AIO 871 Decree honouring Lykourgos of Boutadai

Decree honouring Lykourgos of Boutadai

AIO 871 Date: 307/6 BC

Literary version (Plut. Lives of the Ten Orators 852)^[1] (851f) Lykophron son of Lykourgos of Boutadai^[2] made a claim to meals (sitēsin) in the city hall (prutaneiōi) according to the grant awarded (852a) by the People to Lykourgos of Boutadai: In the archonship of Anaxikrates (307/6), in the sixth prytany, of Antiochis.^[12] Stratokles son of Euthydemos of Diomeia proposed: since Lykourgos son of Lykophron of Boutadai, having inherited from his own ancestors of old the good-will (eunoian) of his house (oikeian) towards the People [...?], and Lykourgos’ ancestors, Lykomedes,^[3] and Lykourgos,^[4] both while living were honoured by the People, and on their deaths the People granted them public burial (dēmosias taphas) in the Kerameikos on account of their manly virtue (andragathian), and Lykourgos himself (852b) as a politician (politeuomenos) established (ethēke) many fine laws for the fatherland, and became treasurer of the public revenue (koinēs prosodou) for the city for three quadrennia, and distributed from the public revenue eighteen thousand nine hundred talents, and received many loans from private individuals, and advanced (prodaneisas) for the purposes of the city and of the People in all six hundred and fifty talents;^[11] and having been deemed to have administered (diōikēkenai) all these things justly, he was crowned many times by the city; and moreover, having been chosen by the People, he gathered much money (chrēmata) on the acropolis, and prepared adornment (kosmon) for the goddess and solid gold statues of Victory (Nikas) and gold and silver processional vessels (pompeia) and golden adornment (kosmon) (852c) for a hundred basket-bearers, and having been elected to be in charge of preparations for war, he brought up to the acropolis many armaments (hopla) and fifty thousand missiles, and prepared (kateskeuase) four hundred seaworthy triremes, repairing (episkeuasas) some and building (naupēgēsamenos) others from scratch; and in addition to this taking over the shipsheds and the arsenal and the Dionysiac theatre^[10] half-built (hēmierga) he finished (exeirgasato) them, and completed (epetelese) the Panathenaic stadium, and built (kateskeuase) the gymnasium at the Lykeion, and adorned (ekosmēse) the city with many other structures (kataskeuais); and when Alexander the king (852d) had subdued the whole of Asia and thought it right (axiountos) to marshal (epitattein) all the Greeks in common cause (koinēi), and demanded Lykourgos for having opposed him, the People did not give him up for fear of Alexander; and among the politicians he rendered his accounts (euthunas) many times in a free and democratic (dēmokratoumenēi) city and throughout he remained unimpeachable and incorruptible; so that everyone may know that those who choose to engage justly in politics (politeuesthai) on behalf of democracy and freedom will be valued highly while alive and, when dead, will be rewarded by favours commemorated forever (charitas aeimnēstous), (852e) for good fortune, the People shall decide, to praise Lykourgos son of Lykophron of Boutadai for his excellence and justice, and the People shall erect a bronze statue of him in the agora, except anywhere where the law forbids it to be erected;^[5] and the eldest of Lykourgos’ descendants at any time shall be awarded dining rights (sitesin) in the city hall (prutaneiōi) forever;^[6] and the secretary of the People shall set up (anatheinai) for him (?) (autōi? peri autou?),^[7] and there shall be valid, all the decrees, on stone stelai and erect them on the acropolis near the dedications; and the treasurer of the People shall give for inscribing the stelai fifty drachmas from the People’s fund for expenditure on decrees.

Inscribed version^[8] Fragment a In the archonship of Anaxikrates (307/6). The People decided. Stratokles son of Euthydemos of Diomeia proposed: since Lykourgos son of Lykophron of Boutadai, having inherited from his own ancestors of old the good-will (eunoian) of his house (oikeian) towards the People, (5) . . . . . . (10) . . . . . . . . . Uncertain number of lines missing

