. Müller eds., Kriegskosten und Kriegsfinanzierung in der Antike, 2008, 52–53), created a strong demand for timber, and this only increased after the major naval losses incurred in Sicily in 413. The Athenians immediately decided to rebuild their fleet (Thuc. 8.1.3, cf. 15.1), and Andokides claims that in 411 he used his friendship with the new Macedonian king, Archelaos, in order to supply oars to the fleet on Samos (Andok. 2.11). Though the name of Archelaos is not fully preserved in this inscription, given the royal monopoly on timber in Macedon, it is a very plausible restoration, and is consistent with traces of the name in ll. 1 and 25. An Athenian decree honouring Antiochides and Phanosthenes for supplying oars probably dates to 410–407, supplying further evidence of Athenian need at this point (IG I³ 182 with B. Macdonald, Hesp. 50, 1981, 141–46; D. T. Engen, Honor and Profit, 2010, nos. 4-5). The emphasis on the supply of oars is notable. They were ‘massive affairs shaped from a single piece of timber’ (J. S. Morrison et al., The Athenian Trireme², 2000, p. 173, cf. 246), often broken in the course of combat, and triremes always carried spare oars in addition to the 170 used on each ship (pp. 111, 136). This is one of only four inscriptions of the fifth century awarding honours for trade-related services. The others are: IG I³ 182 (above); for Lykon of Achaia, IG I³ 74 = Engen no. 1; IG I³ 98 = Engen nos. 2-3. [2] The date is suggested by the space available for restoration of the archon’s name and gains some confirmation from the mason of this inscription, the prolific “Cutter of IG II² 17”, active between 414/3 and 386/5, whose earlier work, including this text, was mostly cut in Attic letters, but who begins to inscribe some official texts in Ionic letters from 410/9 onwards (S. V. Tracy, Athenian Lettering of the Fifth Century BC, 2016). The younger Perikles (l. 6) is known to have been a general in 406/5 (Xen. Hell. 1.5.16; Diod. 13.74.1) and it is plausible that he was also a general in the previous year. [3] This decree apparently provided for the construction of ships in Macedon. D. J. Blackman, in H. Tzalas, ed., Second International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity: Proceedings, 1990, 47–48 (see SEG 40.16) argues from a number of surviving anchors of Athenian triremes made of a dark stone not found in Attica, but native to Thessaly and Chalkidike, that triremes were regularly made near the source of timber rather than constructed at the Piraeus.

Added: 15 Sep 2016
Updated: 7 Nov 2023
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ID: AIO_1177