Keeping Record, Making Public. The Epigraphy of Greek Government

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CHAPTER 26

Keeping Record, Making PublicThe Epigraphy of Government

Adele Scafuro

Greek cities in different times and places, whether democratic or oligarchic, whethersubordinated to Hellenistic kings or autonomous and free, whether members of leaguesor their capital cities, kept records. These might have included treaties, laws, decrees,letters of kings, and their officials, inventories of treasures, accounts of building projects,accounts of revenues and money-lending activities, lists of magistrates, or lists of particularsets of citizens – such as ephebes, of men fit for cavalry service, and of debtors to thestate. These records may have been deposited inside a building that would functionin part or solely as an archive and possibly the building, often a temple, would beaccessible to the public; or records may also have been publicly displayed, temporarilyor permanently.

Of course there was a time in Greece when official records were not kept in writing,but rather in the memories of specially assigned members of the community, sometimescalled mnemones or ‘‘reminders.’’ The scant early evidence for these officials, from theGreat Code at Gortyn and inscriptions from Halikarnassos (Syll.3: 45) and Iasos (Syll.3:169), suggests they were participants in legal proceedings, called upon, for example, toremind others of earlier decisions or charges stated before a judge without the aid ofwriting (Gagarin 2008: 118–119; Lambrinudakis-Worrle 1983: 330–344). The nameof a scribe (poinikastas) is engraved on a late sixth-century century bronze mitra (a metalguard for the abdomen) from Arkades in Crete (SEG 27.631): privileges are accordedSpensithios and his descendants ‘‘so they may record and thereby bring to mind publicbusiness, both divine and human.’’ Centuries later, officials bearing the title mnemonesappear in Paros, performing a notarizing function (SEG 33.679). While the Parianmnemones and their documents are grist for this essay’s mill, the earlier ‘‘reminders’’ andSpensithios the scribe can be left behind. Nonetheless, their cameo appearance here canserve as a reminder that record-keeping, orality, and literacy are interrelated and oftensynchronic phenomena.

A Companion to Ancient Greek Government, First Edition. Edited by Hans Beck.© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Keeping Record, Making Public: The Epigraphy of Government 401

Epigraphic Habit(s)

Texts permanently displayed in public were most often inscribed on stone. There isno scientific count of extant inscriptions from the Greek world, and even if one wereavailable, that number would provide only a proportion of the total, for it would excludeinscriptions that have not survived or that remain unknown. Nonetheless, some figures,rough and imprecise, may be helpful and for these, one may turn to Charles Hedrick’s(1999) study of the Athenian epigraphic habit. Hedrick estimated that the total numberof published Greek inscriptions was ‘‘somewhere in the vicinity of 100,000’’ and thatthe number of Attic inscriptions was probably ‘‘in the region of 20,000’’ (390–391).For comparison with some of the Greek cities that have large corpora, he offered theFouilles de Delphes with 2,000 texts, Inscriptions de Delos with less than 3,000, andEphesos with fewer than 4,000. These figures cannot be taken as anything more than aneducated shot in the dark based on some data that is now at least two decades old; thefull number of published inscriptions may be much higher.1 Of the Attic texts, half aregravestones (c.10,000); thousands more are dedications. The habit of inscribing decreesand financial accounts is thus significantly counterbalanced by habits of engraving stonesfor the honor of the gods and commemoration of the dead. The bulkiness of the lastcategory especially is not only characteristic of Athens; many cities present a similarpattern, but not all: Classical Korinth, Argos, and Sparta have preserved very few (E.A.Meyer 1993: 119–121).

Among decrees, honorific ones (including conferrals of citizenship and proxenia)outnumber all other kinds throughout the Greek world. Their content is often formulaicand in Delphi, for example, the number of such decrees became so numerous thatthe Delphians sometimes inscribed only the announcement ‘‘the Delphians made x aDelphian’’ (R&L: 134) and once inscribed a mere chronological list of proxenoi (SGDI ,II: 2581). Boiotia appears exceptional because awards of citizenship are rare. Nonetheless,the multiplicity of honorary decrees, their monotony, and their recipients (sometimeschildren) have led some scholars to dispute the value of such awards (e.g., regardingproxeny decrees, Klaffenbach 1957: 81–83). While many were no doubt superficial, agreat number played an important role in international politics. In the Hellenistic world,in maintaining that delicate balance between king and subordinate (or subordinatebut autonomous) city, honorary decrees carried weight, brought rewards (Ma 1999:201–218; Ma 2007), and sent their own messages (Bielfeldt 2010: 141–162).

