IGI3 236a Law about the trierarchy

Law about the trierarchy

IG I³ 236a Date: 410-404 BC

. . . ^[1] . . . [repair?] as best as possible and [hand over the ships?] . . . . . . [as they received them?] from the dockyard; and if anyone who has not completed his accounting (hupeuthunos) is chosen . . . . . . [according to the decree which] -iades [proposed], concerning anyone who holds office who has not completed his accounting; and if anyone of those [who are in debt] [to the city does not hand over to the succeeding trierarch either the rigging or] the wooden equipment, it shall be possible for the trierarch to summon (5) [anyone who does not hand over these things within the specified time before the office of the] superintendents (epimeleton) on the basis of two witnesses for the summons, and to write down the [witnesses?] . . . the superintendents shall [bring them] to court on the following day; and if [he does not register a claim that anyone else has the equipment, he shall hand it over to the] injured party; and execution (prachsis) shall be as for a private [debtor]; [if, when the trierarch requests it, he does not hand over a pledge (enechuron), he shall pay] to the public treasury (demosioi) whatever fine the court levies; but the . . . . . . and there shall also be right of forcible exaction (echsagoge) from (peri) the shipbuilders (naupegon) . . . (10) . . . of the trierarch eight drachmas two obols (?) each day . . . . . . [bring them] to court concerning these things within the specified time . . . and if anyone prevents, on the same basis; and the trierarch . . . so that it may be possible for anyone who wishes to use it, the trierarch shall invite . . . whenever the People so decides, also the names . . . . . .

Previous - IG I³ 234 + Add. p. 956 Next - IG I³ 237

References:

IG I³ 236a (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

Koerner, Gesetzestexte 16

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

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

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Law

Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 727)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This law about the trierarchy belongs to the revision of Athenian law carried out in 410/9-405/4 BC (on which see IG I³ 104 with n. 1). It is inscribed in Attic script on the reverse of F3 of the sacrificial calendar in Ionic script produced by the second phase of the law revision, 403/2-400/399, SEG 52.48A (q.v. for further details about the stone). The calendar is inscribed in an erasure which may originally have carried the text of the earlier part of the trierarchic law, which now begins in full flow at the top of the stone. Captaining, and meeting certain of the costs of, a warship for a year was one of the public financial duties, or liturgies, to which the wealthiest Athenians were liable under the Classical democracy (see V. Gabrielsen, Financing the Athenian Fleet, 1994). The ships themselves were supplied by the city and the preserved part of the law appears to start with a provision requiring trierarchs to return them to the dockyards in the state in which they received them (ll. 1-2). The following text makes clear that the trierarch, like other Athenian officials, was required to render accounts at the end of his term of office (cf. Gabrielsen, 137), and provides for the situation where a trierarch who has not yet completed his accounting is chosen to fill another office (ll. 2-3). It then goes on to provide for the case in which a new trierarch does not duly receive the ship’s equipment (divided into “rigging”, literally “hanging gear”, which included sails, and wooden items) from his predecessor (ll. 3-9). Restoration of the text at this point (of which the gist is clear, if not the detailed wording) is largely based on [Dem.] 47, a speech delivered by a trierarch attempting to collect his equipment from an allegedly recalcitrant predecessor in 357/6 BC. On the implied differences between this law and the law in force then see J. H. Oliver, Hesp. 4 (1935), 16-19; Gabrielsen, 160. L. 9 seems to give the trierarch the right to seize (naval equipment? ships?) from the shipbuilders, presumably in cases where the shipbuilders themselves are refusing to give him what is needed to fulfil his functions. The context of the provisions in ll. 10-14 is obscure. The small fragment IG I³ 236b has been thought to be part of the same law.

Added: 10 Jan 2017
Updated: 20 Apr 2021
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