AIO 803 Decree admitting Methymna to the Second Athenian League, 378/7 BC (?)

Decree admitting Methymna to the Second Athenian League, 378/7 BC (?)

AIO 803 Date: 378/7 BC (?)

The Council and the People decided.^[1] - was in prytany. Kall- of Alopeke was secretary. Simon of - was chairman. Astyphilos proposed: concerning what the Methymnaians say, since (5) the Methymnaians are allies and well disposed to the city of Athens, so that their alliance may be also with the other allies of the Athenians, the secretary of the Council shall inscribe them (10) just as the other allies also are inscribed.^[2] The embassy (presbeian) of the Methymnaians shall swear the same oath as the other allies swore, to the representatives (sunedrois) of the (15) allies and the generals and the cavalry commanders (hipparchois). And there shall swear to the Methymnaians the representatives (sunedrous) of the allies and the generals and the cavalry commanders (hipparchos) in the same way. Aisimos and the (20) representatives (sunedros) for the oaths shall take care that the officials (archai) of the Methymnaians swear like the other allies.^[3] Praise the city of Methymna and invite the ambassadors (presbes) of the (25) Methymnaians to hospitality (xenia).

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Greek text

References:

AIO 803 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 42 (PHI)

Syll.³ 149

SdA II 258

RO 23

Matthaiou, Grammateion 2013 a, 44-46 (l. 20) (Grammateion)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes

Images: Aleshire - (1)
Krateros - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6914)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Apart from the Prospectus of the Second Athenian League, RO 22, several inscriptions relating to the accession of new members are extant. For the time being we follow RO in including two of these on AIO, this one relating to Methymna on Lesbos, and RO 23. Others relating to Byzantium, Thebes and Chalkis are very fragmentary, their texts are to a greater or lesser extent uncertain, and we propose to include them on AIO when they have been authoritatively published in IG II³ fasc. 1 (ed. A. P. Matthaiou; see in the meantime the notes in RO pp. 107-109). [2] This would seem to be a reference to the list of members appended to RO 22, where Methymna is indeed included (col. 1, 81) in among the earliest members named by Diodoros: Chios, Byzantium, Rhodes, Mytilene. This suggests that while, as this decree also implies, Methymna was not among the very first members, it joined very early, perhaps at around the same time as RO 22 was passed. It is clear from ll. 6-8 that, like Chios (cf. RO 20), Methymna already had a bilateral alliance with Athens. This must have been made sometime after ca. 390, when it was an ally of Sparta (Xen. Hell. 4.8.29) and might, like the Chian alliance, date to the period following the King's Peace in 386. [3] Aisimos is not a common name and he is probably identifiable with the Aisimos who played a leading role in the restoration of democracy in 403 BC (Lys. 13.80-82) and the Aisimos who was also an envoy in relation to the Chian alliance of 384/3, RO 20, l. 40. His mission here is, with allied representatives, to go to Methymna to receive the oaths of the officials there, ratifying the oaths sworn in Athens by the Methymnaian envoys.

Added: 29 Jul 2014
Updated: 3 Dec 2018
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ID: AIO_803