For three decades now, scholars have tried to identify the epigraphic habit of differentancient and Late Antique cultures by estimating and graphing their production ofinscriptions and then by offering explanations for apogees and nadirs over lengthyperiods of time.2 Instead of identifying universal patterns of evolution and decline,however, it now seems more desirable to discern ‘‘variations in publication practice fromcity to city in the ancient world, with . . . attention to the fact that we get different sorts ofthings written up in durable form in different places’’ (Osborne 2009a: 103). Moreover,a heterogeneous perspective is important here, since this chapter is not concerned withthe origin of the epigraphic impulse, but with the epigraphic habits of governmentin Greek cities, with habits of preserving, archiving, and displaying public documents.Those interested in such documents of the Greek world can now be especially grateful


402 Adele C. Scafuro

for the monumental work of Rhodes and Lewis, The Decrees of the Greek States (R&L).Fifty catalogues from as many regions, presented in the order (or intended order) of theInscriptiones Graecae (IG), form its bulk; these supply rich data, a selection of decreesand other public documents such as honorific inscriptions that omit the text of the decreeordering honors, as often happens on statue bases. Here there is plenty of material fromwhich one may see the evolutions of decree formulae over the Greek world from theseventh century BCE to the third and fourth century CE; one can also track evolvingepigraphic habits in states with different kinds of governing bodies.

Document Materials

Perishable documents have for the most part disappeared but have left traces. These cansuggest record-keeping habits both before and after stone publication became a regularfeature in many Greek cities. Papyri documents are preeminently perishable. While richquantities have been preserved by the dry climate of Egypt, the use of papyri in therainier Greek world is primarily known from casual allusions in inscribed and literarytexts. For example, the inscribed building accounts from the Athenian Erechtheion inthe last decade of the fifthfifth century BCE and the first decade of the fourth record thepurchase of papyrus rolls (khartai). On these, the epistatai in charge of the temple’sconstruction made ‘‘copies [of accounts]’’ (IG I3 476, ll. 289–291; IG I3 477, ll. 1–2;IG II2 1655, ll. 1–2). The attestation of copies implies that the epistatai kept records.An honorary decree of 403 BCE orders the secretary of the Athenian boule to hand overto Poses, the Samian honorand, a papyrus (byblion) copy of the decree (IG II2 1, ll.61–62). In the early second-century law that reformed the Parian archive (SEG 33.679),the mnemones are to make ‘‘second copies’’ on papyrus rolls of all the ‘‘mnemonicdocuments.’’ Themelis (2008: 211) notes in a partial publication of a new lengthytext (190 lines, 182 BCE) from Messene that its arrangement in four parallel columnsresembles that of a papyrus document; possibly the exemplar was papyrus. In threedecrees from Priene (I Priene: 112–114, first century BCE), Zosimos, elected to replacethe secretary of the boule and demos, is honored, inter alia, for making double copies,on papyrus and parchment, of decrees, letters, and khrematismoi (legal instruments).Papyrus seems to have been an important fabric on which documents were copied andthen preserved in archives.

The terms pinakes, pinakia, sanides, deltoi, and grammateia frequently designatetablets or boards. Often these are made of wood, but they might also be of bronze: twobronze grammateia, one sealed and one opened, are recorded in an inventory of theHekatompedon in the late fourth century (IG II2 1469, ll. 100–102), and an earlyfifthfifth-century decree of Elis that honors two foreigners identifies itself as a pinax (SEG23.478, l. 4). Wood, on the other hand, is guaranteed by context when the tablets orboards are specifically said to be ‘‘whitened’’ (leleukomenoi/ai/a) and thus made suitablefor writing with charcoal or paint. Texts were also inscribed on bronze tablets or stelai.Bronze was more expensive than stone and in times of fiscal crisis might be melteddown: while not exactly a perishable fabric, its perpetuity could be uncertain. Pollux, inan Athenian context (8.128), comments that bronze tablets (deltoi) were engraved withlaws about sacred and ancestral matters. Indeed, a fragment of a bronze stele, possibly

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of the mid-fifthfifth century, appears to carry an Athenian sacred law (Stroud 1963); thestele may have been rectangular, made hollow, and set inside narrow channels incisedinto a stone base.

