SEG 28.95 Honours for the prytany treasurer of Ptolemais

Honours for the prytany treasurer of Ptolemais

SEG 28.95 Date: ca. 30 BC

Fragment a+b

Since the prytaneis of [Ptolemais in the archonship of - ]^[1] and those with perpetual dining rights (aeisitoi), having praised [and crowned him], declare to the Council that [the treasurer, whom they chose from among themselves], [Straton]ikos son of Paramonos of Phlya, [has made all the] proper [sacrifices] (5)in the prytany [on behalf of the Council and the] People and children and women [and friends and allies] and that he has also taken care of the [other things in the prytany which were proper], well and with love of goodness (philagathōs), [and for this they call on the Council] to allow them to make [(the dedication of) a painted image (eikona) on] (10)a gilt shield in the Stoa of Attalos of the treasurer [who was chosen from them], Stratonikos of Phlya, [bearing this inscription]: ["The prytaneis of Ptolemais in the archonship of - ] and ⟦those with perpetual dining rights⟧ [dedicated (this image of)] their treasurer, [Stratonikos son of Paramonos] of Phlya, on account of his excellence (aretēs) and love of honour (philotimias) [towards them"],^[2] (15)so that the Council may be seen to assign to those who behave with love of goodness [and magnificently (megalomerōs)] the proper [praise, for good fortune], the Council shall decide to praise their treasurer [and to crown] him with a foliage crown, and also to allow [the prytaneis] of Ptolemais to make the dedication [in the Stoa of Attalos] (20)of (the image of) their own Stratonikos, just as is written above, and the secretary of the prytany [shall inscribe] this decree [on a stone stele] and stand it wherever is appropriate (eukairon), and the resulting expense [shall be allocated by the] treasurer of the military fund uninscribed space Pantakles ...^[3] Enbios son of Enbios of Prospalta proposed it.

col. 1

(25) Phlya:^[4] Stratonikos son of Paramonos Ktesarchos son of Kalliphanes Sopatros son of Polemon Philotheos son of Lysidamos (30)Mousaios son of Menekrates Agathokles son of Agathon Kleodoros (son of Kleodoros) Dionysios (son of Dionysios) Philokles son of Sosos (35)Aulos son of Gaios^[5] Sophilos son of Euphranor Dositheos son of Apollophanes Menestratos son of Kriton uninscribed space ca. 14 names lost

col. 2

Aphidna: (40)Ptolemaios son of Euarchides Sopatros son of Heliodoros^[6] Deinias (son of Deinias) Asklepiades (son of Asklepiades) Philomelos son of Sopatros (45)Panphilos son of Aristokrates uninscribed space Hekale: Menekles (son of Menekles) Dionysios (son of Dionysios) Prospalta: (50)Enbios (son of Enbios) uninscribed space ca. 14 names lost

Fragment c

Upper row

col. 1

in crown (51)… . . . . . .

col. 2

in crown . . . (55) . . . . . .

col. 3

in crown (57)… son of Diokles of Kephisia

Lower row

col. 1

uninscribed space (60)… . . . . . . uninscribed space

col. 2

[The prytaneis] (crowned) their own treasurer in crown [Stra]tonikos (65)son of [Par]amonos of [Phly]a. uninscribed space

col. 3

(67)the public servant being (leitourgountos) Philemon for the twentieth time^[7] uninscribed space

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References:

SEG 28.95 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 34.100 (l. 22) (PHI)

Schmalz 27

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Agora Excavations - (1, 2, 3)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council)

a - Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 7200)
b - Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 7393)
c - Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 7357)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of the most completely preserved examples of a prytany decree of the post-Sullan period. In these decrees, the Council permits the prytany and the aeisitoi ("those with perpetual dining rights," a group of magistrates and priests who were entitled ex officio to dine in the tholos every night) to make a dedication honouring their treasurer for the successful completion of sacrifices on behalf of the community (on prytany decrees, see IG I³ 515 and AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees), no. 15 with notes; on post-Sullan decrees generally, see I Rhamnous 423 with notes). The post-Sullan prytany decrees supersede an earlier Hellenistic form of prytany decree, which is last attested in 95/4 BC (Agora XV 261). The earliest firmly dated post-Sullan decree is Agora XV 268 of 57/6 or 53/2 BC and the latest is probably Agora XV 304 of ca. 18/9 AD (Agora XV 266 might date to 28/9 AD). Roughly fifty examples are known, most very fragmentary (Agora XV 263-307, 315-318, SEG 28.92, 28.158, 28.163, 32.137, 32.181-182, 53.187). Post-Sullan decrees mostly cease by ca. 20 AD, appearing intermittently into the 120s (see Agora XV 315-316, 322 and 324). In this period, they were gradually superseded by prytany lists without decrees, which were nscribed frequently until the mid-third century AD (see Agora XV 460).

