IGII2 1069 Honours for Julius Nikanor the New Homer and New Themistokles

Honours for Julius Nikanor the New Homer and New Themistokles

IG II² 1069 Date: 9 BC – ca. 75 AD, probably 40s AD

With good fortune of Augustus Caesar . . . ^[1] when Lakon was archon and priest of Drusus the consul . . . ^[2] Assembly in the ninth prytany . . . Of the presiding committee Euthydomos of A- was putting to the vote [and his fellow members of the presiding committee] . . . of the (5) Council of the Areopagos and the Council of [the 600^[3] . . . to praise Julius] Nikanor the New Homer and New [Themistokles] . . . ^[4] and competition-director (agōnothetēn) of the Augustan [games (Sebastōn agōnōn) . . . ]^[5] elected [general?] for the year [in which – was archon, on account of the care (epimeleian) and attention (phronēsin)?], which he gave . . . (10) Nikanor . . .

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References:

IG II² 1069 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 31.108 (date)

Schmalz 7

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (People)

Findspot: Athens (Lost)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is a decree of the People in honour of Julius Nikanor “the New Homer and New Themistokles” of Hierapolis Bambyke in Syria (Steph. Byz. sv. Ἱεραπόλις), apparently passed in response to a request from the Council of the Areopagos and the Council of Six Hundred (ll. 4-5, on public decrees of the first two centuries AD, see SEG 21.499, with notes). Nikanor is named as competition director (agonothetes) of the Augustan Games (Sebasta agones) and hoplite general elect. In SEG 26.166, probably from the following year, he is named as hoplite general. SEG 55.248bis is an agreement regarding land that he purchased for the Athenians on Salamis. It is likely that this honorific decree is connected to the agreement (the two texts were thought to be parts of the same inscription by B. D. Meritt, Hesperia 36, 1967, 68) and perhaps he was elected hoplite general in order to put the agreement into effect. The decree is probably responsible for his titles “New Homer and New Themistokles” (see below) and for a series of honorific statues on the Acropolis, at Piraeus and at Eleusis (IG II² 3786-3788, I Eleusis 362, AIO 2655). He is never named with a praenomen or a demotic. G. Julius Nikanor son of Areios of Alexandria, a philosopher and friend of Augustus, who also received a statue base at Athens (IG II² 3785) is a different person (L. Robert, REG 94, 1981, 348-49). [2] Nikanor’s activity is variously placed under Augustus (G. W. Bowersock ANSP 7, 2002, 12-15; Schmalz; C. P. Jones, ZPE 178, 2011, 79-83), in the first half of i AD (C. Habicht, ZPE 111, 1996, 81-84), in the mid-i AD (K. Clinton in I Eleusis II, p. 328), ca. 60-65 AD (Byrne, Roman Citizens, 521-22), and ca. 61-110 AD (E. Kapetanopoulos, Hellenika 33, 1981, 217-37; Woodhead, Agora XVI, p. 477). The evidence is not decisive, but tends toward a date in the 40s AD. This inscription must post-date the introduction of the priesthood of Drusus in 9/8 BC. The invocation of Augustus Caesar in l. 1 suggests a date in his reign, but if the full invocation is “of Augustus Caesar and the Augustan house,” then it would belong after AD 14 (a range of possible restorations in S. Follet in S. Follet ed., L'hellénisme d'époque romaine 2004, 147). Tiberius Claudius Novius was the first agonothetes of the Augustan Games in 40/1 AD (IG II² 3270), so Nikanor’s agonothesia (l. 7) should post-date that. SEG 26.166, which names Nikanor as general probably also names the herald of the Areopagos as Tiberius Claudius Theogenes (see textual note there), who would have received Roman citizenship from Claudius or Nero (41-61 AD) and whose son is probably the herald in IG II² 1990, l. 2 of 61/2 AD. The terminus ante quem is the reference to Nikanor in Dio Chrysostom, which probably dates to the 70s AD (C. P. Jones, The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom, 1978, 133). P. Cartledge and A. Spawforth identify the archon Lakon with Gaius Julius Lakon, whose father Eurykles was the de facto ruler of Sparta from 30 BC until Augustus sent him into exile ca. 7-2 BC. Julius Lakon was restored to power by Tiberius after AD 14, exiled in 33, restored by Caligula ca. 37-41 (Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, 2002, 92-93), and was dead by ca. 54-59. If the Spartan is the archon here, it seems unlikely that the Athenians would have appointed him while his family was out of imperial favour. [3] In the Imperial period, the Areopagos, Council and People could all pass decrees and would then pass them to the other two decision-making bodies so that they could consider similar decrees. The usual order is Council, then People (resulting in a single decree), followed by the Areopagos (e.g., AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees) no. 17 and IG IV² 1, 83), but in this case it seems the Areopagos and Council had already passed decrees. [4] Nikanor’s titles “New Homer and New Themistokles” presumably honour him for his work as an epic poet and his endowment on Salamis respectively. Titles like these, which link contemporary figures to mythical and Classical heroes are attested for several civic benefactors and authors throughout the Greek world in the Imperial period, e.g., Ti. Claudius Crispianus “the New Epaminondas” at Messene (IvO 447-48), Pompeius Macrinus “the New Theophanes” at Mytilene (IG XII.2, 235), Junius Laberius Makedon "the New Bakchios" on Thasos (IG XII.8 387), Aelius Paion "the New Homer" at Side (IK Side 70); Arrian "the New Xenophon" at Athens and elsewhere (Suda Α 3868); G. Julius Longianus juxtaposed with “the old Herodotos” at Aphrodisias (IAPh2007 12.27; cf. L. Robert, REG 94, 1981, 352-61). At Athens and elsewhere, similar titles connect triumvirs, emperors, and members of the Imperial family to the gods, e.g., Marcus Antonius "the New Dionysos" (IG II² 1043, l. 23), Gaius Caesar “the New Ares” (IG II² 3250), Antoninus Pius "the New Dionysos" (AIUK 4.3A (BM, Decrees), no. 9). Compare the emphasis on descent from mythical and Classical figures in IG IV² 1, 82-84, ll. 29-32. Nikanor’s titles (but not his actual name) were later erased from most of his inscriptions, perhaps as a result of criticism of them which seems to be preserved by Dio Chrysostom, who says that “the disparagers of the city [of Athens] are also accustomed to speak of the epigram on the statue of Nikanor” (Or. 31.116). "Epigram" should mean a poem and Raubitschek proposed to identify it with SEG 29.192, a poetic inscription from a statue of a personification of the Iliad (Hesperia 23, 1954, 317-19), but this seems to be too late. Most likely Dio uses the word loosely to refer to the titles. [5] The Augustan Games, also called the Great Caesarea Augusta, the Great Caesarea, and the Games of the Augustan House, established at the accession of Claudius in 41 AD, are attested intermittently through the first century and once in 209/10. See IG II² 3270, 4174, F Delphes III.1 534, l. 18, I Eleusis 358, 356, IG II² 3535, 3571, Agora XV 460, ll. 15-16, with F. Camia, Theoi Sebastoi, 2011, 105-6. Similar festivals were inaugurated at Corinth in AD 43 and in other cities of Achaia under Claudius (Corinth VIII.3, 153 with J. Wiseman in E. R. Gebhard and T. E. Gregory, Bridge of the Untiring Sea, 2015, 238-39).

Added: 20 May 2023
Updated: 17 Aug 2024
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