IGII31 1315 Honours for a merchant

Honours for a merchant

IG II³ 1 1315 Date: Shortly after 176/5

Gods. Kallimachos son of Kallimachos of Paiania proposed: since . . . making his business (ergasiai) on the sea and wishing, so far as possible, to increase the revenues of the People, in the year of the archonship of - (5) sailed to the Piraeus and sold grain [to the city for a good price], and in the year of the archonship of Hippakos (176/5), having bought up (sunēgorakōs) in . . . one thousand five hundred measures [of olive oil], with a view to [transporting it?] to the Black Sea (Ponton), and from there to take in a return cargo . . . to the Piraeus, stopping in the cities and seeing that there was a great (10) shortage of olive oil because of crop failure (aphorian) in the country, and wishing in every way and as much as he was able to display his good will towards the People, he hurriedly imported the olive oil he had bought . . . . . . and after he had transported it from the market (emporiou) . . . . . . him and asked him to give up [the oil] . . . (15) for a [lesser?] price than the one paid by him . . . . . . he dared . . . them^[1] . . . . . . . . .

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References:

IG II³ 1 1315 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

IG II² 903 (PHI)

SEG 32.132

Syll.³ 640

Tracy, ALC 133

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom

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

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council/People? Other group?)

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 12400)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The absence of a full prescript and of a decision formula raise the possibility that this is not a decree of the Council/Assembly, although the honorand's services are formulated as on behalf of the People (e.g. l. 4). Though this type of Assembly decree honouring traders was common at earlier periods (cf. IG II³ 1, 430), there would be no other example from the early second century. The honorand had imported grain and sold it at a good price, and performed a further service in relation to a cargo of olive oil. Perhaps the simplest (but not the only possible) reconstruction is that he had purchased this cargo outside Attica, meaning to exchange it for some other cargo on the Black Sea coast, which he was proposing to import into the Piraeus. Discovering, however, on putting in to the Piraeus (if "the cities" l. 9 are correctly interpreted as Athens and the Piraeus) that there was crop-failure, he changed his plans and delivered the oil to Athens. Cf. P. Gauthier, REG 95 (1982), 275-90 (= SEG 32.132); A. Bresson, La cité marchande (2000), 197, 201. IG II³ 1, 1319 belongs in the same context.

Added: 9 Mar 2017
Updated: 9 Mar 2017
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ID: AIO_1157