Lease of public land by the deme Aixone, 345/4 BC

IG II2 2492 Date: 345/4 BC
 
On the following terms the Aixoneans have leased the Phelleïs[1] to Autokles son of Auteas and to Auteas son of Autokles for forty years, for one hundred and fifty-two drachmas each year, on condition that they undertake (5) plantings and use it in whatever other way they wish. They shall pay the rent in the month of Hekatombaion, and if they do not pay it, the Aixoneans shall have right of seizure (enechurasian) both of the crops from the property (chōriou) and of all the other property of the one who does not pay. (10) The Aixoneans shall not be permitted to sell or lease it to anyone else, until the forty years have expired. If enemy troops prevent access or destroy anything, the Aixoneans shall have half of what is produced on the property.[2] When the forty years (15)have expired, the lessees shall hand over half of the land uncultivated (cherron), and such trees as there are on the property. The Aixoneans shall send in a vinedresser (ampelourgon) for the last five years.[3] The term of the lease begins with the archonship of Euboulos (345/4) for the cereals (Dēmētriou karpou), and with the successor of Euboulos (20) for the woody products (xulinou);[4] and having inscribed the lease on stone stelai, the treasurers in the demarchy of Demosthenes shall stand one in the sanctuary of Hebe, inside, and the other in the hall (leschei), and boundary markers on the property no less than three feet high, two on each side;[5] and if any (25)property-based tax (eisphora) is levied on the property for the city, the Aixoneans shall pay it, and if the lessees pay it, it shall be counted towards their rent.[6] No one shall be permitted to take any earth dug on the property away from the property itself. If anyone makes or puts to the vote a proposal contrary to this (30)agreement (sunthēkas) before the forty years have expired, he shall be liable to the lessees to a legal action for damage (blabēs). Eteokles son of Skaon of Aixone proposed: whereas the lessees of the Phelleïs, Autokles and Auteas, have agreed to cut back (ekkopsai) the olive trees for the Aixoneans, to choose men who, (35) together wih the demarch and the treasurers and the lessee will sell the olive trees to the highest bidder, and having calculated the interest (tokon) on the money thus obtained at the rate of one drachma (per mina per month),[7] to subtract half of it from the rent and inscribe on the stelai that the rent is that much less. (40) The Aixoneans are to receive the interest (tokon) on the money from the sale of the olive trees. The buyer is to cut back the olive trees when Anthias[8] has collected the harvest (karpon) in the archonship following that of Archias (346/5), before the ploughing (aroto), and leave stumps (mukētas) of no less than a palm high in the pits (perichutrismasin), (45) so that the olive trees become as fine and big as possible in these (forty) years. These men were chosen to sell the olive trees: Eteokles, Nauson, Hagnotheos.[9]