AIUK42 no. 7 Honours for Euagoras of Salamis, 394/3 BC

Honours for Euagoras of Salamis, 394/3 BC

AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly) no. 7 Date: 394/3 BC

Fragment a

Relief^[1] [Of Euagoras the] Salaminian.^[2] Aristokles son of - of - was secretary. [The Council and People decided]. - was the prytany. Aristokles [was secretary. Euboulides was archon (394/3). -] was chairman. Sophilos (5) proposed:^[3] [since Euagoras] the king (basileus) of the Salaminians [is a good man with regard to the] Athenian People both now [and in time past] . . . [envoys?] sent by . . . of the city . . .

Fragments bc

(10) . . . . . . . . . prytan- . . . . . . Konon . . . Greeks^[4] . . . to praise him [and his sons?] and (15) crown [him with a gold] crown; and the herald [of the Council] shall announce [at the Dionysia in the theatre?] when there is the competition in tragedies,^[5] that the Athenian [People crowns] Euagoras, king of the Salaminians, [for his benefaction] to the Athenians [on behalf] of Greece (Hellados),^[4] . . . shall proclaim (kēruxei) . . . Greeks (?) . . . him and his descendants, a seat of honour (20) . . . at all the competitions that the Athenians [put on]; and the secretary of the Council, having inscribed this decree . . . shall stand it . . . of the statue (agalmatos)^[6] . . . and to praise also the . . . One line uninscribed? Traces?

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly) no. 7 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 20 + Add. p. 656 (PHI)

SEG 33.72 (PHI)

SEG 29.86

Lawton 84

RO 11

Matthaiou, Ἔξι Ἀττικὲς ἐπιγραφὲς 15-34

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes

AIO Images: 1

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)
Aleshire - (1)
Krateros - (1, 2)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Fragment a - Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 7121)
Fragment b - Findspot: Slopes of Acropolis (?) (BM 1959,0414.4)
Fragment c - Findspot: Acropolis (South slope) (EM 6889)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Fragment b, containing the right side of ll. 12-24, was acquired in Athens in 1810 by the Second Marquess of Sligo and purchased by the British Museum from the Sligo estate in 1958. It was first published together with fr. a and fr. c (= IG II² 20), by D. M. Lewis and R. S. Stroud, Hesp. 48 (1979), 180-93 (SEG 29.86), who printed c below b. Matthaiou 2019 shows that c was located to the left of b, with the text running from one fragment to the other.