Bronze was by no means reserved for religious texts. Laws, proxeny decrees, and legaldecisions have all been found on bronze tablets. Moreover, bronze seems to have been afavored material for treaties. Against the background of this scattered sampling of bronzetexts, the recent excavation by the Greek Archaeological Service of an archive of publicfinancial records from Argos, inscribed on around 134 bronze tablets (and two on lead)of the early fourth century, is remarkable. Preliminary publications by Kritzas are summedup in exemplary fashion in the Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum (SEG 54.427)and a sample text published as SEG 54.429. The tablets record financial transactions ofpolitical or religious organizations regarding sacred funds of Hera and Athena. Someof the tablets bear small perforations that were used to tie them together with bronzewire in batches for storage; some tablets have been erased, others have been writtenover as palimpsests; some were stored in a terracotta vase referred to as to lekos; stonereceptacles called petroi were numbered. The final publication of the tablets will makea significant contribution to our knowledge of record-keeping, its organization, andaccounting practices both in Argos and in general; their recent discovery is a reminderthat new finds can change our picture of ancient record-keeping in extraordinary ways.

More common than bronze, lead tablets were frequently used for private letters,curses, and public documents. Two hoards of lead tablets preserving records of Atheniancavalrymen have been found, about 680 pieces in total (Braun 1970; Kroll 1977). Eachtablet is rolled up. The outside bears a single name and the inside the same man’s name,a description of his horse, and its price. Kroll has offered a reasonable explanation (1977:97–100). Each year, the value of a cavalryman’s horse would be assessed – its valuewould decline year after year and mounts might need to be replaced. That record wouldbe needed if a horse was lost in battle: since the cavalryman upon retirement wouldhave to repay the loan (katastasis) made to him by the state to buy the horse in thefirst instance, he could subtract the value of the dead horse according to the assessmentgiven in the year of its unfortunate demise. The extant tablets were rolled up tightly,suggesting that ‘‘no one expected them to be referred to on a regular basis’’ (Kroll1977: 95). Nonetheless, year after year, tablets were prepared in the (unlikely) event ofconsultation (R. Thomas 1989: 83; Davies 1994a: 212; Pebarthe 2006: 238).

Other perishable materials were also used for writing: for example, the tin sheetson which the Athenian secretary of the boule wrote questions for the oracle at Delphi(IG II 2 204, ll. 22–30). Or the broken ceramic pieces (ostraka) on which the namesof putatively offensive Athenian citizens were written in the annual fifthfifth-centuryeffort to rid Athens of too powerful politicians. A clay lid with text indicating that itmay have listed the documents used in an official arbitration (?) preceding a trial in latefourth-century Athens is itself a contemporary document for that trial (Boegehold 1982).

Texts for permanent public display, however, were most often inscribed on stone,either on walls or independent standing stelai. Paint was added to the incised letters,aiding legibility; traces are often visible today. Sometimes stelai had decorative features,such as the relief depicting Demokratia crowning Demos atop the fourth-centuryAthenian law against tyranny (SEG 12.87). More simple and fairly commonly all overthe Greek world, on stelai or walls bearing honorary decrees, crowns were etched with



the name of bestowers and honorands inscribed in their centers. Texts were regularlyinscribed on the walls or architectural features of buildings. The sanctuaries and agoraeof cities were the most common sites for these inscriptions. Indeed, the earliest inscribedlaws probably appeared on the temple walls of Apollo Delphinios in Dreros (seventhcentury) and on the temple walls of Apollo Pythios in Gortyn (sixth century). Theso-called War Debt Relief-Law from Ephesos appeared on the wall of the Artemision,along with many other inscriptions, including a series of citizenship and proxeny awards.

