AIO 1137 Decree about permanent dining rights (sitesis) in the city hall (prytaneion)

Decree about permanent dining rights (sitesis) in the city hall (prytaneion)

AIO 1137 Date: 429-424 BC?

. . . was secretary^[1]. [The Council and the People decided]; Erechtheis^I was [in prytany]; [- was secretary]; -thippos was chairman; -ikles^[2] [proposed: let there be permanent dining rights (sitesin)] in the city hall (prutaneioi)^[3] first of all for the (5) [Anakes ? . . . ] in accordance with ancestral tradition (patria)^[4]; then for the descendants of Harm[odios and Aristogei]ton, whoever is nearest in kin (eggutata genos), [the oldest at any time?] let there [also] be permanent dining rights for them, and if . . . from the Athenians, in accordance with [tradition? (legomena)]^[5]; . . . whom Apollo has chosen expounding (10) . . . permanent dining rights, and in the future those whom he may [choose, also] for them [let there be permanent dining rights], on the same basis^[6]; and those who [have been victorious at the Olympic Games] or the Pythian Games or the Isthmian Games or the Nemean [Games or will be victorious in future, for] them let there be permanent dining rights in the city hall and [the other grants?] beside the permanent dining rights, in accordance with [what is written on (15) the stele in] the city hall; and those who have been victorious [with a horse-drawn chariot or with] a riding horse at the Olympic Games [or the Pythian Games or the Isthmian Games or the Nemean Games or] will be victorious in future, also [for them let there be permanent dining rights in accordance with] what is written on the stele^[7] . . . . . . concerning the military (peri to strat-)^[8] . . . (20) . . . . . .

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Greek text

References:

AIO 1137 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG I³ 131 (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 68.31 (ll. 5, 7, 8, 19)

Koerner, Gesetzestexte 13

Axon 427 (Axon)

Kavvadias and Matthaiou, New Attic Inscription, 51-72

Tracy, Athenian Lettering, 115

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Josine Blok, Lina van't Wout

