IGII2 1047 Assembly Decrees, 49/8 BC

Assembly Decrees, 49/8 BC

IG II² 1047 Date: 49/8 BC

. . . [and so that a memorial] may exist^[1] . . . . . . the prytany secretary [shall inscribe this decree] [on a stone stele and erect it] on the Acropolis, and [for the manufacture and] the setting up of the stele (5)[the treasurer of the stratiotic funds (?) shall allocate the expense accrued]^[2] [In the archonship of Demochares after] Demetrios (49/8), in the - prytany, of Hippothontis^IX . . . - son of -stokles of Apollonieis^XII was the secretary . . . on the thirty-third (day?) of the . . . . . . and the twenty- -th of the prytany.^[2] (10)[Principal Assembly. Of the presiding committee] Philistides son of Phani- [was putting to the vote] [and his fellow presiding committee members. The Council and the] People [decided]. Xen- [son of - of - proposed] . . . ^[3]

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References:

IG II² 1047 (Translated text) (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Krateros - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Original location: Acropolis?

Findspot: Athens (Psyri) (EM 7619)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This fragment contains the end of one Assembly decree and the beginning of another. The date is established by the archon list IG II² 1713, ll. 22-23. This makes this inscription the first firmly dated decree of the People since the Sullan sack in 86 BC (on decrees of the Council and People in this period, see I Rhamnous 423 with notes). It also places the inscription in the first year of the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus, when Athens was on the side of Pompey, with whom they had previously enjoyed good relations (cf. IG II² 4101). One of Caesar's legates, Q. Fufius Calenus, assaulted Piraeus unsuccessfully in March of 48 BC (Cassius Dio 42.14.1, cf. Supplementum Inscriptionum Atticarum VI 36) and Athenian troops served with Pompey until Caesar defeated him at the Battle of Pharsalos in August of 48 BC (Lucan, Pharsalia 3.181-83; App. Bell. Civ. 2.315), early in the archon year following this inscription. After Pharsalos, Athens surrendered to Caesar (App. Bell. Civ. 2.368; Cassius Dio 42.14.2) and erected several honorific statues for him (Agora XVIII 249; ID 1587; IG II² 3222). If "memorial" in l. 1 is correctly restored, then these are likely honorific decrees (on Athens' role in this conflict, see Habicht, Athens, 350-53). [2] The treasurer of the stratiotic funds, tentatively restored here, also appears in ephebic decrees of 43/2-42/1 BC (IG II² 1041) and 40/39-39/8 BC (AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees), no. 16) and his presence, instead of the hoplite general and herald of the Areopagos, has sometimes been interpreted as a sign of the institution of a more democratic regime at Athens in the 40s BC (discussion in Habicht, Athens, 314-19). [3] From the mid-fourth century BC through the Hellenistic Period, the secretary each year was chosen according to a tribal cycle (see AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees), p. 9 n. 49). The secretary in this inscription shows that he belonged to the deme Apollonieis, created for the new tribe of Attalis^XII in 201/0 BC (l. 7). The secretary in IG II² 1046 of 52/1 BC belongs to either Aigeis^II or Kekropis^VIII. This indicates that the secretary cycle had broken down by the mid-first century BC (D. J. Geagan, Hesperia 40, 1971, p. 108 n. 46). The rest of the text in ll. 8-9 is not in the normal format for the prescript of a decree (one expects a date by month and then by prytany, but the date by month seems to take up too much space and a month should not contain 33 days).

Added: 12 Dec 2022
Updated: 20 May 2024
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ID: AIO_2603