Documents and Records

The survey of perishable materials in the preceding section has provided a wide rangeof public documents that were once recorded by Greek cities; many of these will havebecome records and will have been preserved in temples or other buildings used forarchival purposes. Before considering the relationship between documents and records,it will be useful to describe some extant inscribed financial accounts and decrees fromAthens that offer evidence for their coexistence with perishable documentation. Themonumental Athenian Tribute Lists (IG I3 259–290, covering 454/453–415/414 BCE,with texts lacking for some years), originally set up on the akropolis, are a spectacularinstance: they record the names of cities and the amounts paid of one-sixtieth of theirtribute to Athens, the tithe given to Athena and entrusted to the hellenotamiai. The fullamount of tribute for any given year was not published on stone but the annual recordsof payments would have been recorded on wooden boards. Indeed, an inscribed decreeof 426 (IG I3 68), requires the hellenotamiai to copy on a sanis (wooden board) thenames of cities in default and of those bringing tribute in (ll. 18–21, partially but almostcertainly restored); another decree (IG I3 34, dated c.425/424 by Mattingly 1961: 153)requires the same treasurers to copy the names of cities that were in default of paymenton a whitened pinakion (ll. 43–46, italics: partially restored by Matthaiou 2009). Thetreasurers were certainly keeping records of tribute as it poured into Athens. Similar tothe publication of the one-sixtieth owed to Athena (rather than full payment), is thepublication on extant stelai from the later fourth century of the one-hundredth – the1 percent sales tax paid on proceeds of land sales in Attika, probably paid to Athena(Lambert 1997b: 269–276). The full record of these transactions, just as the yearlyrecords of tribute, would have been preserved on perishable materials (leukomata orpapyri). Published texts with their select data seem to combine a civic aim, display of therendering of accounts by officials, with a religious one; as Lambert (1997b: 275) putsit, the stelai demonstrated ‘‘to gods as well as men, that responsibilities had been dulyfulfilled.’’ Both cases (tribute lists and land sales tax) show how important it is to identifywhy particular documents are inscribed. If read solely as financial accounts, they wouldbe found wanting indeed, but they are not primarily or only that: they are payments toAthena and do not exist in a vacuum.3

During the greater part of the fifth century, perishable records of such financialtransactions (including sacred accounts and inventories) in Athens were kept in theoffices and temples of relevant officials (Harris 1994: 214–220). The same holds truefor decrees. A stele inscribed in 424/423 with a series of decrees dealing with relationsbetween Athens and Methone (IG I3 61) is illustrative. The stone preserves two decrees



and the prescript of a third. In its two-line heading, Phainippos is named as secretaryand presumably was also named in an unpreserved fourth decree. The first decree wasprobably enacted in 430 or 427/426; the second in 426/425 (see M&L 65); Phainipposwas secretary in 423/422 (Thuc. 4.118.11). Accordingly, the stele was inscribed severalyears after the first decree was enacted; the earlier decrees on the stele must have beenpreserved after enactment, and the most likely place of preservation was the bouleuterionitself. Copies of some decrees, then, were preserved by the early 420s. Three poorlypreserved Attic fifth-century proxeny decrees (IG I3 56, ll. 4–8; 155, ll. 4–9; 165,ll. 6–11; 420s or earlier) appear to order both a copy on stone to be set up on theakropolis, and a wooden board in the bouleuterion.4

While any written text that was integral to the functioning of polis institutions mightbe considered a document, only those preserved with a view to future use becamerecords. If we focus on Athenian documents that have been mentioned already as well asothers culled from the Constitution of the Athenians, it is clear that some never becamerecords at all, while those that did were envisaged for different life-spans. Consider thejudge’s pinakion, a small wooden plaque ‘‘inscribed with his name, his father’s name andhis deme’’ ([Arist.] Ath. Pol. 63.4).5 Presumably, the dikastes obtained his pinakion assoon as he was allotted to his year-long term of service. It allowed further allotment toa particular court and then subsequent entrance to that court; it was his judge’s identitycard. Dikastic pinakia belong to the first group of documents, ‘‘non-records.’’ Theywere probably never collected after the expiry of the year of service but instead remainedthe personal property of their owners since many have been discovered in Athenian graves(see Kroll 1972: 9–11 for pinakia found in graves). The rolled lead tablets mentionedearlier that carried the names of cavalrymen were a ‘‘living archive’’: they were discardedafter a year, replaced with new data, and often reused as palimpsests. The author ofConstitution of the Athenians ([Arist.] Ath. Pol. 47.4) mentions grammateia leleukomata:on these, the basileus recorded leases of sacred lands. They ran for ten years and paymentswere due in the ninth prytany. These grammateia, as well as others intended to conveysimilar public texts (sales of confiscated properties, contracts for mines and taxes), ‘‘arewritten out according to times of payment, brought into the boule and kept by a publicslave’’ (47.5). When payments were made, the public slave handed the same grammateiaover to the apodektai, and the debts (now paid) were erased. The grammateia will havebeen kept until final payments were made, stored on epistulia (racks or shelves) probablyin the bouleuterion; the records would disappear as payments were made.6 The pinakionleleukomenon that carried an individual’s complaint and assessment of a penalty against aretiring magistrate (48.4) was an important document of an impending lawsuit. If, afterthe verdict was given, it was preserved by the Forty or thesmothetai (Rhodes 2001a: 35;Faraguna 2006b), it might have become a record for future consultation. The Methonestele (IG I3 61) attests preservation (presumably on wooden boards or papyri) of its firstthree (previously unpublished) decrees beyond their term of service. The first decree alsosuggests that records of earlier tribute assessment – not simply the tithe commemoratedon the monumental tribute lists on the akropolis, were available to the drafters of thatdecree: records were indeed consulted. Solon’s wooden axones may have themselvesbeen intended to last forever – these were ancestral laws for Athenians of Solon’s dayand thereafter to heed and protect. Plutarch remarks they were still to be seen in thePrytaneion at Athens in his day (Plut. Sol. 25.1).



