Maier no. 1 Restoration of the Piraeus walls

Restoration of the Piraeus walls

Maier, Mauerbauinschriften, no. 1 Date: 395/4 BC

In the archonship of Diophantos (395/4), in the month of Skirophorion for day labour (kath’ hēmeran erga). For yoke-teams (5) bringing the stones, payment: 160 dr. For iron tools, payment: 53 dr.^[1]

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References:

Maier, Mauerbauinschriften, no. 1 (Translated text)

IG II² 1656 (PHI)

Syll.³ 124

RO 9a

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes, Feyo Schuddeboom, Robin Osborne

Monument type: Block

Inscription type: Building inscription

Findspot: Piraeus (Lost)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] One of the requirements imposed on Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War was the destruction of the long walls and the Piraeus walls. Athens in effect split from Sparta in 395 by joining Boeotia and other states against Sparta in the Corinthian War (see RO 6) and this inscribed block from the Piraeus, dating to the last month of 395/4, is the earliest evidence for work getting underway on rebuilding the walls. Shortly after this (early 394/3) Pharnabazos and Konon defeated the Spartan fleet at the battle of Knidos, and when Konon came to Athens in 393 he brought with him money from Pharnabazos and made the crews of his ships available to help with the wall-building (Xen. Hell. 4.8.9-10, Diod. 14.85.2-3). For another inscribed block relating to the following year see RO 9b. See also P. Funke, ZPE 53 (1983), 148-89. The payment for tools perhaps suggests that for this type of masonry work the day-labourers were not specialists, who might be expected to supply their own tools, but more or less unskilled or casual workers.

Added: 10 Jan 2017
Updated: 11 Apr 2020
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