SEG 34.107 Decree of Thorikos about <i>choregiai</i>

Decree of Thorikos about choregiai

SEG 34.107 Date: ca. 420-400 (409?) BC

Gods.^[1] Lysippides was de[march and?] was putting to the vote; the Thorikians [decided]; Teleas [proposed: to sell?] (5)three theatrical sponsorships (chorēgias) [to those who] give most . . . [not?] less than three or thirty ? . . . . . . . . .

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References:

SEG 34.107 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 56.199

Csapo and Wilson II, 262-6

Russo, Ripartizioni, D102

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Matthew Hewitt

Monument type: Fragment of white marble

Inscription type: Decree (deme Thorikos)

Findspot: Thorikos (south of retaining wall of theatre orchestra) (Laurion Museum TE 83.02)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note With Csapo and Wilson, AIO's translation follows the text of the first edition by J. Bingen in H. F. Mussche et al., Thorikos VIII, 1972-76 [1984], 175-77 no. 75 (SEG 34.107). Csapo and Wilson note some additional (uncertain) suggestions for supplements, including by D. Summa, ZPE 157, 2006, 77-78 no. 1 (SEG 56.199). The alphabet is Ionic rather than Attic, but the letter forms and orthography suggest a date around the late fifth century BC (ca. 400 BC, Bingen; ca. 420 BC, Csapo and Wilson following Matthaiou; perhaps ca. 409 BC, when Thorikos was fortified, cf. AIO 847, with n. 1).

This is one of two extant decrees of the deme Thorikos in south-east Attica. Enough survives of the first few lines to show that it provided for three theatrical sponsorships (chorēgiai) in the deme to be allocated to the highest bidder. It is not quite clear exactly what the winning sponsors will have been responsible for, but since both tragedy and comedy are attested in the deme, it seems likely that they paid the entire costs of a particular genre of performances, rather than those of just one specific performance. Thorikos has the best-preserved 5th-century theatre in Attica, and the other extant decree of the deme, SEG 63.41, also relates to choregiai, as well as two dedications, IG I³ 1027bis and IG II³ 4, 512, and perhaps also SEG 56.232. The local Dionysia also features in the deme's sacrificial calendar, AIO 847, with n. 15. In allocating the chorēgiai to the highest bidder, a system employed in other areas of Athenian administration, including in the demes (e.g. quarry leases; see I Eleusis 85) we see "a model of choregic self-appointment by competitive voluntarism" (Csapo and WIlson, 264). A possible interpretation of ll. 6-7 is that it limited appointments of choregoi to those over thirty years of age.

The specification in ll. 2-3 that Lysippides was not only demarch (if correctly restored), but also responsible for putting the motion to the vote (scil. in the deme Assembly), is unique in a deme decree. It is comparable to (perhaps directly based on) procedure in the Assembly, where in the 5th and early 4th centuries the prytany chairman was responsible for putting motions to the vote ("was chairman", see e.g. OR 150, l. 4, OR 161, ll. 6-7, RO 18, l. 3). This gave way at the latest by 379/8 BC to a system where the chairmanship of the Assembly was transferred to the proedroi (a "presiding committee" of 9 councillors, one for each tribe except the one in prytany) and after that the wording, "of the presiding committee x [i.e. its chairman] was putting to the vote", gradually superseded the old "x was chairman" (see e.g. RO 52, ll. 5-6). On this transition see the discussion in Rhodes and Osborne, pp. 100-101. Interestingly it is the wording of the later formula in Assembly decrees, "tōn proedrōn epepsēphizen", to which this decree of Thorikos approximates more closely, both using the verb epipsēphizō ("put to the vote"). In Thorikos, however, the role of demarch was combined with that of "chairman" of the deme Assembly, an arrangement for which the Assembly supplies no parallel. Whether any substantial difference between procedures in Thorikos and those in other demes underlies this unique wording is unclear. It is generally supposed that it was usual in all demes for the demarch to act as chairman of the deme Assembly (cf. D. Whitehead, Demes of Attica, 1986, 92-3, 122, with Demosthenes 57).

Added: 19 Jul 2022
Updated: 14 Sep 2024
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