The prytany decrees of the Hellenistic Period had consisted of a decree of the Council and a decree of the People, but post-Sullan decrees have only a decree of the Council. This reflects the greater prominence of the Council after the Sullan Sack in 86 BC (cf. Agora XVI 333 with notes). The decree of the People temporarily disappears from ephebic decrees at the same time (cf. IG II² 1039+1006), but in prytany decrees the change is permanent. The post-Sullan decrees focus more on the fact that the prytany treasurers had paid for the sacrifices and less on the communitarian aspects of the sacrifices themselves than earlier decrees (E. Muñiz Grijalvo in E. Muñiz Grijalvo, J. M. Cortés Copete, and F. Lozano, Empire and Religion, 2017, 21–44). This is part of a wider shift in the late second and first centuries BC in which individual's financial and religious contributions became more important (cf. I Eleusis 300 with notes; S. D. Lambert in M. Horster and A. Klöckner, Civic Priests, 2012, 89-92), signs of which appear already in Agora XV 246 (131/0 BC). Several post-Sullan decrees explicitly state that the treasurer of the prytany had met the costs of the sacrifice from his own resources (Agora XV 266, 278, 295, 301, 304, SEG 28.94, 32.137). They only praise the prytany treasurer, not the prytaneis themselves, nor other prytany officials (with the exceptions of Agora XV 270 and 293). Many post-Sullan decrees still state that the sacrifices were made on behalf of the community (ll. 5–6), but they no longer name the gods to whom the sacrifices were addressed. One of the latest decrees does not explicitly mention the sacrifices at all (Agora XV 301). Towards the end of the first century BC, multiple tenures as treasurer occur (twice in Agora XV 293 and four times in Agora XV 295).

A date for this decree around 30 BC is indicated by prosopography. SEG 28.170, a prytany list of Ptolemais from 156/7 or 157/8 AD, was later inscribed on the back of this stele. There are several other examples of prytany decrees being reused in this fashion; see SEG 28.92 with notes. [2] An innovation of the post-Sullan decrees is that the treasurer usually receives a dedication of an image of his bust on a gilt shield (an eikon en hoplo or imago clipeata), probably made of wood, with an inscription running around the rim, which was hung from a public building. Contemporary depictions appear on Roman coins (RRC 419/3) and in wall paintings (image on Commons from the Villa Poppaea at Oplontis). This type of dedication originated in the late second century BC. The first epigraphic attestation was dedicated by an association of shipowners and traders in the Piraeus in 112/1 BC (IG II² 1012, ll. 26-30) and marble versions appear on the heroon of Mithridates at Delos (I Délos 1562, 102/1 BC), a late second-century BC heroon from Kalydon, and among the late second-century BC marbles recovered from the Mahdia shipwreck (S. Dillon, Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture, 2006, 34). They seem to be a product of the cosmopolitan Greco-Roman culture that developed on Delos in the second century BC. The form became popular in Athens and the wider Greek world in the first century BC (G. Biard, Le représentation honorifique, 2017, 144–46, with catalogue at 405–410) and – simultaneously – in Rome, where they were displayed in the atria of Senators' houses and first placed on public buildings in 79 and 78 BC by followers of Sulla (the Temple of Bellona by Appius Claudius Pulcher and the Basilica Aemilia by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus: Vitruvius, De Arch. 6.3.6; Pliny Nat. Hist. 35.3–4; H. Flower, Ancestor Masks, 1996, 41, 75–77) and had some connection with triumphal and funerary processions (R. Winkes, Clipeata Imago, 1969). The Athenian prytany decrees usually provide for these images to be erected in the Council chamber (cf. Agora XV 264, 268, 277, 289a, and SEG 28.92; cf. C. B. Rose, Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture, 1997, cat. 38 for a parallel set outside the Roman Senate in the early Imperial period), but many other locations were possible, including the Stoa of Attalos (as in this case and in Agora XV 265), the Asklepieion (Agora XV 295, 301), the Ptolemaion gymnasion (Agora XV 304 and perhaps Agora XV 266), and wherever the prytaneis wish (Agora XV 281 and probably Agora XV 270). In three cases it is certain that no image was awarded, but we do not know why (Agora XV 278, 293, SEG 28.94). Several gilt shields were erected to honour a foreign benefactor in IRCyr C.1 and similar images, without gilding, were erected by Athenian ephebes for their superintendents at Eleusis, in the Stoa of Attalos, and wherever the ephebes wished (IG II² 1039, ll. 35–44; 1041, ll. 4–6; 1043, ll. 35, 68-73; 1025+1040, ll. 12–18). The decrees do not state who paid for these images, but the fact that multiple images were erected each year is an indication of Athens' renewed prosperity in the mid-first century BC and Augustan period.