This inscription supplies valuable evidence for Athens’ relations with Euagoras, king of Salamis on Cyprus, who played a crucial role in securing, in 394/3 BC at the battle of Knidos, the end of the naval hegemony that Sparta had enjoyed in the Aegean since her victory in the Peloponnesian War. It is also important as the earliest inscribed example (albeit very fragmentary) of an award by Athens of “the highest honours” (megistai timai). Of the relief only the bottom right hand corner survives, depicting the feet and lower legs of a standing female figure, presumably a divinity (Salamis, or representing Salamis?). For a more detailed discussion of this inscription see AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly), no. 7. For the decree honouring the seer, Sthorys of Thasos, for his role in the battle of Knidos see IG II² 17. [2] Ruler of Salamis since ca. 411 BC, Euagoras had been honoured by Athens in perhaps ca. 410 or 407 BC by IG I³ 113 (from the Acropolis), which awarded him Athenian citizenship. After the defeat of Athens at Aigospotamoi in 405 BC, the Athenian Konon had taken refuge in Salamis, and with the material support of Euagoras, and under the aegis of the Persian satrap Pharnabazos (who was pursuing a war with Sparta that had been ongoing since ca. 400 BC), he commanded the fleet which inflicted a decisive defeat on the Spartans at the battle of Knidos, early in 394/3 BC (August) (Lys. 19.28, Xen. Hell. 4.3.10; victory accomplished with Konon as general, and Euagoras supplying most of the military force, Isok. 9.56). This marked the end of the ten years of naval dominance Sparta had enjoyed in the Aegean since the end of the Peloponnesian War. The Athenian Assembly honoured both Konon and Euagoras with bronze statues in the Agora (Dem. 20.68-70, Isok. 9.56-57, Paus. 1.3 with 24.3), the first time such a signal honour had been awarded at Athens since the statues of the tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton (on which see IG I³ 502). This seems to have been to an extent the product of a bout of competitive erection of statues of opposing leaders across Greece in the years following the Peloponnesian War, with partisans of Sparta erecting statues of Lysander, and partisans of Athens statues of Konon, who also received statues in Erythrai (RO 8), Ephesos and Samos (Paus. 6.3.16). It can also be seen as part of an effort at persuasive interpretation of what had strictly speaking been a Persian-sponsored victory at Knidos as a Greek victory. Though there is no reference to Euagoras' statue in the surviving text, these fragments are apparently from the decree or series of decrees which awarded it and other honours. Since Euagoras was already an Athenian citizen by decree, it does not technically represent a breach of the convention, which was to apply through the fourth century, that only Athenian citizens were honoured by the Assembly with statues (cf. D. T. Engen, Honor and Profit, 2010, 165). In 390 BC Euagoras sought to enlarge his kingdom at the expense of his neighbours, causing Soloi, Amathous and Kition to appeal to Persia, and putting Athens in an uncomfortable position. The result was war with Persia, resulting in Euagoras' retreating eventually back into Salamis and reacknowledgement of the Persian king as his overlord. Euagoras was assassinated in 374/3 (Diod. 15.47.8, cf. Ar. Pol. 1311b; FGH 115 Theopompos F103.12). Isok. 9 is an encomium on him written for a festival held in his memory in 370 (?) by his son and successor, Nikokles. For Euagoras' involvement in Konon's diplomacy with Dionysios of Syracuse at this time, cf. RO 10 with notes. [3] Sophilos (otherwise unidentifiable) proposed another probouleumatic decree in 394/3 BC, IG II² 19 = Osborne, Nat. D7. Probouleumatic decrees were proposed in the Assembly by the councillor who had sponsored them in the Council, and Athenians could only serve on the Council for two annual terms in a lifetime. This suggests that Sophilos proposed both decrees while a councillor in the same Athenian year as the victory at Knidos, 394/3 (time in the year of this decree is indeterminable). Cf. P. Funke, ZPE 53 (1983), 149-89, especially 152-61 (= SEG 33.72). [4] There was a substantial Phoenician population in Cyprus, but Euagoras belonged to a dynasty which identified as Greek, claiming descent from Aiakos son of Zeus, and Teukros brother of Ajax (Isok. 9.12-20), who, "after he captured Troy, went to Cyprus and settled Salamis, giving it the same name as his former fatherland" [i.e. island of Salamis] (18). Compare Pausanias' remark on Euagoras' motivation for supporting Konon (1.3.1): "Euagoras did this because he considered himself an Athenian and of Salaminian descent". Moreover, although won under the aegis of the Persian satrap, the victory of Knidos was constructed in Athens as achieved by and for Greeks, cf. Isok. 9. 56, 68: as a result Greeks gained freedom (from the Spartans) and autonomy in place of slavery. The erection of the statues of Konon and Euagoras next to the statue of Zeus Soter ("the Saviour"), located in front of the stoa of Zeus Eleutherios ("of Freedom") (cf. Lewis and Stroud, 192 with n. 21) is symbolically significant in this context. [5] "For which reasons we honoured them [Konon and Euagoras] with the greatest honours (megistais timais) and we set up statues (eikonas) of them where the statue (agalma) of Zeus Soter is, near to it and to eachother" (Isok. 9.57). It is unclear whether "the greatest honours" implies at this time a particular package of honours and privileges at Athens (it is a term used epigraphically only later and outside Athens), but later awards of a statue at Athens might be accompanied not only by a gold crown, but a grant of sitesis in the prytaneion (perpetual dining rights, cf. IG I³ 131) and proedria (seat of honour) in the theatre (the next inscribed example is AIUK 2 no. 1, for Asandros of Macedon, in 314/3 BC). Ll. 19-21 awarded Euagoras proedria. It is unclear whether sitesis was awarded, like the statue, in another part of the inscription, not now preserved. On Matthaiou's reconstruction of the inscription, Sophilos' probouleumatic decree was followed on the stone by a rider proposed by Konon, to which ll. 13-23 are a further rider proposed by another man; and Lewis and Stroud thought there might have been a further break in the text after l. 24. It is clear how these riders might have contained further awards. The provision for announcement of the honours at the City Dionysia (15-16) first appears in the decree of 410/9 BC passed by the restored democracy in honour of the assassins of Phrynichos the leading member of the oligarchy of the 400, IG I³ 102, and tends to occur in other contexts, such as this one, in which there is a strong connotation that the honours were awarded for actions that secured "freedom and democracy". For more discussion of this and other aspects of the honours awarded to Konon and Euagoras see the commentary to AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly), no. 7 [6] The word agalma implies a cult statue, not a human one. It might be: (a) the statue of Athena Promachos ("Battle-Leader") on the acropolis. That would be consistent with the discovery of fr. c on the south slope of the acropolis and might have been close to the earlier decree honouring Euagoras, see n. 2 (though in that case one might expect this decree to have been located with reference to the earlier one). For this view cf. Lawton and SEG 59.98 [= M. C. Monaco, ASAtene 87, serie III 9. Tomo I, 2009 [2010], 293-94]; (b) the statue of Zeus Soter in the Agora, near to which the statues of Konon and Euagoras were erected (Isok. 9.57). This view is supported by Lewis and Stroud and by Matthaiou. In the case of the statue for Lykourgos, erected in 307/6, it seems the relevant decree was erected, with a record of other decrees honouring him, on the acropolis, and not next to the statue in the Agora. See IG II² 457 + 3207 with AIO Papers no. 6, p. 4.

Added: 29 Jul 2014
Updated: 7 Jan 2024
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