Fragment b

. . . . . . arriving . . . [in the city's harbours?] [might witness?] the [city] . . . [and?] adorned [with buildings?] worthy of its existing (5) [reputation], constructed (exōikodomēsen) [the ship-sheds], and completed work (exērgasato) on the arsenal and the Dionysiac theatre^[10] and [built or reconstructed or refitted (kateskeuasen or epeskeuasen)] the Panathenaic [stadium] and the gymnasium [at the Lykeion] and [adorned] the whole city with many other [structures (kataskeuais)]; and when the Greeks were beset (10) by great fears and dangers when Alexander [overpowered Thebes or them] and conquered (katastrepsamenōi) the whole of Asia and the other parts [of the inhabited world (tēs oikoumenēs)?], he continued implacably to oppose him on behalf of the People and showed himself [unimpeachable (anexelenkton)] on behalf of the fatherland and the (15) [preservation of all the Greeks] throughout his life, and contending (agōnizomenos) for the freedom and autonomy of the city [by every means], on account of which when [Alexander] demanded [him], the People refused to comply . . . the demand and at the same time in the other (?) (ham' en tois allois) (20) . . . [in which] Lykourgos had a share (hōn meteschen Lykourgōi), . . . the excuse (?) (apologian) . . . and having rendered his accounts many times . . . the matters of his financial administration (diōikēmen-) [in a free?] [and democratic?] city . . . . . .

Fragment c

col. 1

Crown 1 . . . . . . of Myrrhinous proposed.

Crown 2 . . . (5) . . . . . . proposed.

Crown 3 . . . . . . . . .

Crown 4 (10) . . . . . . . . . proposed.

col. 2

Crown 5 The Council. Demeas of Sphettos (15) proposed.

Crown 6 The Council. Diophanes of Kephisia proposed.

Crown 7 The Council. (20) Ktesikles of Bate proposed.

Crown 8 The tribesmen. Telemachos of Acharnai proposed.^[9]

col. 3

Crown 9 (25) The Council. Theomenes of Oe proposed.

Crown 10 The People. Theomenes (30) of Oe proposed.

Crown 11 The People in Samos. Epiktetos of Epikephisia proposed.

Crown 12 The People in Lemnos. (35) Timodemos of Acharnai proposed.

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Greek text

References:

AIO 871 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 3207 (PHI)

IG II² 457 + 3207 (PHI)

SEG 66.119

SEG 31.84

SEG 41.48

Syll.³ 326

Wilhelm, Attische Urkunden III, 3-6 (Akademieschriften I, 463-66) (association of 3207)

Wilhelm, Attische Urkunden V, 160-66 (Akademieschriften I, 776-782) (fr. b, 2-5)

[Plutarch] Lives of the Ten Orators, 852 (Text: Mau, Teubner, 1971, but see n. 7)

Oikonomides, Epigraphical Tradition, 51-54 (fr. b, 8 and 11)

IALD 355 ([Plut.] 852e)

AIO Papers 6 (association of 3207) (= SEG 66.119) (AIO Paper)

IALD II 153 no. 33, 288-302

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Images: Krateros - (1, 2)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (People)

Original location: [Acropolis, near the dedications?]

