The Cutter of IG II2 1262
Dates: ca. 320-ca. 296
General characteristics of the lettering (fig. 12)
This lettering is plain and somewhat sloppy in appearance, for the strokes often do not meet precisely, and horizontals tend to slant haphazardly. Round letters too are not round but are rendered, wholly or in part, by straight strokes. This cutter tends to leave ample space between letters.
Peculiarities of individual letters
Alpha | The crossbar varies in placement, though it is often approximately in the middle; it is frequently thicker and deeper at the right and does not quite touch the left hasta . |
Epsilon | The horizontals tend to be about the same length; the central one is sometimes placed near the bottom and has a decided upward slant. |
Kappa | The slanting strokes vary in length; the lower tends toward the horizontal. |
Mu | This letter is rendered by two thin lambdas placed side by side. |
Omikron | This letter varies quite a bit in size, occurs in the upper part of the letter-space, and is often smaller than the others. Made as it is with some straight strokes, it is at times rendered in a most awkward manner, with one or more segments which do not quite join. |
Rho | The loop is usually one-third to one-half the height of the vertical and is composed of one or more straight segments. It is often awkwardly pennant-shaped. |
Sigma | This letter is both wider and taller than the other letters. It is made with four very long slanting strokes. |
Figure 12.
IG II2 1262.
The lower half is often larger than the upper and extends back a bit farther. Occasionally the two halves do not quite join at the midpoint of the letter. | |
Phi | This letter is the same height as the others; the central part consists of a straight line or a thin flattened oval. Very occasionally, the cutter varies the straight line with an arc. |
Chi | In contrast to most of his contemporaries, this workman makes chi quite large. |
Omega | This letter is less tall than the others, relatively thin, open at the bottom, and hangs from the top of the letter-space. The left side is often rendered by a straight stroke. Small strokes of approximately the same size extend to right and left at the bottom. One side of the letter frequently extends down below the other; sometimes it is the right, and sometimes the left. |
List of inscriptions
IG II2 273a | The date given in IG, "ante a . 336/5," is too early. Fragment b is so worn that I can read nothing with certainty and, therefore, can draw no conclusion about the hand. |
IG II2 394 | Osborne, Naturalization no. D33 |
IG II2 400 | |
IG II2 418[1] | |
+ IG II2 440 | |
IG II2 455 | Archon [Anaxikrates] (307/6). Pritchett and Meritt, Chronology 20. |
+ IG II2 460 (W)[2] | Archon [Ana]xikrate[s] (307/6). |
IG II2 464 (W) | Archon [Anaxikrates] (307/6). |
IG II2 468 (W) | Maier, Gr. Mauerbauinschriften no. 12. |
[1] M. B. Walbank's attempt (ZPE 59 [1985] 110-111) to date this text to late 333 and to connect it with IG II 342 is unlikely to be correct, as he himself admits (ABSA 84 [1989] 404 n. 38). See also SEG 39 no. 109; and above 36 n. 2.
[2] The inscriptions marked with a W were assigned to one hand by M. B. Walbank; see the Addendum on pages 148-149 below.