Images: Aleshire - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Findspot: Athens, Hermou Street near Monastiraki (EM 6561)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] In this decree the city placed its provision for permanent dining rights (sitesis) in the city hall (prytaneion) on a systematic footing. The mason (identified by Tracy as his “Cutter of IG I³ 50", whose only precisely datable work belongs in 424/3 BC, but whose other work has been dated between 435 and 409 BC), and features of the prescript, are consistent with a date shortly before Aristophanes’ Knights of 424 BC (ll. 167-8, 281-3, 573-6, 709, 763-6, 1404-5) and Peace of 421 BC (ll. 1084-5), in both of which sitesis is a “hot topic”, though the precise relationship between this decree and the grant of sitesis and privileged seating in the theatre (proedria) to Kleon for his success at Pylos in 425 BC (Knights 702) would be unclear. For another discussion of the date of the decree, urging acceptance of a wider range of possibilities, see now C. Mann, "The Prytaneion Decree (IG I³ 131) and Sitesis for Athletes", CQ 73, 2023, 26-39 (cf. below n. 8). See now also N. Futás, Von der Liturgie zur Euergesie, 101-8. Our text follows that of IG, with revisions to ll. 5, 7, 8, 19 after J. Blok and E. van't Wout, in F. van den Eijnde, J. Blok, and R. Strootman, Feasting and Polis Institutions, 2018, 181-204 (= SEG 68.31). [2] There is insufficient basis for restoring the proposer as Perikles. [3] Probably located south-east of the Acropolis (Odos Tripodon), Kavvadias and Matthaiou 2014. [4] Sometimes restored as Eleusinian officials, these recipients were probably rather the Dioskouroi (Kastor and Pollux, called in Attica the Anakes), whose sanctuary was close to the city hall: “The poet of the play the Beggars (Ptochoi), ascribed to Chionides [PCG F7], says that when the Athenians serve an early meal (ariston) to the Dioskouroi in the city hall, they put before them on the tables cheese and pastry, and ripe olives and leek, in memory of the old way of life.” Athen. 4.137e. [5] The descendants of Harmodios and Aristogeiton are the first named human recipients, emphasising the status of the tyrannicides as archetypal citizen honorands (cf. OR 178 n. 5). If Lambert’s reading (ap. Blok and van't Wout) of ll. 8-9, kata ta [l]egom[ena], is correct ([d]edom[ena], IG) the privilege would seem to have been justified on the basis of oral tradition rather than any written authority. C. Feyel, Bull. ép. 2019, no. 165, however, while noting the lack of close epigraphic parallel for such an expression, compares IG I³ 84, ll 10-11, kata ta eiremena, which suggests that the sense here might rather have been, "according to what is proposed" rather than "according to tradition". Ar. Knights 786, “Who are you, my man? Not one of those descendants of Harmodios, are you?” can perhaps be taken to imply that the claimants had become rather numerous (exacerbated perhaps by difficult food-supply conditions in the Peloponnesian War?), and that, if Schöll’s restoration of the beginning of l. 7 is correct, part of the purpose of this decree was to limit them for the future to the eldest descendants (as is attested with later individual grants, e.g. to Lykourgos, [Plut.] ap. IG II² 457+3207). It is unclear whether l. 8 refers to claimants unrelated to the tyrannicides, or rather provided for those kin of the tyrannicides who presently enjoyed sitesis, though not eldest descendants, to continue to do so. It seems it was only in relation to this privilege that a principle of primogeniture applied in classical Athens. Inheritance of property rights was usually partitive, with portions determined by lot. [6] The group in ll. 9-11 depends on selection by Apollo and their claim to sitesis is based on the same authority as the previous group, i.e. a communal decision, it seems, transmitted orally (or, on Feyel's interpretation, according to what has been proposed). Two possibilities have been canvassed: (a) the honorands are exegetai, a select group of Athenians chosen by Apollo to explain his oracles. This is the traditional interpretation. This inscription would be the only evidence for the existence of such a board at this period, though there is reference to a comparable board at Plato, Laws 865d ("... the exegetai whom the god selects [anelei, same verb as used here] shall be in charge of these things"); (b) they are seers (manteis), a possibility tentatively raised by Humphreys, Strangeness 104 n. 65. Ar. Peace 1084-5 has Trygaios tell the seer Hierokles: “Nevermore will you dine in the city hall, nor make prophecies after the event”, and the scholiast on these lines interprets this as an allusion to the well-known seer, Lampon (proposer of the rider of OR 141), who, he says, had received sitesis in the city hall. Lykourgos 1.84-87 also attests a grant of sitesis to the (significantly named) mythical Delphian seer Kleomantis, who had advised king Kodros, and his descendants. Cf. IG II² 192. On Athenian manteis in the Peloponnesian War see K. Trampedach, Politische Mantik (2015), 260-81. Certainty is impossible, but the wording of this text, with its use of a verb cognate with exegetai, seems more consistent with the traditional interpretation, and the sitesis enjoyed by Hierokles/Lampon and Kleomantis was perhaps a consequence of individual grants rather than of a general provision in this decree. [7] It is unclear why victors in the chariot or horse race are differentiated from victors in general. Mann (above n. 1), in a detailed discussion of the agonistic provisions of this decree, is inclined to accept the restored reference to "other grants" (14) and to interpret it as implying that a fuller set of awards was made to non-hippic victors than to hippic ones, perhaps reflecting a prejudice that victories in hippic contests, with their strongly aristocratic connotations, were relatively less valued by the radical democracy. Note that, if Lambert's reading and interpretation of ta legomena in l. 8 is correct, the decree has progressed from those entitled to sitesis “according to ancestral tradition” (characteristic of provisions of a religious nature), the Dioskouroi (?), through those entitled “according to [oral] tradition” (descendants of tyrannicides and exegetai or seers) to those for whom there is written authority on a stele in the city hall itself (ll. 15 and 18). On Feyel's interpretation, the progression would be less clear. The original location of this decree is unknown, but its findspot would be consistent with its also having been erected in the city hall. [8] L. 19 perhaps provided for claims to sitesis based on military exploits; Kleon may have been awarded his grant (Ar. Knights 763-6) under this provision. Awards of sitesis after Kleon remained rare, but in 371/0 the general Iphikrates likewise received sitesis after a victory (Dem. 23.130; Schol. Dem. 21.62; [Lysias] F7 Budé). Much more common were grants of a single meal, to foreigners (“hospitality”, xenia) and Athenians (“dinner”, deipnon). Mann, however (see above n. 1), noting that, unlike the other provisions of the decree, any provision for generals here must have been permissive rather than entailing a blanket grant, argues that it is unlikely that, in the 5th cent. democracy, when the authority of the Assembly was untramelled by any legal limitations, the Assembly would have given itself permission to make ad hoc grants of sitesis to generals. He accordingly questions the strength of the argument for dating the decree to the context of Kleon's grant, preferring to define the date no more closely than "430s or 420s BC".

Added: 15 Sep 2016
Updated: 11 Oct 2024
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ID: AIO_1137