3207 - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 10679)
Fragment a (457) - Findspot: Agora (church of Panagia Pyrgiotissa, south of Stoa of Attalos) (EM 7249)
Fragment b (457) - Findspot: Athens (theatre of Dionysos) (EM 7249)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Shortly after the ousting of Demetrios of Phaleron and the re-establishment of democracy in 307/6 under the auspices of Antigonos and his son, Demetrios Poliorketes, a decree was passed, on the motion of Stratokles, honouring Lykourgos, who had died in 325. The decree exists both in a fragmentary inscribed version (IG II² 457 + 3207) and a version preserved in the ancient Life of Lykourgos attributed to Plutarch ([Plut.] Lives of the Ten Orators 852), where it is cited from the application of Lykophron for dining rights in the city hall (sitesis, awarded by the decree at 852e), on the basis that he was Lykourgos’ eldest son. Lykophron had perhaps used the papyrus version of the decree in the city archive, or a private copy of the decree based on, or similar to, that version, to support his application. The differences between the two versions (note for example the fuller dating formula in Lykophron's version) partly reflect original differences between Lykophron's copy and the inscribed copy (there are other indications that the archival copies of decrees might include a fuller date than inscribed ones, see e.g. SEG 50.45), partly changes to Lykophron's version in the long course of its transmission from the original, via the transcription presented by Lykophron, and eventually into the medieval manuscripts of the Lives of the Ten Orators. Cf. M. Faraguna, "I Documenti nelle Vite dei 10 oratori dei Moralia plutarchei", in A. M. Biraschi et al. eds., L'uso dei documenti nella storiografia antica (2003), 479-503, at 487-91. On Stratokles, a leading supporter of Demetrios Poliorketes and prolific decree proposer, see N. Luraghi, C&M 65 (2014), 191-226 (SEG 68.8), who plausibly suggests that he might have been an associate of Lykourgos (though there is no explicit evidence linking them in Lykourgos' lifetime) and that the decree is to be understood in the context of a "war of memory" waged between 322 and 307, comparing (p. 210) the posthumous honours awarded to Phokion under Demetrios of Phaleron (Plut. Phok. 38.1; cf. in relation to Demades, AIO Papers 6, 8). [2] Lykourgos was a member of the branch of the genos Eteoboutadai which supplied the priest of Poseidon Erechtheus on the acropolis. Though it does not seem that Lykourgos himself was priest, his son Habron, a leading politician of the period after 307/6 was allotted to the priesthood, but ceded it to his older brother, Lykophron. On the transmission of the priesthood and the details of Lykourgos' ancestors and descendants, who can be traced in some detail through the hellenistic period, see J. Blok and S. D. Lambert, ZPE 169 (2009), 95-121, especially 109-14. [3] Great-grandfather. [4] Grandfather. [5] The law prohibited erection of a statue next to the statues of the tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton (on which see IG I³ 502). Part of the base of the statue of Lykourgos is IG II² 3776. [6] In addition to the routine and relatively modest honours awarded typically to officials of the democracy, and regularly inscribed from the 340s onwards, higher honours, typically including, as here, a bronze statue and sitesis, were occasionally awarded to leading politicians and generals. The model for these was the honours awarded the tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton (whose descendants still enjoyed sitesis in the fourth century). Recipients included the generals Konon and Iphikrates (see Dem. 20.69-70, 86), and we know from literary sources that some leading figures of the period 350-321 were also honoured in this way, notably Lykourgos' rival Demades, apparently following his remarkably successful negotiation with Alexander the Great after the destruction of Thebes in 335 (Lyk. F9, Dein. 1.101), and Epikrates, author of the ephebic law (cf. note on RO 89). This, however, is the earliest extant inscribed decree of this type for a native-born Athenian. The earliest fully preserved inscribed award of a bronze statue, with sitesis and a seat of honour at festivals, proedria, for a foreigner is IG II² 450 in 314/3 for Asandros of Macedon (not inscribed at public expense; Asandros was probably also an honorary Athenian citizen). Note the prohibition in that decree on erection of the statue next to Harmodios and Aristogeiton. An earlier fragmentary case is the award of a statue to Euagoras of Salamis in 394/3 after the battle of Knidos; IG II² 20 = RO 11. On portrait statues in Athens see G. J. Oliver, in P. Schultz and R. von den Hoff, Early Hellenistic Portraiture (2007), 181-204. On the development of public honours in Classical and Early Hellenistic Athens see now N. Futás, Von der Liturgie zur Euergesie (2024), esp. 73-123, 229-45, 415-34, with appendices collecting the evidence down to ca. 250 BC (in this context see esp. appendix 3). [7] The manuscripts read ἀναθεῖναι δ’ αὐτοῦ. Cf. AIO Papers 6, 3 n. 7. The text of this passage is peculiar, and may have been corrupted in the course of transmission from the Athenian city archive to the medieval manuscripts of [Plut.], but the sense of the provision is clear enough: Stratokles' decree is to be inscribed together with earlier decrees honouring Lykourgos and erected on the acropolis "near the dedications". In the event it seems from the text of the surviving decree that the earlier decrees were not inscribed in full, but instead summaries within crowns were either appended to the text of Stratokles' decree, or inscribed on a separate stele (fragment c). [8] Fragments a-b = IG II² 457 (omitting, however, the restorations of fr. b, 19-22, which are doubtful). Fragment c (which is probably the bottom of the same stele as 457, but might be from a separate associated stele) = IG II² 3207. The text of fragments a-b requires further work. Provisionally, I have accepted the thrust, but not the detailed wording, of Wilhelm 1942, and registered Oikonomides' proposals for fr. b, 8 and 11, as alternatives. I have not accepted: (a) the identification of IG II² 513 as another copy of this decree (suggested SEG 31.84, refuted SEG 49.107 and S. V. Tracy, Athens and Macedon [2003], 70-73), (b) Oikonomides' proposals for fr. a, 5-9 and fr. b, 1-5; (c) SEG 41.48 (proposal for fr. a, ll. 4-5). [9] Acharnai belonged to Oineis, the same tribe as Lykourgos' deme, Boutadai. Telemachos also proposed IG II³ 1, 367, decrees 1 and 3, for the grain trader, Herakleides of Salamis. For further discussion of the decrees honouring Lykourgos commemorated by the crowns in fr. c see AIO Papers 6. [10] See J. Hanink, Lycurgan Athens and the Making of Classical Tragedy (2014), 92-125; Csapo-Wilson 2014, 395-97, 408-9. [11] See Csapo-Wilson 2014, 413. [12] For the arrangement of Attic tribes from 307/6 to 224/3 BC see here.

Added: 14 Sep 2014
Updated: 21 Aug 2024
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ID: AIO_871