+ IG II2 496 + 507 | Archon [L]eostr[atos] (303/2). Osborne, Naturalization no. D61 |
+ IG II2 497 (W) | Archon Leostra[tos] (303/2). |
+IG II2 504 (W) | Archon [Nikokles] (302/1). |
+ IG II2 505 (W) | Archon Nikokles (302/1). Maier, Gr. Mauerbauinschriften no. 13; Peçirka, Enktesis 80-81. |
IG II2 538 (W) | Osborne, Naturalization no. D59. |
IG II2 573 (W) | |
IG II2 591 (W) | |
IG II2 641 (W) | Archon E[uktemon] (299/8). Kirchner-Klaffenbach, Imagines2 no. 73. |
IG II2 727 (W) | S. Dow provided a new text and suggested a date of ca. 330-308/7 (Hesperia 32 [1963] 356-357); B. D. Meritt (ibid . 439) thought a date in the third century, scil . in the period of twelve tribes, was possible. If Meritt is to be correct, the tribe in prytany will have to have been Antigonis (I), for the chairman is from Demetrias (II) and the first symproedros from Erechtheis (III). The chances of that are 1 in 10. It appears much more probable that this decree belongs to the period of ten tribes, i.e., before 308/7.[3] This probable fact and the dates of the cutter point to a date ca . 320-308/7 for this text. |
+ IG II2 733 | |
IG II2 1194 + 1274 + Eleusis inv. no. 714 | Hesperia 8 (1939) 177-180. |
IG II2 1230 | |
IG II2 1241 | Archon Hegemachos (300/299). |
+ IG II2 1260 | Maier, Gr. Mauerbauinschriften no. 23. |
+IG II2 1262 | Archon [Kl]earchos (301/0). |
+IG II2 1264 | Archon Hegemachos (300/299). |
[3] Walbank, ABSA 84 (1989) 402, failed to realize this point or to note Dow's work on this text. He does suggest that the demotic of the secretary ended in -YS ; this appears to be correct, for on the (not very good) squeeze available to me the sigma seems clear.
IG II2 1265 | |
IG II2 1487a A (W) | Line 31 has larger letters and appears to be the work of a different cutter. |
IG II2 1491A, B (W) | Archon [Koroi]bos (306/5). On this text and related inventories, see D. M. Lewis, "The Last Inventories of Athena," in Comptes et inventaires dans la cité grecque (en l'honneur de J. Tréheux ), ed. D. Knoepfler (Geneva 1988), 297-308, esp. 299-300. |
Agora I 1541 (W) | Osborne, Naturalization no. D63. |
Agora I 1947 | Published below. |
+ Agora I 2636 (W) | Hesperia 8 (1939) 35-41; H. H. Schmitt, Die Staatsverträge des Altertums III (Munich 1969) no. 445. |
Agora I 2995 | Hesperia 29 (1960) 5-6. The date "post med. saec. IV a. " should be changed to ca. a . 310 a . |
Agora I 3293 | Unpublished. |
Agora I 3661 | Published below. |
Agora I 5251 | Hesperia 29 (1960) 80-81. |
Agora I 5361 | Unpublished. |
Agora I 5439 (W) | Hesperia 11 (1942) 278-280. Habicht, Untersuchungen 20-21, dates this text to the first half of the year 298/7. |
Agora I 5444 | Part of Agora I 5709, q.v . |
Agora I 5491 | Unpublished. |
Agora I 5709 (W) | Hesperia 9 (1940) 348-351. M. B. Walbank has joined Agora I 5444 (Hesperia 58 [1989] 89-90). For a discussion of Adeimantos and this text see L. Robert, Hellenica II (Paris 1946) 15-32. On the league of Corinth, see E. Badian and T. Martin, "Athenians, Other Allies, and the Hellenes in the Athenian Honorary Decree for Adeimantos of Lampsakos," ZPE 61 (1985) 167-172. |
Agora I 5723 | Hesperia 30 (1961) 211-212, where the date assigned by B. D. Meritt, "ca. a . 285/4-283/2 a .," is somewhat late. Meritt connected the reference to Piraeus in line 5 with the attempts to recover it from Macedonian control in these particular years. But one can scarcely be this specific. The strategic importance of Piraeus to the city throughout the last years of the fourth century and the first years of the third make any number of dates dur- |
ing this man's working career (ca . 320-ca. 296) possible. Indeed, the upheavals after 307 seem to offer a very probable time for this text. | |
Agora I 5772 | Hesperia 13 (1944) 242-243; Peçirka, Enktesis 132-133. On account of the fact that the trittyarchoi and the exe-tastes paid for the stele, its date can be narrowed to the years 301/0-295/4; indeed Habicht (Untersuchungen 15) has argued that it belongs to the time of Lachares, whose dates he establishes as 298/7-295/4 (ibid . 16-21). |
Agora 15836 (W) | Hesperia 30 (1961) 258-259. |
+ Agora I 5884 | Archon [Anaxikrates] (307/6). Pritchett and Meritt, Chronology 8. |
Agora I 6314 (W) | Hesperia 30 (1961) 257-258. |
Acropolis Museum inv. no. 7010 | Archon Leostrato[s] (303/2). AE , 1971, B 26 no. 16 (= SEG 30 no. 70). |
EM 5423 | Unpublished. |
EM 12573 | Unpublished. |
EM 12706 (W) | Archon Anaxik[rates] (307/6). Hesperia 2 (1933) 398-399 .[4] |
EM 12906 (W) | Hesperia 7 (1938) 307. |
Preliminary publication of fragments from the Athenian Agora
1 (fig. 13). Fragment of white marble, back (rough-picked) preserved, found built into the wall of a late pit in the Bouleuterion plateia (F 11) on 10 May 1934.
