AgoraXVI 48 Decree to protest to Aitolian League, 367/6 BC

Decree to protest to Aitolian League, 367/6 BC

Agora XVI 48 Date: 367/6 BC

Gods. Demophilos son of Theoros of Kephale was secretary. The Council and the People decided. Oineis^VI (5) was in prytany. Demophilos son of Theoros of Kephale was secretary. Philippos of Semachidai was chairman. Polyzelos (367/6) was archon. Kephisodotos proposed: since, when the community (koinou) of the Aitolians^[1] accepted the truce for the Mysteries of (10) Eleusinian Demeter and Kore, those of the Eumolpidai and Kerykes who were announcing the truce, Protomachos and Epigenes, were imprisoned by the Trichonians contrary to the common laws of the Greeks,^[2] the Council shall choose (15) forthwith a herald (kēruka) from all Athenians, who shall visit the community (koinon) of the Aitolians and demand the release of the men and . . . judge so that . . . and (20) the Aitol- . . . . . . . . . Eumolpidai and Kerykes . . . . . . (25) . . . . . . for travelling expenses the treasurer (tamian) of the People [30 drachmas] from the People's fund for expenditure on decrees.^[3]

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Greek text

References:

Agora XVI 48 (Translated text) (PHI) (AIO)

RO 35

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, P. J. Rhodes

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Original location: [City Eleusinion]

Findspot: Agora (near city Eleusinion) (Ag. I 7259)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription documents the Athenian decision to make representations to the Aitolian League for the release of the representatives of the Eumolpidai and Kerykes who had been imprisoned by the Trichonians (for reasons unknown) when announcing the truce for the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Mysteries were held in Boedromion, the third month of the year, and we happen to know that Oineis (ll. 4-5) held the third prytany in 367/6 (RO 36, l. 60). So it is the Mysteries of 367 that are at issue. The inscription is important evidence for the existence of an Aitolian League (koinon) over 50 years before it first appears in a literary source (in 314/3, Diod. 19.66.2). Trichonion, in south-west Aitolia, was perhaps a member of the League. Thucydides 3.94 (cf. 96.3) had written of the Aitolians as living in villages and comprising three parts; and Diod. 15.57.1 mentions the Aitolians among the Peoples of northern Greece who became friends of Thebes after her victory over Sparta at Leuktra in 371 BC. Since Athens had become allied with Sparta in 369, this would be compatible with political tensions between the Aitolian League and Athens being a factor in the background to this incident. For Aitolian relations with Athens and other Greek powers later in the 4th century see RO's note, pp. 171-72; IG II³ 1, 381. [2] On the arrangements for the truce for the Eleusinian Mysteries see OR 106. [3] This fund (to which this is an early reference) was also used to cover the costs of stelai erected at public expense, but, though the secretary of the Council (who was responsible for having decrees inscribed) is named (twice) in the heading of this decree, the usual clause providing for its inscription is missing. If this is not simply an accidental omission, it may suggest that the decree was erected (in the city Eleusinion) at the initiative and expense of the Eleusinian officials rather than that of the Assembly. For decrees erected at the initiative of interested parties cf. e.g. IG II³ 1, 337. That would also help explain how, unusually for a decree of ephemeral significance, it came to be inscribed in a permanent medium.

Added: 29 Jul 2014
Updated: 2 Nov 2019
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