The different life-span of these various documents suggests that habits regardingpreservation in Athens evolved idiosyncratically (by category of document, by magisterialoversight).7 The ‘‘non-records’’ (the dikastic pinakia) were useless after a year; ‘‘living’’(cavalrymen/horses tablets) and ‘‘disappearing’’ (leases and contracts for a set number ofyears) records were used for short-term consultation, necessary for the yearly operationof military service and financial accounting. When that service ended, the records werediscarded, erased, or reused and brought up to date. Decrees on stone may regularly havehad long lives, but these, too, will have been to some extent service-oriented: decreesthat were repealed in the fourth century were removed and destroyed by assignedofficials (Bolmarcich 2007: 484–487; Sickinger 1999: 219); more regularly, a new lawsuperseding an earlier one may order the destruction of any decree that contravenesit (e.g., SEG 26.72, ll. 55–56; see Bolmarcich 2007 on the longevity of stelai withtime-lapsed treaties). That fragments of Solon’s wooden axones, on the other hand,were preserved as late as the second century CE bespeaks a different impulse: the desirefor historical preservation of an ancient document/artifact; that impulse for ‘‘museumconservation,’’ however, was not there from the start.

Archives

Central archives

Archives are often referred to by the name of the temple in which records are preserved(e.g., the temple of Apollo Delphinios in Miletos, the temple of Hestia in Paros),or they can also be designated by such terms as archeion (which can also refer toan official’s office), koinon grammateion, demosion (which can also refer to a treasuryor public building), and grammatophylakion. Most historians believe that in the lastdecade of the fifth century the Metroon became the central record-keeping office inAthens (Boegehold 1972), a repository for laws and decrees, treaties and alliances – fordocuments primarily associated with the boule and ekklesia but probably also includingother documents such as accounts of officials undergoing review after their term expired(for laws in the Metroon, see Sickinger 1999: 116–118). The Metroon is identifiablewith the old bouleuterion (or part of it) and became solely archival in function once thenew bouleuterion was built (Sickinger 1999: 105–108). As its new name suggests (whichbegins to appear in the mid-fourth century), it had close associations with the Mother ofthe Gods. A public slave guarded the documents (Dem. 19.129), locating them whencalled upon and making copies (IG II2 120, l. 12; 583, l. 5). The secretary of the boule,however, was the official responsible for keeping copies of decrees, regardless of whethercopies on stone were ordered ([Arist.] Ath. Pol. 54.3; Rhodes 1981: 600). Evidence forthe Metroon as an archive to be consulted grows steadily; it was certainly exploited byAischines in the mid-fourth century (R. Thomas 1989: 69–71).

Use of the term ‘‘central archive’’ is contentious in modern scholarship since it impliesthe centralization of all documents in one building. It is hardly likely that any ancientGreek city achieved such a feat. It may be more accurate to speak of the creation ofrecognized public archives and to think of Greek cities as hosting multiple archiveswithin their perimeters (Faraguna 2006a: 61). And while the Metroon in Athens may



have been more centralized than most, many documents will still have been preservedin different buildings used by officials; such a scatter of records is not an acclamation ofrudimentary archiving capacities, but rather of the physical space of the Athenian agora:it will have been no long walk from the bouleuterion to the poleterion or strategeion orparabyston and other law-court sites.

