Preferred Citation: Tracy, Stephen V. Athenian Democracy in Transition: Attic Letter-Cutters of 340 to 290 B.C.. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1995 1995. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5290060z/


 
The Cutter of EM 12807 Dates: 334/3-314/3

Adnotatiunculae

IG II2 264 line 17

The last letter of this line is delta, not alpha. The general's name is inline image are perhaps the most probable names. Since the final lines of the inscription instruct the general to look after the safe passage of the ambassador to Iatrokles, we should perhaps conceive of a voyage by sea and danger from pirates. A possible candidate for the general is the general Diotimos who is known from IG II2 1623B lines 276-285 to have led an expedition against pirates in 335/4.[9]inline image, who was general over the countryside in 319/8 (Plutarch Phokion 32.3), is another very likely candidate.[10] By the same token, it is unlikely that Iatrokles, son of Pasiphon, the Athenian (PA 7442), who was taken prisoner by the Macedonians at Olynthos in 348, was then freed, and acted as an ambassador to Philip, is the Iatrokles mentioned in this inscription. The present Iatrokles seems to have been a foreigner.

IG II2 335, 405, 414a

E. Schweigert, Hesperia 9 (1940) 339-341, noted that these texts were inscribed by the same man and demonstrated that they were passed at the same meeting of the assembly. The first two were proposed by Demades, and the last by Lykourgos. Only the preamble of the first survives; the second preserves a grant of citizenship for Amyntor, son of Demetrios,

[8] F. W. Mitchel, "Lykourgan Athens: 338-322," in Lectures in Memory of Louise Taft Semple , 2d set. (Cincinnati 1970), 42-47.

[9] E. Schweigert, Hesperia 9 (1940) 341, plausibly restores his name in line 11 of IG II 414a .

[10] On him see E W. Mitchel, "Derkylos of Hagnous and the Date of I.G ., II , 1187," Hesperia 33 (1964) 337-351; and J. K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families (Oxford 1971) pp. 97-98.


127

otherwise unidentifiable; the third may well honor the Athenian general Diotimos. It is somewhat surprising to find three decrees passed on the same day inscribed by the same cutter, for in the years 229-86 there is no attested case of two decrees passed at the same meeting being cut by the same man (above 111). However, the decrees under discussion here are all relatively short. The best-preserved, IG II2 405, had at least 22 lines of 19 letters, i.e., 418 letters, and probably no more than 30 lines, or around 570 letters. The other two were probably about the same length. None will have taken more than two or three days to inscribe. Thus all three could be inscribed by the same man in a relatively short time. In the later period, when longer decrees were the norm, it became necessary to assign the decrees passed at the same meeting to different cutters.

IG II2 369 = Osborne, Naturalization no. D25

Osborne's text and study of these fragments is the most recent and likely to be primary for many students. I offer these comments on his text because it is defective in several places.

Line 19. The dotted epsilon goes back to Schweigert's reading. I suspect that it is wrong, for the top of the letter-space seems to be preserved, and there is no trace of a horizontal. Dotted kappa or eta would appear to be preferable.

Line 36. Omega was Schweigert's reading; it is incorrect. There is a completely preserved vertical on the right side of the stoichos , with just a trace of a horizontal at midpoint. Eta is an all-but-certain reading.

Line 43a . Osborne has completely omitted this line, which is line 41 in Schweigert's publication.

Line 54a . Osborne omitted this line, line 53 in Schweigert.

IG II2 416b lines 7-8

The name inline image has been incorrectly restored here, as discussed above. Indeed this name is not attested for Kos in W. R. Paton and E. L. Hicks, The Inscriptions of Cos (Oxford 1891); nor in R. Herzog, Koische Forschungen und Funde (Leipzig 1899).[11] However, names ending in inline image are quite common on Kos. As examples, the following appear in Paton and Hicks and are the correct length for this text: inline imageinline imageinline image This inscription be-

[11] LGPN I p. 384 records the name for Kos, but gives this inscription as the sole reference.


128

longs in the dossier of evidence relating to the severe grain shortages in Athens in the years 331-ca . 320.[12]

IG II2 430

In line 2, Koehler restored inline image with a mark of interrogation. This seems to be correct, for I can read from the squeeze in Princeton inline image. The dotted lambda is read based on a worn apex. The bottom of dotted iota alone appears.

It represents a small, but not completely inconsequential, gain to be able now to affirm that this very fragmentary inscription conferred honors on a Thessalian from Pharsalos for his good will and good deeds toward the people of Athens. The Thessalians maintained good relations with the Athenians and were their steadfast ally during the Lamian War (above 29). It is obviously not possible to specify the exact occasion on which the present honors were conferred.

Agora I 4224

Line 6. The second letter has only a vertical and a downward-slanting stroke that begins below the top of the vertical. Meritt, followed by Schwenk, interpreted this as kappa, which they print with a dot. If they are correct, the kappa should be printed in pointed brackets, because the upper slanting stroke was never inscribed. However, I think that this letter is this cutter's rather idiosyncratic nu. He often begins the slanting stroke quite low. The second vertical is lost. Given the mannerisms of this cutter I would print this letter as nu with no dot.

Line 7. Both Meritt and Schwenk print a shading after the epsilon. But there appears three-quarters of a clear vertical at the left edge of the stoichos . There is no trace of a central crossbar; hence nu and pi are alone possible.

EM 12807 line 31

The numeral is, as Stavropoullos saw,: DD :.

[12] See 30-35 above.


129

The Cutter of EM 12807 Dates: 334/3-314/3
 

Preferred Citation: Tracy, Stephen V. Athenian Democracy in Transition: Attic Letter-Cutters of 340 to 290 B.C.. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1995 1995. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5290060z/