Rationes Stele 1 Accounts of 1% tax on property transactions (Rationes Centesimarum)

Accounts of 1% tax on property transactions (Rationes Centesimarum)

Rationes, Stele 1 Date: Ca. 340-325 BC

Face A

col. 1

Fragment 1

^[1]tribe 1? . . . . . . . . . . . . total: (5) [(≥) 1,800 drachmas?], sacred (hiera) [hundredth (hekatostē)?]: (≥) 18 dr. . . . . . . . . .

Fragment 2

tribe 1 . . . [Buy(er) (ōnē(tēs))]: . . . of Euonymon: 4,500 dr. ? . . . total: 10 talents 5,950 dr. ? [sacred hundredth?]: 659 dr. 3 obols ? (5) Of Upper Lamptrai (Lamptreōn kathuperth(en)) [the demarch] -theos . . . sold (apedoto) an outlying estate (eschatian) at Lamptrai in the upper region (?) (en tais anō) called - (10) Buyers: - son of Onetor [of Melite], -nos son of - of -: 4 tal. 3,100 dr. ? Another outlying estate at Lamptrai in [the upper region?] called - (15) Buyers: - son of Onetor [of Melite]

col. 2

Fragment 1

tribe 2? (10) . . . Buyer: Pa- ? . . . hundredth ? . . . . . . (15) . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fragment 2

tribe 2 Buyer: Satyros ? . . . outlying estate . . . Buyer: Satyros ? . . . (20) total: . . . hundredth: . . . Of Kolonos [the demarch] Philo- . . . sold . . . (25) Buyer: Glauk- . . . hundredth: . . . Of Phegaia . . . Hierokl- . . . Lys- . . . (30) Krat- . . . Polyk- . . . sold . . . Buyer: Hierokl- traces

col. 1/2

Fragment 3

tribe 2 traces? . . . ^[2] Buyers: [Phylei]des son of Blep[yros] [of Teithr]as -on son of Aristokle- (5) of - -es son of Chairippos [of Pithos?] . . . Another estate (chōrion) at Teithras . . . Buyer: -s son of Diphilos of - . . . total: 1 tal. 3,050 dr. ? (10) hundredth: 90 dr. 3 ob. ? . . . . . . . . .

col. 2 or 3?

Fragment 4

tribe 3 . . . ^[3] [sold an estate] and house (oikian) [at Prasiai?] Buyer: - son of Charikleides [of Myrhhinous]: 500 dr. Another estate and house at Prasiai (5) Buyers: [Thrasippos?] son of Phrynaios of Athmonon -s son of Chaireleides of -: (≥) 2,375 dr. Another estate and house at Prasiai Buyer: -s son of Lykinos (10) of -: (≥) 1 tal. 2,012 dr. 3 ob. Another estate and house . . . Buyer: - son of -takes ? of Myrrhinous: 5,000 dr. ? Another estate and house at Paia(nia) (15) Buyer: . . . . . . (≥) 400 dr. total: (≥) [3 tal. 3,2]87 dr. 3 ob.

Fragment 5

tribe 3 . . . ^[4] [Buyers?]: -es son of -a of -, Th- son of -on of Rha[mnous?] . . . (5) Another estate . . . Buyer: [Diodor?]os son of Kan[tharos of Myrrhinous ?] . . . Another estate . . . [Buyer?]: -os son of - of Myrrhinous ? . . . (10) Another estate . . . [Buyer?]: -os son of E- of -?: (≥) 1,000 dr.? [Another estate?]

col. 1 or 2?

Fragment 6

tribe 1 or 2? . . . . . . . . . . . . (5) . . . . . .

Face B

Fragment 6

col. 1 or 2?

tribe 4?^[5] [Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai)?]: (≥) 80 dr. . . . Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai?): 98 dr. 3½ ob. . . . (5) Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai?): (≥) 115 dr. 5½ ob. . . . Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai?): (≥) 80 dr. . . . Buyer: . . . : 62 dr. 3 ob. (10) . . . [in Cholleidai?] Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai?): 62 dr. 3 ob. . . . Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai?): (≥) 25 dr. . . . (15) Buyer: . . . of Chol(leidai?): 50 dr. . . . Buyer: . . . : (≥) 22 dr. 3 ob. . . . Buyer: . . . : (≥) 25 dr. (20) . . . Buyer: . . . : (≥) 800 dr.

col. 2 or 3?

tribe 5 Another ? . . . at Pr- ? Buyers?: The- . . . (25) Theo- . . . total: . . . , hundredth: . . . Of Sphettos [the demarch? -] son of Antipatros [sold an estate?] and house . . . (30) Buyer: Diophantos [son of Thrasymedes] of Sphettos: (≥) 1,000 dr.? [Another estate] . . . Buyer: Diophantos [son of Thrasymedes of Sphettos:] . . . Another estate . . . Buyer: Diophantos son of Th[rasymedes of Sphettos:] . . . (35) Another estate . . . Buyer: Archenautes son of - of - . . . Another estate . . . Buyer: Demokedes [son of Demostratos?] of Aphidna . . . (40) Another estate . . . Buyer: Thymochares [son of Phaidros? of Sphettos] . . . Another estate . . .