It is often difficult to determine when public archives elsewhere in the Greek worldwere established. Miletos, with a well-known archive, can serve as example. The oldestremains of the Delphinion date to the sixth century. The structure was destroyedalong with the rest of the city in 494, then rebuilt after reoccupation in the firsthalf of the fifth century, and finally replaced during Alexander’s lifetime and enclosedby a three-sided hall whose superstructure was covered by inscribed state documents(Gorman 2001: 168–169). The priests of Apollo Delphinios, patron god of the city,provided the eponymous official of the city after about 540 BCE; city and temple wereintimately connected. The major contents of the Delphinion archive include ‘‘an Archaicsacrifice calendar, lists of eponymous officials, and hundreds of inscriptions spanningcenturies, including treaties, anagraphai conferring citizenship or proxeny, and otherstate decrees’’ (Gorman 2001: 170). Some inscribed documents, however, were put inthe bouleuterion, such as a text announcing the arbitration (arranged by the Persiansatrap) of a boundary dispute between Miletos and Myos (I. Milet I.2.9, 391–388 BCE)and a dossier consisting of a decree of the Ionian koinon honoring Hippostratos and twoMilesian decrees of implementation (I. Milet I.2.10, c.287/281). A letter of EumenesII to the Ionian koinon was inscribed on a statue base standing in the precinct nearthe stadion he had funded (I. Milet VI.1.306); a Milesian decree for Eumenes II wasinscribed on an anta block of the stadion’s propylon (I. Milet VI.1.307); some honorarydecrees are found at other locations (stadion, gymnasion, theater). Nonetheless, it issafe to say that by the middle or late fourth century, decrees (treaties, conferrals ofcitizenship) were regularly published in the Delphinion and that the temple served as apublic archive.

The decree of the Ionian koinon (I. Milet I.2.10) honoring Hippostratos orderedeach of its representatives to report its decisions to his own city, which were thento be entered into the public archives (en tois demosiois). There were 13 cities in thekoinon at this time. Accordingly, at least 13 cities in Ionia in the early third centurywere thought to have public archives. Some of those archives are attested abundantly(Miletos, Priene, Ephesos) and some, as at Miletos, as early as the fourth century. Inmainland Greece, the picture is less clear during this period as only sporadic referencesto archives appear in the late third and early second centuries. A decree from Gonnosaccepting asylia for the sanctuary of Artemis Leukophryene in Magnesia (see below)ends with an order for the decree to be entered into the public records and depositedin the nomophylakion (I. Gonnos 2.111; I. Magnesia 33; 208/207 BCE). Early in thenext century, in Megalopolis (IG V.2 433), the synedrion is responsible for keeping lawsand decrees in the grammatophylakion and no nomographos or grammatophylax is topermit changes in the records. Around 160 BCE, in an Ambrakiote treaty with Charadros(SEG 35.665) discovered in the main temple at Arta (ancient Ambrakia), envoys areordered to set up bronze stelai, written up identically, in the sanctuary of OlympianZeus and of Apollo Kerdoios in Larissa, and additional copies are to be provided for thegrammatophylakia in the two cities. Sometime after 163 BCE, a decision in a dispute



between Sparta and the Achaian League is to be entered into ta grammata ta damosia;the inscribed text was found in Olympia (IvO 47). The Pheneatai in the late secondcentury kept papyrus copies of decrees in an archeion (IG V.1 30). A grammatophylakionin Sparta is attested in Trajan’s era (IG V.1 20). Presumably, there were many other cityarchives in mainland Greece by the second century if not earlier (for Sparta, see Millender2001: 127–141); temples and sanctuaries will surely have served that purpose; but detailsof archival practice are scarce.8 The Parian archive appears to have been functioning forsome time before a law reforming it was enacted in the early part of the second century(SEG 33.679). The archive preserved both public and private documents. References toprivate documents preserved in temples increase throughout the second century and willbe considered below.

