AIUK3 no. 1 Treaty between Athens and Halieis

Treaty between Athens and Halieis

AIUK 3 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) no. 1 Date: 424/3 BC (?)

Gods. Neokleides [of -] was secretary. The Council and People decided. [Aigeis] was the prytany, Neokleides was secretary, - presided, Laches (5) proposed: there shall be an agreement between Athens and Halieis and a truce [for - years?] without deceit on the following terms:^[1] the Halieians shall permit the Athenians [to establish a garrison^[2] and shall do well?] to the Athenians and [shall not receive raiders] or themselves carry out raids or [campaign with] the Athenians' enemies against the (10) Athenians or the allies of the Athenians, or supply money [to the enemies] or receive [any enemy garrison] within the walls;^[3] and if any enemy attacks Halieis, the Athenians shall help the Halieians readily [and do whatever they can to oblige?] the Halieians; and whatever (15) the Halieians hold [they shall be allowed to hold for the future?]; and no-one shall harm the Halieians, [or overlook it if any of their enemies] harms them; and the Athenians [shall establish a garrison^[2] in Halieis] for as long as the war [lasts, but when peace is restored, the Halieians shall guard] their own land; and if the Halieians need anything else which is justifiable (20) from the Athenian People, they shall obtain it. The Halieians swore as follows: “we shall be . . . allies to the Athenians and permit the Athenians to establish a garrison^[2] and shall do well to the Athenians as far as we can at every opportunity and shall abide by the (25) agreement which we have made with the Athenians”; and [their envoys?] shall swear and shall invoke destruction on any Halieians who do not abide by the oaths which they have sworn; and for the Athenians the Council and the generals swore to abide by the agreement which they made with the Halieians (30) responsible for making terms; and the secretary of the Council shall inscribe the agreement on a stone stele and set it down on the Acropolis; and the payment officers shall give the money; and the Halieians shall place the stele in the sanctuary of Apollo. The following envoys swore to the alliance: Neon . . . (35) . . . Agakl- . . .

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 3 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) no. 1 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG I³ 75 (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 10.80

SEG 26.18

SEG 68.32

SdA II 184

Matthaiou, Studies, 164-67

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

AIO Images: 1 2 3

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Treaty

Fragment b - Findspot: Acropolis (Fitzwilliam Museum GR.36.1865 (ll. 1-8, right end))
Fragments a, c, d, e - Findspot: Between theatres of Dionysos and Herodes Atticus (EM 6799 + 2727 + 6819)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] A video about this inscription is available on the AIO Youtube channel.

Halieis was a city on the southern coast of the Argive peninsula of the Peloponnese with an excellent natural harbour and in the fifth century BC its strategic location made it liable to the attentions of the rival powers during periods of conflict between the Athenian and Spartan alliances. It first appears in the historical record in a brief reference by Thucydides to an Athenian landing there in 459 BC (1.105.1). In the ensuing battle with Corinthian and Epidaurian forces, Athens was defeated, and the memorial to members of the Athenian tribe Erechtheis who lost their lives in this conflict is OR 109. In the second summer of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC), Halieis was among the cities raided by Pericles (Thuc. 2.56.5). At the height of the Archidamian War in the summer of 425 BC, we again find an Athenian and allied force launching attacks in this area, landing first in Epidaurian territory, then going on to Methana, which lies between Epidauros and Troizen. “They took control of the isthmus of the Methana peninsula and fortified it, establishing a garrison which for some time later carried out raids on the land of Troizen, Halieis and Epidauros.” (Thuc. 4.45). This decree providing for a truce between Athens and Halieis is most comfortably dated to the period between the Athenian incursion of 425 BC and the one-year truce between Athens and Sparta of spring 423 BC which preceded the Peace of Nikias in 422/1. There are two possible years between the 425 raid and the one-year truce. An -ippos, not Neokleides, was secretary in the prytany of Aigeis in 425/4 (OR 153, ll. 54-55), implying that our inscription should date rather to 424/3 (before the eighth prytany of that year, held by Akamantis, the date of the one-year truce in Thuc. 4.118.1). This suits the proposer of our decree, attested by the Fitzwilliam fragment as Laches, and identifiable as the prominent general, Laches son of Melanopos of Aixone, who was also proposer of the Athenian decree on the truce of 423 BC (Thuc. 4.118.11) and later negotiator and co-signatory with Nikias of the Peace of Nikias in 422/1 (Thuc. 5.19, 5.24, 5.43. Laches was killed in 418 BC at the battle of Mantinea, 5.74). [2] The establishment of forts and garrisons in or close to allied cities was a common Athenian measure, and their location in or close to enemy territory was a common tactic by both sides in the Peloponnesian War, practised with spectacular success by Athens at Pylos on the west coast of the Peloponnese shortly before the date of this agreement (Thuc. 4.1-49, with AIO Papers 8, pp. 37-38). [3] On the walls of Halieis see M. H. Jameson, C. N. Runnels and T. H. van Andel, A Greek Countryside (1994), 435-37, A65.

Added: 3 Sep 2018
Updated: 30 Jan 2024
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