H 0.135 m; W 0.14 m; Th 0.095 m; LH 0.005 m
Checker ca . 0.01 m × 0.01 m
Inv. no. I 1947
[4] Walbank, ibid . 404, suggests that this might be the top of IG II 418. There is really no positive evidence. Many fragments "might" go together. The question is, Is there compelling evidence to put them together?
Figure 13.
Agora I 1947.
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This fragment is heavily scratched and worn smooth on the left side. As a result it is quite difficult to read.
Line 1. Only the vertical of dotted tau remains.
Line 2. Merely a small segment from the bottom of omikron is visible.
The possible names in line 9 are 
and 
. This is part of an honorary inscription. The reference in line 10 is most probably either to a gift (
) or to citizenship (
) previously granted. No exact parallel exists. For the former, see Vitae X Oratorum 851f (
); and, for the latter restored in a citizenship decree, see IG II2 734 lines 10-11 (= Osborne, Naturalization no. D46), [
].
2 (fig. 14). Fragment of gray marble, face only preserved, found in the foundations of the Church of Christ, outside the market square to the southeast (T 17), on 2 March 1936.
H 0.095 m; W 0.10 m; Th 0.032 m; LH 0.006 m
Checker ca . 0.013 m × 0.013 m
Inv. no. I 3661
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Line 4 . Of dotted eta the bottom third of the right vertical hasta is legible.
Figure 14.
Agora I 3661.
Lines 5, 7 . Of the dotted nus just the top of the left vertical can be made out. Line 5 should perhaps be restored [-- 
--]. This city in Bithynia, if this restoration is correct, here receives its first mention in Attic epigraphy.[5]
Adnotatiunculae
IG II2 440 line 8
The cutter inscribed nu, not mu, as the fourth preserved letter.
IG II2 460 lines 7-10
These lines are inscribed in rasura . Numerous traces of the originally inscribed text reveal that the first text was displaced to the left one letter-space. This in turn shows that the mason originally omitted one letter at
[5] For its history and inscriptions, see T. Corsten, Die Inschriften von Kios (Bonn 1985).
the beginning of line 7. It is of some technical interest to note that the stoichedon order was apparently important enough to him that he was willing to erase and reinscribe quite a large number of letters rather than simply crowd in the single omitted letter.
IG II2 496 + 507, 497, 504, 505
The first two decrees were passed at the same meeting at the dose of the year 303/2; IG II2 495 was also passed at this same session.[6] The second two were enacted at meetings held on successive days near the dose of 302/1. For examples of decrees passed on the same or successive days inscribed by the same cutter, see 110-111, 126-127, 162-163.
IG II2 733
Line la . Above the second epsilon in line 1 appears omega.
Line 6 . Under the lambda in line 5 appears the top of a round letter, most probably omikron, and before it the top part of what appears to be nu, though mu could also be read. I can discern no other sure remains of letters in this line.
IG II2 1260 line 12
As B. Stais recorded in his editio princeps (AE , 1900, 147), 
, not 
, is the first preserved word in this line.
