IGI3 501 Dedication of the spoils of victory over the Boeotians and Chalkidians

Dedication of the spoils of victory over the Boeotians and Chalkidians

IG I³ 501 Date: A: ca. 505 BC; B: 480 – 446 BC

Base A^[1] [With a painful iron chain], the sons of [the Athenians quenched arrogance (hubrin), in deeds of war], [when they tamed the races (ethnea) of the Boeotians and Chalkidians], from whom they dedicated these mares [to Pallas as a tithe (of the spoils)].

Base B When they tamed [the races (ethnea) of the Boeotians and Chalkidians in deeds of war], the sons of the Athenians, [with a painful iron chain], quenched [arrogance (hubrin)], from whom they dedicated these mares [to Pallas] as a tithe (of the spoils).

Previous - Fornara, Translated documents 15 Next - Fornara, Translated documents 44B

References:

IG I³ 501 (Translated text) (PHI) (IG Online)

SEG 66.16

Raubitschek, Dedications 168

Raubitschek, Dedications 173

ML 15

CEG 1, no. 179

Fornara, Translated documents 42

Immerwahr, Script, 77 no. 457

Petrovic, Versinschriften Ep. 7

Kaczko, Attic Dedicatory Epigrams, 1a, 1b

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (Athenians), Dedication (Athena)

Original location: Acropolis (near the Propylaia)

A - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6286)
B (fr. a) - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6287α)
B (fr. b) - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6287)
B (fr. d) - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 12410)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The inscriptions were part of a victory monument celebrating the double victory of the Athenians over the Boeotians and Chalkidians of Euboea in 507/6 BC, which consisted of the iron chains of the prisoners and a bronze quadriga made from their ransom (Hdt. 5.77). Base A probably formed part of the original monument, set up immediately after the victory and destroyed during the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC. The monument was rebuilt, with a new inscription (Base B), in which the first and third lines of the epigram were reversed. This version was seen and transcribed by Hdt. 5.77.4, which is the source of the restorations in the inscribed text. It is repeated by Diod. 10.24; Greek Anthology 6.343; Aristides Or. 49.380; P. Oxy. 31.2535. The last of these attributes the epigram (questionably) to Simonides and it is therefore included in modern collections (Page FGE III = Bergk 132 = Diehl 100; see now Kaczko 1a, 1b = SEG 66.16). The date of the restored monument is uncertain. Possible occasions include the victory over the Boiotians at Oinophyta in 458/7 or Athens’ defeat of the revolt of Euboea in 446 (cf. IG I³ 40), but it might also have been restored in the immediate aftermath of the Persian wars (cf. AIO Papers 8, 14).

Herodotos says the monument stood “immediately on the left-hand side as one enters the Propylaia”. This has been thought to clash with Pausanias 1.28.2, who describes the same monument along with Pheidias’ Athena Promachos on the acropolis inside the Propylaia, leading to complicated theories about the relocation of the monument at some point between Herodotos and Pausanias. However, if Pausanias discusses the monument and the Athena Promachos together because they are both victory monuments which he has not yet mentioned, there would not necessarily be an implication that they were located next to each other. Alternatively, if Herodotos can be taken as having meant to write, "as one [enters the acropolis] through the Propylaia", this would be consistent with a location for our monument next to the Athena Promachos (cf. R. G. Osborne, in E. J. Bakker et al., Brill’s Companion to Herodotus, 2002, 497–520 at 511 n. 15). On this as an example of a "converted" victory dedication see IG I³ 517 with notes and J. Whitley, in S. D. Lambert ed., Sociable Man. Essays ... Nick Fisher (2011), 173. For a recently published dedication from Thebes commemorating military activities of Theban troops, perhaps in the context of the invasion of Attica by Cleomenes of Sparta and his allies which culminated in the Athenian victory recorded in our dedication, see SEG 56.521. Intriguingly the Theban dedication seems to refer in l. 3 to liberation of captives from Chalkis (-αι Χαλκίδα λυσάμενοι).

Added: 13 Mar 2018
Updated: 14 Dec 2022
Feedback

ID: AIO_1406