The sanctuary of Olympia itself served as a site for publishing international treatiesand arbitrations. Bronze tablets recording treaties between Sybaris and the Serdaioi (IvO10) and between the Eleans and Heraians (IvO 9) are dated to the sixth century, andtexts continue to be published into Roman times. A remarkable inscription of around138 BCE, engraved on the base of the Nike of Paionios (IvO 52), consists of three textsbearing upon a dispute between Messene and Sparta that had been arbitrated by Miletosat the request of Rome (cf. Tac. Ann. 4.43.3). The first is a decree of Elis permitting theMessenians to publish the decision at Olympia, the second is the letter of the Milesiansto Elis that accompanied a sealed copy of the decision, the third is the decision. Acopy of that award can be presumed to have been preserved at least in Messene. Theprotocol outlined here for exhibiting treaties or arbitrations in Olympia (the sendingof a letter from the arbitral state assuring authenticity of the award, the sending of thesealed award, permission from the Eleians) was probably regularly followed, at least inthe Hellenistic age.

Multiple copies and authoritative texts?

Scholars have disputed whether copies of all documents published on stone wereautomatically preserved in a central archive or whether special directions had to begiven for preservation. There is no certain answer. Instructions for dual publication, oneinscribed on stone in one place and another written on a wooden board and displayedelsewhere, can be interpreted in two ways: the perishable copy was for temporary displayand an archival copy is to be assumed – no need for specific directions (cf. Wilhelm 1909:229–238); or, the perishable copy was the archival copy (Klaffenbach 1960: 21–28,with greater discrimination). In a Milesian decree that combines praise for Eudemosfor funding a school with a detailed set of directives for bringing that school to life,officials were to publish the decree on two stone stelai and also on a leukoma (I. MiletI.3.145). Presumably the stone copy in the Delphinion was archival and the other,near the boys’ palaistra, commemorative of the place funded by Eudemos; the woodencopy may have been for temporary display, to advertise, inter alia, new positions in theschool, salaries for gymnastic trainers and teachers, and instructions for application forelection. The neglect of making multiple copies could sometimes pose serious problems:when the temple of Apollo burned down in Knossos after 260 BCE, Milesian envoyshad had to receive assurances from the Knossians that their earlier agreement remained



in force before a new treaty with Knossos and other Cretan cities was ratified.9 TheMilesians, for their part, seem to have been quite careful. This is shown not only in thedecree for Eudemos, but also, for example, in their resolution to confer isopoliteia on theMylasians. This decree is inscribed together with the Mylasians’ reciprocal resolution (I.Milet I.3.146, 209/208 BCE). Toward the end of the Milesians’ decree, the teichopoioiand arkhitekton are ordered to make copies of both decrees on one stone stele and toset it in the temple of Apollo Delphinios ‘‘so that matters resolved by the people for thephilanthropia of the Mylasians may be remembered for all time’’ (ll. 43–46). At the endof the decree, a separate vote appears to have been taken for the decree to be copied on aleukoma (l. 58), and in the decree that follows, the Mylasians order their own decree tobe copied in two temples of Zeus ‘‘so that the resolutions of the people be rememberedworthily for all time’’ (ll. 71–73).

Multiple publication raises another question. Which was primary, or authorita-tive: the archival copy or inscribed text? Answers may vary in different periods andplaces. For Athens, scholars have made two opposing proposals: the archival copy wasauthoritative – but here the argument is based on inference (Robert 1961: 459); or, theinscribed stone was authoritative – and here the argument is based on the frequency withwhich ancient texts mention stelai rather than archived texts when referring to laws anddecrees (e.g., R. Thomas 1989: 46). Copies of one and the same decree, where morethan one inscribed text is extant (or where a literary text and an inscribed one are extant,e.g., the treaty between Athens, Elis, Argos, and Mantinea: IG I3 83; Thuc. 5.47),are usually not verbatim, which confounds the question of an authoritative text. Thisis not necessarily problematic: the ancients had a different notion of copy that did notencompass precise replication (see Rhodes 2001a: 37–40 for discussion of abbreviatedinscribed decrees).

It seems, however, that fragmentary copies, even imprecise ones, of allegedly identicaldecrees have sometimes been identified too quickly. Modern editors often producecomposite texts, on the assumption that all are copies of one and the same decree. In thepast this assumption has been made of the so-called Athenian Standards Decree (IG I3

1453), of which stone fragments survive from Smyrna, Olbia, Aphytis in Macedonia, theislands of Kos, Siphnos, and Syme, and Hamaxitos in the Troad. A second fragment ofthe Aphytis stele, however, was published by Hatzopoulos in 2003. The new fragmentshows that at least two texts of the decree were of different lengths: for the Aphytisfragment provides the end-point of its text; no other fragment had done so before. Andnow it has become clear that the Smyrna fragment, while containing the same words thathad concluded the Aphytis text, continues for another nine or more lines. There is thusa major discrepancy between at least one putative copy and another. These, however,may be no copies at all but rather two different decrees, possibly enacted at differenttimes (Stroud 2006: 20–26; Matthaiou 2009: 187).

