Honours for the poet Philippides
IG II3 1 877 Date: 283/2 BC
In the archonship of Euthios (283/2), in the third prytany,
of ⟦AntigonisI⟧,[1] for which Nausimenes son of Nausikydes of CholargosVII was secretary. On the eighteenth of Boedromion, the
nineteenth of the prytany. Principal Assembly.
(5) Of the presiding committee Hieromnemon son of Teisimachos of Koile was putting to the vote and his fellow presiding committee members. The Council
and People decided. Nikeratos son of Phileas of Kephale proposed:
since Philippides has continued at every opportunity
to demonstrate his good will for the People, and
(10) on going abroad to king Lysimachos first
after discussions with the king he delivered to the People a gift
of 10,000 Attic medimnoi of wheat (purōn) which was
distributed to all Athenians in the archonship of Euktemon (299/8);
and also discussed the yard (keraias) and the mast (histou), that
(15) they might be given to the goddess for the robe (peplōi) at the Panathenaia, which
were delivered in the archonship of Euktemon (299/8); and when king
Lysimachos won the battle at Ipsos against Antigonos and Demetrios, those citizens who
perished in the crisis (kindunōi) he buried at his
(20) own expense, while he alerted the king to
those who became prisoners, and after gaining their release,
those wishing to remain in service he arranged that
they be assigned to regiments, and those preferring
to leave he supplied with clothes and travelling money (ephodia) (25) from his own resources and sent them where each wished,
more than three hundred in all; and he pleaded for the
release of as many of those citizens who were captured in
Asia and held prisoner by Demetrios and Antigonos;
and to those Athenians who happen to be at the court at any time he continues
(30) to be useful in whatever way each requests of him;
and since the People have recovered their freedom, he has continued
to say and to do what is in the interests of the
preservation (sōtēriai) of the city, including requesting the king to help
with money and grain, so that the People may remain
(35) free and recover the Piraeus and the
forts as quickly as possible, and concerning all these matters
the king has often testified on his behalf to Athenian ambassadors sent to him; and when he was elected
competition director (agōnothetēs) in the archonship of Isaios (284/3) he complied
(40) with the People willingly from his own resources, and he
sacrificed to the gods the ancestral sacrifices on behalf of the People, and
he gave to all Athenians the . . . for all the
competitions, and he was the first to institute an additional competition
to Demeter and Kore as a memorial (hupomnēma) to the [freedom] (45) of the People; and he managed the other competitions and
sacrifices on behalf of the city, and on all these things he spent
much money from his own resources and rendered accounts
according to the laws, and he has never done anything contrary to
democracy either in word or
(50) deed; so, therefore, that it might be clear to all that the People understands
how to give thanks to its benefactors to the value
of the benefactions they perform, for good fortune, the Council
shall decide: that the presiding committee (proedrous) who are allotted to preside
in the People, when the days for the request (aitēseōs) set by the law
(55) have passed, shall put the matter on the agenda for the
next Assembly according to the law, and submit the opinion
of the Council to the People, that it seems good to the
Council to praise Philippides son of Philokles of Kephale for the excellence and good will which he continues to have for
(60) the Athenian People and to crown him with a
gold crown according to the law and to announce the
crown at the tragedy competition of the Great Dionysia,
and to stand a bronze statue of him in the theatre;
and he shall have dining privileges (sitēsin) in the city hall (prutaneiōi), as will
(65) the eldest of his descendants at the time, and a front row seat (proedrian) at all
competitions that the city puts on; and the board of
administrators (tous epi tēi dioikēsei) shall manage the making of the crown and
the announcement; and the prytany secretary shall
inscribe this decree on a stone stele
(70) and stand it by the temple (neō) of Dionysos; and for
inscribing the stele the board of administrators (tous epi tēi dioikēsei) shall
allocate 20 drachmas from the People’s fund
for expenditure on decrees.
In crown The People.