Previous - SEG 67.86
Greek text

References:

Rationes, Stele 1 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 1603 (= Rationes, Fragment 2) (PHI)

IG II² 1580 (= Rationes, Fragments 3 and 4) (PHI)

IG II² 1601 (= Rationes, Fragment 6) (PHI)

IG II² 1601a (= Rationes, Fragment 5) (PHI)

SEG 68.70

Ismard, Cité des réseaux, 178f.

Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land, 132-35, 183-86, 197-99, 235f.

Humphreys, Kinship, 1221-24

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

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

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Account

Fragment 1 - Findspot: Acropolis (South slope) (EM 12835)
Fragment 2 - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 4601)
Fragment 3 - Findspot: Acropolis (South slope) (EM 8006)
Fragment 4 - Findspot: Acropolis (South slope) (EM 8007)
Fragment 5 - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 7966)
Fragment 6 - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 7965)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] A very characteristic development in Lykourgan Athens was a programme of sales of public land to private individuals. These are known only from this set of inscribed accounts of the sales, which were organised through local groups (demes and "villages" [komai] on stelai 1-2; non-territorial groups such as phratries, genē, orgeones on stelai 3-4). The accounts record brief details of the property sold, the name of the buyer and the price paid, together with 1% (hekatoste) of the price (probably termed in F1A col. 1, ll. 5-6 "sacred hekatoste", and most likely a sales tax; hence the Latin title of the inscriptions, which means "Accounts of the One-Hundredths"; they are also sometimes known as "hekatostai inscriptions"). The total raised from the programme will have been about 300 talents. (Lambert thought the beneficiary of the sales, which would seem from these accounts to have been organised centrally, was the city; others, including Humphreys, think it is the selling groups). This is the usual interpretation, for which see e.g. Lambert, Rationes; Papazarkadas; Humphreys, cf. SEG 68.70). Alternative interpretations of the accounts have been proposed from time to time, arising from the fluid semantic range of the Greek terms for "buying" and "selling", as e.g. in the transaction, "sale subject to redemption" (prasis epi lysei), which designated a device used to raise money on the security of property, the "buyer" of the property in such cases being a creditor, who would "release" the property from the "sale" when the loan was paid off. Thus Ismard raises the possibility that the land recorded in these accounts was used as security for loans to the city by the "buyers", who had the right to exploit it during the period of the loan. For Lykourgos as sponsor of loans to the city from private citizens see Stratokles' decree of 307/6 BC honouring him, [Plut.] Mor. 852b, IG II² 457 + 3207. Cf. Csapo-Wilson 2014, 410. However, such "alternative" explanations of these accounts have not received widespread support. The date of the accounts is determined by prosopography and cannot be pinned down precisely. Lambert (217) tentatively suggested ca. 343-340 BC for stelai 1-2 and ca. 330-325 for stelai 3-4, but Humphreys prefers a slightly later, Lykourgan date, for stelai 1-2. AIO's text of this stele follows Lambert, Rationes. [2] The seller was perhaps the deme Teithras [3] The seller was perhaps the deme Prasiai [4] The seller was perhaps the deme Myrrhinous [5] The seller was perhaps the deme Cholleidai or (somewhat less likely from the logic of these accounts) the deme Cholargos. Cholleidai was a small deme (bouleutic quota 2, e.g. IG II³ 4, 53, 39-41) in the city (Traill, Demos and Trittys, 1986), or inland (G. Stanton, Chiron 24, 1994, 161-207, and Traill, Political Organization, 1975) trittys of Leontis. Its location is unknown. Humphreys, Kinship, 936-7, suggests the area of Acharnai and the Aigaleos-Parnes gap on the basis that "the choleric" Dikaiopolis in Aristophanes, Acharnians is from that deme (see l. 406), which produces charcoal, like Acharnai, and that Dikaiopolis trades with Megarians and Boeotians; thus also Traill 1975, p. 46. This is quite possible, though it cannot be ruled out that Dikaiopolis' deme was chosen for its verbal suitability to his character rather than its real-life location; and an alternative pun underlying Dikaiopolis' demotic, noted by the scholia to Aristophanes, is on the Greek word cholos, "lame" (l. 411); for detail see Csapo-Wilson II, p. 24. No inscriptions of the deme are extant. Meixigenes son of Mikon of Cholleidai was priest of Dionysos in the Piraeus at IG II³ 1, 416 and Kallidamas of Cholleidai was honoured by the deme Piraeus in IG II² 1214. Lambert, AIUK vol. 4.3A (2020), p. 32 with n. 123, speculates on a connection between the two, raising the possibility that both were members of a genos which supplied the priest of Dionysos in the Piraeus. Csapo-Wilson II, p. 6, 24, reject the inference, drawn by N. Jones, Rural Athens (2004), 131, 146, from Dikaiopolis' statement at Ar. Ach. 201-2, that he is "going home to celebrate the Rural Dionysia", that there was a real-life celebration of this festival in Cholleidai (cf. IG II³ 4, 498 with notes). On Cholargos, see IG II² 1184; on demes in general RO 46.

Added: 10 Sep 2013
Updated: 15 Oct 2024
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ID: AIO_290