IGII2 5222 Memorial of Athenian cavalry killed in the Corinthian War (394 BC)

Memorial of Athenian cavalry killed in the Corinthian War (394 BC)

IG II² 5222 Date: 394 BC

col. 1

The following cavalrymen died at Corinth: the phylarch Antiphanes

col. 2

Melesias Theangelos

col. 3

Onetorides Phanes

col. 4

Lysitheos Demokles

col. 5

Pandios Dexileos^[1]

col. 6

Nikomachos Endelos

col. 7

at Koroneia: Neokleides

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References:

IG II² 5222 (Translated text) (PHI)

Conze III nos. 1157, 1529

Syll.³ 131

Clairmont, Patrios Nomos, no. 68b

RO 7a

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom, Robin Osborne

Images: Cornell - (1, 2)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary (Public)

Findspot: Kerameikos (NM 754)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The inscription is to the left on the epistyle of a monument, under an ornate moulding (anthemion), and above a relief, now lost. Dexileos is also commemorated by IG II² 6217, enabling this monument to be dated to 394. The context of most of the casualties, including one of the phylarchs (commanders of tribal regiments of cavalry, Ath. Pol. 61.5) is the battle of the river Nemea near Corinth, a Spartan victory early in the "Corinthian War", a conflict which ran from 395 to 387 between Sparta and an alliance of Corinth, Athens, Thebes and Argos, all of whom were uneasy about the way the Spartans were exercising the hegemony that she had achieved by her victory in the Peloponnesian War (Xen. Hell. 4.2.9-23, Diod. 14.83.1-2). Later in the same year a force under the Spartan king, Agesilaos, was victorious at Koroneia in Boeotia (Xen. Hell. 4.3.13-23, Diod. 14.84). It was clearly at this battle that Neokleides (col. 7) lost his life. IG II² 5221 is a further casualty list recording those (infantry) who died "in Corinth and Boeotia" (cf. Paus.1.29.11, who briefly notes the commemoration of "those who fell around Corinth", not distinguishing between cavalry and infantry monuments). Diodoros records ca. 2800 allied casualties at Nemea and over 600 at Koroneia, and Xenophon that 600 Athenian cavalry fought at Nemea. These figures may be exaggerated, but the small number of casualties suffered by the Athenian cavalry in what were on any account major hoplite battles, is in any case remarkable. On the Athenian cavalry see G. Bugh, The Horsemen of Athens (1988); I. Spence, The Cavalry of Classical Greece (1993). They were drawn from wealthier citizens and had been implicated in the Spartan-sponsored regime of the Thirty in 404/3 (Lys. 16, Ath. Pol. 38.2). This resulted in a certain animus against the cavalry in the following years (see e.g. Xen. Hell. 3.1.4, Lysias 26.10). Their prominent commemoration here, despite relatively light casualties, may represent a deliberate re-assertion of common cause with their fellow Athenians (cf. IG II² 6060 with notes). Note in this connection the conventional democratic/collectivist mode of commemoration of casualties on this monument by name only (cf. IG I³ 1147, OR 111 with notes). Indeed, because of this, none of those listed, except Dexileos, is identifiable. It may also be relevant that the funerary oration on the dead in one of the years of the Corinthian War (possibly this year), Lysias 2, presents a relatively positive impression of the attitude adopted towards the oligarchs by the restored democracy (61-65; contrast the bitterness apparent in Lys. 13, 26 and 31). This war seems to have provided an opportunity to strengthen the bonds uniting Athenians of all classes against the common enemy.

Added: 10 Jan 2017
Updated: 8 Apr 2022
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