Although none of these painted dedications survive, there are three other dedications of post-Sullan prytanies, all from the 50s BC; one was dedicated by the prytaneis (IG II³ 4, 122); the other two by their treasurer (IG II³ 4, 117-118). [3] As in earlier periods, the secretary of the prytany is responsible for erecting the stele (ll. 20–22), but the treasurer of the military fund (tamias ton stratiotikon) pays for it. This is probably Pantakles' role, despite the empty space and punctuation mark between the title and his name (A. S. Henry, Chiron 14, 1984, 90). This payment had been made by the administrator(s) (ho / hoi epi te dioikesei) in the third century BC (Agora XV p. 16), but was progressively taken over by the treasurer of the military fund from 193/2 BC (Agora XV 168). This inscription and SEG 28.92 (ca. 50 BC) are the only explicit statements that the treasurer of the military fund still paid in the post-Sullan period (the treasurer is also cited in Agora XV 273, 293, SEG 32.137 but the reason is not specified). The treasurer of the military fund also paid for the ephebic decrees in 43/2–42/1, 40/39–39/8, and ca. 20 BC, but not in 79/8 or 37/6–36/5 BC (cf. AIO Papers 12, pp. 5–7). The position is not attested after 20 BC. [4] The decree is followed by a catalogue of the members of the prytany, arranged by deme, here only partially preserved (ll. 25-50). The treasurer and his demesmen are listed first and the prytany secretary and his demesmen usually appear second. From ca. 225 BC, the prytaneis had been named without patronymics; these reappear in the post-Sullan period (Agora XV p. 3). In the Classical period, each deme had a set number of representatives on the Council (the "bouleutic quota"), which changed only rarely (for the situation prior to the first known change in 307/6 BC see IG I³ 515, with notes); the prytany lists show that these quotas were abandoned after the creation of the tribe of Attalis in 201/0 BC (IG II³ 1 1337 and 1268 from 193/2? and 190/89 seem to be the earliest evidence for this). In the post-Sullan period, the number of prytaneis further diverges from the old quotas. For example, Azenia, which once had a quota of two, sends sixteen in Agora XV 278 and twenty-one in Agora XV 280). Until the third century BC, there was a lifetime limit of two terms on the Council (see S. D. Lambert, IALD II, 261-62); the post-Sullan catalogues provide several examples of prytaneis serving twice (e.g. Gorgippos, Isidotos, and Epin(e)ikos in Agora XV 288 and SEG 32.137) and one case where the treasurer of the prytany served four times (Agora XV 295). It is unclear whether a minimum age limit of thirty pertained in this period. Correlations between ephebic catalogues and prytany catalogues reveal several "underage" Councillors in the second half of the second century AD (e.g. Agora XV 378, 408, 447), but there is no data for the post-Sullan period, since only one first-century BC prytanis is attested as an ephebe (Agora XV 267, l. 3). [5] Aulos and his father Gaios (l. 35) have Latin names (Aulus and Gaius), but it is unclear whether they were Roman citizens, since Latin names entered the repertoire of Greek names in the late second century BC (cf. IG II³ 4, 275). Many Roman citizens received Athenian citizenship and sat on the Council in the first century BC (see Agora XV 272 with notes). [6] Sopatros and Philomelos (ll. 41, 44) are father and son. Family members begin serving on the Council together in the mid-first century BC (see Agora XV 278 with notes). [7] The catalogue is usually followed (e.g. Agora XV 267) or preceded (e.g. Agora XV 275) by crowns honouring various officials who had worked closely with the prytany, including the prytany treasurer, prytany secretary, hoplite general, herald of the Council and People, secretary of the Council and People, treasurer of the Council, treasurer of the military fund, treasurer of the sacred allocation, secretary of the Board, and priest of the Phosphoroi. [8] Philemon the public servant or liturgist (litourgos) was responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the tholos (D. J. Geagan, Athenian Constitution after Sulla, 1967, 110). The role had previously been performed by a public slave (cf. SEG 66.125) and it is unclear whether Philemon was a slave or a metic. He is the first holder of the office to be commemorated in a public list, but always in such a way as to mark him as being of lesser status than other honorands. In this case, his twentieth year of service is noted, but with a genitive absolute clause – he is not explicitly honoured by the prytaneis and does not receive a crown. He also appears in SEG 28.160 and Agora XV 287 In the Imperial period, the title changed to “the one in charge of the Sunshade” (ho epi skiados), which merged with the priesthood of the Phosphoroi and was often held by citizens (e.g. Agora XV 460, ll. 98–99).

Added: 24 Sep 2023
Updated: 11 Jun 2024
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ID: AIO_2796