Dedication from Acharnai with military oaths
RO 88 Date: Ca. 335-325 BC
Oath of the ephebes[2] (5) Ancestral oath of the ephebes, which the ephebes
must swear. I shall not disgrace the sacred weapons,
nor shall I desert the man beside me, wherever I
stand in the line. I shall defend the sacred (hierōn) and
the divinely sanctioned (hosiōn)[3] and I shall not leave the fatherland diminished,
(10) but greater and better, as far as I am able and
with all, and I shall obey those in
authority (krainontōn) at any time mindfully (emphronōs) and the laws
established and those established in future
mindfully (emphronōs); and if anyone seeks to destroy them, I shall not
(15) permit him as far as I am able and with all,
and I will honour the ancestral sacred things. Witnesses:
the gods Aglauros, Hestia, Enyo, Enyalios, Ares
and Athena Areia, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, Hegemone,
Herakles, and the boundaries of my fatherland, wheat,
(20) barley, vines, olives, figs.
Oath of Plataia[2] Oath which the Athenians swore when they were about
to fight against the barbarians.
I shall fight while I live, and I shall not reckon
living of more account than being free, and
(25) I shall not desert the taxiarch nor the
enomotarch, whether living or dead,
and I shall not retreat unless the leaders
lead the way, and I shall do whatever the generals
order, and shall bury
(30) the dead of those who were allies on the spot,
and shall leave no-one unburied; and
having been victorious fighting the barbarians, I shall tithe
the city of the Thebans, and I shall not destroy
Athens or Sparta or Plataia (35) or any of the other cities that were allied,
and I shall not overlook those who
are oppressed by hunger, nor shall I bar them from running water,
whether they are friends or enemies;
and if I adhere to what has been written
(40) in the oath may my city be free from disease,
if not, diseased; and may my city be unsacked,
but if not, may it be sacked; and may mine (scil. my land) be fruitful,
but if not, may it be barren; and may the women bear children
like their parents, but if not, monsters; and may the
(45) animals (boskēmata) bear young like the animals,
but if not, monsters. They swore these oaths, covered
the sacrificial victims (sphagia) with their shields,
and at the sound of the trumpet (salpiggos) they made a curse (aran): if
they transgressed anything that they had sworn and did not
(50) adhere to what was written in the oath,
those who had sworn would be accursed.