IG II2 1262 line 17
The reading of this line in both instances is 
, not 
(IG ). 
is clearly a transliteration of a foreign word; it is not, so far as I can determine, attested elsewhere. The closest reflex I can discover is 
, the name of a place on the west side of Thebes in Egypt that is known from papyri of the mid-second century B.C.[7] According to Wilcken the word transcribes an Egyptian phrase meaning "the grave of Nbunn " and may be a reference to the grave of the high priest Nb-wnnf of Rameses II (1290-1224 B.C. ). Given the existence in Attica before 333/2 of shrines of Isis (IG II2 337 lines 43-45) and Ammon (IG II2 338 line 14),[8] it is
[6] On these decrees see above 22 n. 99.
[7] U. Wilcken, Urkunden der Ptolemäerzeit II (Berlin 1957) pp. 129-136 nos. 175a-c, esp. p. 133.
[8] Ammon had a special interest for the Greeks as having an important oracle (Dow, "The Egyptian Cults in Athens," HThR 30 [1937] 183-232, esp. 184-185). Alexander's visit to that oracle is legendary. The Athenian generals of the year 333/2 sacrificed to Ammon (IG II 1496 lines 96-97). Ammon also has important associations with Thebes as the major tutelary god of the city. In addition, Rameses II's tomb was located to the west of Thebes.
not impossible that there was an association of devotees of an ancient Theban (Egyptian) cult in Piraeus in the late fourth century B.C.
IG II2 1264 line 1
The first reported letter seems to have a central bar or very flattened oval; phi (dotted) should be read rather than iota. In the letter-space before it occurs a centered vertical. ['
is the almost certain restoration. He is perhaps identical with, and surely related to, Antiphon of Teithras who was the father of Euthios (Hesperia 7 [1938] 102 line 24). Euthios served as archon in 283/2.
Agora I 2636
E. Schweigert in the editio princeps in Hesperia dated this alliance between Athens and Sikyon to the year 303/2. W. S. Ferguson, however, doubted that this date was correct, for in 303 Sikyon was renamed Demetrias.[9] H. Taeuber has argued that this renaming lasted scarcely beyond the year 300.[10] The alliance has therefore been redated to soon after 300.[11] However, I am informed, thanks to the kindness of J. McK. Camp II, that a new fragment of this alliance has been discovered which shows that Schweigert's date was correct. We await publication of the new fragment.
Agora I 5884
A nu is preserved in line 10 after the omikron; the only name attested in Attic epigraphy that suits the remains is '
. Before the first alpha in line 14 a kappa can be discerned.
The inscriptions of this cutter that are dated by archon cluster in the years of Anaxikrates to Euktemon, that is, from 307/6 to 299/8. He was dearly very busy in these years and was one of the leading inscribers of decrees. That he began work about 320 is revealed by two inscriptions, IG II2 394 and II2 400. The mention in the former of the anagrapheus (line 18) as responsible for the writing-up and erection of the stele places it in the first period of the anagrapheus (321/0-319/8). The speaker of the second
[9] "Demetrius Poliorcetes and the Hellenic League," Hesperia 17 (1948) 126 n. 39.
[10] "Sikyon statt Aigeira," ZPE 42 (1981) 181-186.
[11] A. Griffin, Sikyon (Oxford 1982) 78.
was almost certainly Demades the eider, who was executed in 319, probably in the late spring or summer.[12] It therefore belongs to the first half of the year 319 or before. See page 33 above for the relevance of this text to the grain supply. The probable date of IG II2 727, ca . 320-308/7, suggests that this cutter may well have done some inscribing during the years of Demetrios of Phaleron's control.
[12] On the date of Demades' death see J. K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families (Oxford 1971) 101; and B. Gullath and L. Schober, "Zur Chronologie der frühen Diadochenzeit," in Studien zur alten Geschichte [Festschrift Lauffer ] I (Rome 1986) 331-378, esp. 350. Concerning the date of IG II 400, see also Pritchett and Meritt, Chronology 2-4.