IGII2 1254 Honorific decree of the Paraloi

Honorific decree of the Paraloi

IG II² 1254 Date: after ca. 350 BC

Gods. The Paraloi decided.^[1] Since Meixigenes continues to be a good and just man (5) regarding the Paraloi, the Paraloi shall decide, to crown Meixigenes son of Mikon of Cholleidai for his excellence (aretēs) and justice (dikaiosunēs) towards the Paraloi (10) with a golden crown of - drachmas; and that the Paraloi will also always assign him a portion, whenever they sacrifice to Paralos;^[2] and to inscribe this decree on (15) a stone stele and set it up in the Paralion; and the managers (epimelētas) in office in the treasurership (tamieuontos) of Diophantos^[3] (20) are to take care of setting it up; and after they have given an account of whatever they spend on the inscription and erection of the stele, when the next meeting (sullogos) takes place they will be reimbursed by the Paraloi.

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References:

IG II² 1254 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 46.162 (l. 1) (PHI)

Dain, I Bardo 2

Petzl, Das Wrack no. 2

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Paraloi)

Original location: Piraeus, Paralion

Findspot: Tunisia, Mahdia shipwreck (Bardo Museum D1140)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The Paraloi supplied the crew of the Paralos, one of the Athenian sacred triremes, which were used for religious and diplomatic missions as well as warfare (B. Jordan, The Athenian Navy in the Classical Period, 1975, 172-84; W. Bubelis, Historia 59, 2010, 385-411 at 392-408). This decree shows that they also formed an association which worshipped the hero Paralos, a son of Poseidon who was said to have invented the warship (Schol. in Demosth. 8.29; Pliny NH 7.207; R. Garland, The Piraeus, 1987, 104, 131-32, 210, 237-38). SEG 46.163 is another decree from their sanctuary in the Piraeus, the Paralion: note also the dedications IG II³ 4, 256 and IG II³ 4, 259 (on SEG 21.241, which does not perhaps refer to Para[los], but Para[mmon], see Petzl, Das Wrack, 381-86, 393-95 no. 1 = SEG 46.122; F. Colin, ZPE 107, 1995, 213-6 = SEG 45.2288, and BIFAO 97, 1997, 97-108). This stele is one of several inscriptions recovered from a ship that sank off the Tunisian coast in the mid-first century BC, which, it is often thought, may have been transporting them for sale on the Roman art market or using them as ballast (but Petzl, republishing the inscription [= SEG 46.162], doubts these theories and suggests that the inscriptions may have been thrown in at the last minute or were survivals from a previous voyage [393, 396-7 = SEG 46.28]). [2] Presumably, therefore, Meixigenes was not himself a member of the Paraloi. He was priest of Dionysos in the Piraeus and leader of a group of Piraeus priests honoured by the Assembly in the 330s, IG II³ 1, 416. [3] Diophantos may be the same individual who co-led the expedition of the Paralos to Alexander in 331 BC (Arrian, Anab. 3.6). For the treasurer (tamias) of the Paraloi, see IG II³ 4, 256.

Added: 2 Apr 2019
Updated: 19 Jul 2022
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