SEG 57.159 Inscription concerning leasing of land by the trittys Epakreis

Inscription concerning leasing of land by the trittys Epakreis

SEG 57.159 Date: ca. 400-375 BC

. . . ^[1] . . . in the month of Mounichion . . . . . . [provided?] no-one or nothing [prevents it?]. But so that [the Epakreis may know?] . . . . . . money, the - shall stand [a stele, inscribing on it?] . . . . . . those who have paid down the money . . . (5) . . . each of them and the estate . . . . . . under which? . . . . . . the demarchs or trittyarchs . . . having paid the tenths. Of the trittys of the Epakreis.

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Greek text

References:

SEG 57.159 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 2490 (PHI)

SEG 47.27

Agora XIX p. 156

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Lease (trittys Epakreis)

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 8693)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. AIO follows the text of IG with the adjustments noted by Papazarkadas, CQ 57, 2007, 22-32 (SEG 57.159). 2 μὴ κωλύοντος μ]ηδενός, "so long as no-one or nothing prevents it", scil. payment of the rent in Mounichion ? Pap. 2-4 ὅπως δ’ [ἂν καὶ εἰδῶσιν Ἐπακρεις ... | ... ἀργ]ύριον, στῆσαι τὸς ἐ[πιμελητὰς στήλην ... | ἀναγράφειν τὸς κ]ατατιθέντας τὸ ἀργύ[ριον], "and so that the Epakreis may know ... money, the managers shall set up a stele ... and inscribe on it those who pay the money" ? Pap. 6 τὸν ἄρχοντ?]α̣ ἐφ’ ὅτου ... λα[μβάνωσιν, "under which archon, i.e. in what year ? .... they take" ? Pap. 7 [δήμαρ]χοι ("demarchs") (less likely [τριττύαρ]χοι, "trittyarchs") Pap. τὰ ἐπιδέκ[ατα vac.], "the 10% tax, interest payment, deposit or tithe".

This fragmentary inscription is persuasively identified by N. Papazarkadas, CQ 57, 2007, 22-32, as a decree of the old (pre-Cleisthenic) Attic trittys of the Epakreis relating to the leasing of its land. The Epakreis are identified as a trittys only here, but using the group name rather than the plural collective Philochoros FGrH 328 F206 = Steph. Byz. s.v. Semachidai, identifies the deme Semachidai as "of the Epakria", and F94 = Strabo 9.1.20 includes "Epakria" as one of the twelve original cities of Attica. On the basis of our inscription the Epakreis/Epakria were conventionally identified as a Cleisthenic trittys, but those groups are not attested with the religious or financial functions implied by the epigraphical record of the Epakreis, whereas there is good evidence for them in pre-Cleisthenic trittyes, namely the provision for the old trittys Leukotainioi of the tribe Geleontes in the Sacrificial Calendar of Athens as revised at the end of the 5th century BC (AIO 1189, F3, 31-7). Our inscription was found on the Acropolis of Athens, a location crowded with inscriptions erected by numerous different bodies, which helps to explain the (quite unusual) subscribed title in slightly larger letters identifying the issuing body. For a decree of a comparable association, the Tetrapolis, neighbour of the Epakreis to the east, also from the Acropolis, cf. IG II² 1243. For other inscriptions relating to the Epakreis, see IG I³ 258; SEG 32.144.

What demes were components of the Epakreis is not quite clear. The very small deme Plotheia (in Aigeis, bouleutic quota 1) is attested as a member by IG I³ 258 (see further the notes to that inscription). Semachidai, also a very small deme (bouleutic quota 1 in the 4th cent. BC, IG II³ 4, 81, 67-8), but in a different tribe, Antiochis, was also probably a member (Philochoros FGrH 328 F206, see above). The deme seems to have derived its name from a like-named genos which supplied priestesses of Dionysos (Parker, Athenian Religion, 326). It was located conjecturally at Vredou, an unallocated site north of Mt. Pentelikon, by Traill, Demos and Trittys (1986), 139, but a firm basis for the deme's precise location is lacking (see the discussion of Humphreys, Kinship, 1189, noting that it has sometimes been placed in south-eastern Attica, on the basis of the mine named Semacheion, Agora XIX P26, 221). Its association with Dionysos would be consistent with, but does not necessarily imply that it was close to Ikarion, which was itself located immediately to the north of Pentelikon (see IG I³ 1015; and further below).

On the basis that the word "trittys" should originally have meant a tri-partite association rather than, as in Cleisthenes' system, a "third" (of a tribe), Papazarkadas suggests that the Epakreis had a third member. Perhaps the best candidate is Hekale, a deme which, according to Kallimachos' poem, Hekale, was founded by Theseus in memory of an old woman of that name who had shown him hospitality on his way to fight the Marathonian bull (see especially the 2nd edition, 2009, of the fragments of the Hekale by A. S. Hollis). On the poem, the topography of the deme and its members see Humphreys, Kinship, 943-4. Historically, Hekale was a small deme of Leontis, which supplied 1 member of the Council of 500 in the 4th century BC (IG II³ 4, 25, 87-9; IG II³ 1, 417, 71-2; Agora XV 42, 262-3). Traill, Demos and Trittys (1986), 137, would locate Hekale as the easternmost deme of Leontis in this area, at Kukunari, in the hills to the west of the plain of Marathon, and that is apparently consistent with topographical indicators in Kallimachos' poem (Humphreys; but one wonders if the poem is topographically accurate). It is notable that the sacrificial calendar of the Marathonian Tetrapolis, IG II² 1358, which, so far as we know, was unconnected with Hekale, was found there (apparently with its base), which might support the idea that it was the location of a major Tetrapolis sanctuary, but there are also indications that it may have been a more substantial deme site, including stele bases, sherds, votive reliefs (one depicting Aphrodite seated with a dove), etc.; and it was reportedly findspot of a horos of a Herakleion (Humphreys; H. R. Goette and T. Weber, Marathon, 2004, 39). Whether or not Hekale was located at Kukunari, Plut. Thes. 14.2 reports that the demes around about used to gather in the sanctuary of Zeus Hekalesios for a festival, which (if reliable) is consistent with the existence of an archaic association such as the Epakreis in the area. It is also notable, given the relief of Aphrodite found there, that one of the festivals to which the demesmen of Plotheia contributed, was an Aphrodisia, IG I³ 258, 5.

Two other demes are identified by Papazarkadas as candidates for the third component of the Epakreis: Anakaia, a deme of Hippothontis which supplied 3 councillors in the 4th cent. BC (e.g. Agora XV 20, 29-32, Agora XV 43, 190-6); but this is on the slender basis that the Plotheians participated in a festival Anakia (i.e. of the Dioskouroi = Anakes, IG I³ 258, 6) and there is no independent evidence for the deme's precise location (as Papazarkadas points out, its placement at Mygdaleza, Traill, Demos, 137, is conjectural; though for this see also Humphreys, Kinship, 1115-6). Ikarion is the final candidate (on this deme see IG I³ 1015). It is firmly located in the right area and the prominence of its cult of Dionysos would be consistent with our evidence for that cult in Semachidai (see above), and the possible allusion to Dionysos cult in Plotheia, IG I³ 258, 38. On the other hand there is nothing in the abundant documentation of Ikarion that suggests membership of the Epakreis. The evidence for a third component to the Epakreis is inconclusive, and OR 159 raise the possibility that the term "trittys" had lost its original meaning already by this time, and that there were only two members of the association, Plotheia and Semachidai.

Added: 1 Nov 2024
Updated: 1 Nov 2024
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