Matthaioutaenteistelei 57–70 Reaffirmed alliance with Egesta, 418/7 BC

Reaffirmed alliance with Egesta, 418/7 BC

Matthaiou, Ta en tei stelei, 57–70 Date: 418/7 BC

Fragment c

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Athenians . . . (5) . . . Egestaians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fragment a

. . . . . . oath[s?] of the Athenians and Egestaians.^[1]

Decree (Council and People) The Council and the People decided. – was the prytany. – was secretary. [– was chairman?]. [An]tiphon^[2] was archon (418/7). Ar– proposed: . . . give to them . . . (5) . . . . . . . . . victims as many . . . swear the oath. So that [all?] shall swear let the generals take care . . . (10) . . . the men administering the oath so [that they shall administer the oath to the Egestaians?] . . . This decree and the oath the secretary of the Council shall inscribe on a stone stele on the acropolis: let the official sellers (poletai) make the contract; and let the payment officers (kolakretai) pay the money. Also to invite the Egestaians’ embassy to hospitality (15) in the city hall (prutaneion) at the customary time.

Decree (People) (15) Euphemos proposed: in other respects in accordance with the Council, but in future when [envoys (presbes) come from Egesta?] let the herald (keruchs) bring them forward . . . . . . Lines missing

Fragment b

[These] of the Egestaians . . . (20) . . . son of -ikinos, Ap- . . .

Decree for Halikyai follows (IG I³ 12)

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Greek text

References:

Matthaiou, Ta en tei stelei, 57–70 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG I³ 11 (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 61.48

ML 37

Bradeen and McGregor, Studies, 81 (ab, l. 10)

SdA II 139

Fornara, Translated documents 81

Immerwahr, Script, 107 no. 739

OR 166 (ab, l. 1)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes

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

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People), Decree (People)

Original location: Acropolis

Fragment a - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6568)
Fragment b - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6806)
Fragment c - Findspot: Acropolis (east slope) (Athens Ephoria NK 3174)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Egesta was the hellenised city in north-west Sicily whose appeal for support against Selinous led Athens to despatch the fateful Sicilian expedition in 415 BC (Thuc. 6.6). This inscription perhaps records the renewal in 418/7 of an alliance Athens had made with Egesta in 427 BC, at the time of a war in Sicily in which Athens had been involved (Thuc. 3.86). The Egestan delegates reminded the Athenians of this alliance in 415 (Thuc. 6.6.2). The text of the oaths for Egesta is followed on the stone by 6 very fragmentary lines of a decree for an alliance with Halikyai, which was south of Egesta. See IG I³ 12. The very fragmentary fr. c, published in 2011, apparently belongs either to the text of the treaty with Egesta which may have preceded the oaths (fr. ab), or possibly in the gap between fr. a and fr. b. [2] The reading of this archon's name is difficult and has been controversial (names of archons in the 450s, Ariston or Habron, were earlier suggested), but from our own autopsies of the stone we are satisfied, as is Matthaiou, that Antiphon, the archon of 418/7 BC, is the best reading; and except for IG I³ 53 and 54 (and cf. also IG I³ 4) no Athenian decree prescript names an archon before the mid-420s (the earliest regular example is probably IG I³ 21, of 426/5, while such datings do not become common until 421/0, cf. IG I³ 82). The dating of this decree used to be important in relation to the question whether the older form of sigma with three-bars (as in our Greek text, fr. c l. 6) occurred in official Athenian inscriptions after ca. 450 BC. It is now clear, from this and a number of other texts, that it does occur after this date (see Tracy, Athenian Lettering). This has opened the way to arguments for lower datings of inscriptions dated before ca. 450 BC in IG I³, though many datings in the period between ca. 454 BC, when Athens started regularly inscribing decrees, and 421/0 BC, when archons commonly begin to be named in prescripts, remain uncertain.

Added: 8 Oct 2013
Updated: 24 Jun 2019
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