Alterations in copies may also be the consequence of a recipient city’s ingenuity. Forexample, in a decree mentioned earlier, the Ionian koinon honored Hippostratos, theMilesian general who had been appointed by Lysimachos, and ordered the erection ofa bronze equestrian statue at Panionion and the selection of two cities to carry outarrangements speedily. Each of the koinon’s representatives was to report to his own citythe decisions of the Ionians so as to be entered into the public archives. Additionally,each was to inscribe the decree on a stone stele in his own city; Miletos and Arsinoia were



selected for statue duty. One copy of the decree is extant from Miletos and another fromSmyrna. Whereas the Milesian text begins, ‘‘Resolved by the koinon of the Ionians,’’the Smyrnaian begins, ‘‘Resolved by the koinon of 13 Ionian cities,’’ and thereby callsattention to its own (proud?) admittance into the koinon after the city’s refounding byLysimachos. The Milesian copy, on the other hand, adds two further decrees of Miletosto the stele inscribed with the koinon decree: the first, passed in the fourth month of theMilesian year, orders the copying of the now ratified Ionian decree into its archive andannounces the selection of two men to arrange for the statue; the second decree, passedsix months later, orders the teichopoioi to supervise and contract for the manufactureof the statue and the copying of the decisions. The Milesian decision to copy all threedecrees on the same stele could hardly have been flattering to the honorand (H. Muller1976: 73); dilatoriness, at the very least, is self-evident – possibly, even, subversivesluggishness.

Public archives and private documents

Later practice in the Greek world suggests that the archival copy was at least sometimesviewed as the primary text. This was certainly the case in Paros in the early thirdcentury: identical copies of documents, both private and public, were to be depositedin the temples of Pythian Apollo and Hestia. Discrepancies were to be checked againstthe documents stored in the temple of Hestia under strict rules: no one was ever tobring them outside the temple (SEG 33.679).10 Aristotle reports that copies of privatecontracts and courtroom decisions must be made before a certain magistracy. Before itsofficials, indictments are to be made and also ‘‘registrations’’ (presumably of documents);those in charge, he says, have such titles as hieromnemones, epistatai, and mnemones(Pol. 1321b34–40). Broadly speaking, three types of private document can be discernedin late Hellenistic archives: legal instruments of a private nature (e.g., wills, contracts,leases, sales), manumissions, and epitaphs.

As for the first type, while evidence from Egypt is ample (Lambrinudakis and Worrle1983: 360–365), that from Greek cities is sporadic (Harris 1989: 120); presumably, thegreater part of this material had been written on perishable materials. Extant examplesinclude a third-century register inscribed before the astynomoi of Tenos for dowries andsales of land and houses (IG XII.5 872–873), and another for dowries from Mykonos(Syll.3 1215). A decree from Andros of the first century BCE (IG XII.5 721) praises a cit-izen, inter alia, for serving as the elected grammateus for the boule and demos, for super-vising the public records (demosia grammata), and for undertaking at his own expensethe copying of business contracts for the demosion. These bits and pieces can only suggestthe evolution of archival practice over time, that polis institutions gradually became thesafeguard for private transactions, and that often the archival copy was authoritative – toa degree. That such registrations with officials with a notarizing function provided thedocuments a dispositive legitimacy is debatable (E.A. Meyer 2004: 16–20).

It is usually thought that Athens developed similar archival practice late. Suchconjectures fail to take into account that Attika was a large territory, that many of itsdemes were as extensive as small poleis, and that deme and other institutions had longdeveloped their own record-keeping habits. The Aixonians, for example, order their



tamiai to make copies of a land lease on two stone stelai, one for the shrine of Hebeand the other for the leskhe (IG II2 2492, ll. 20–23). A group of orgeones, perhaps inthe later fourth century, lease out the sanctuary of Egretes for ten years and also orderthe new lessee to copy the agreement on a stele and to set it in the sanctuary (IG II2

2499, ll. 39–42 cf. IG II2 2501, ll. 20–22); of interest is that the stone appears to havebeen reused: do we have an example of a ‘‘living’’ or ‘‘disappearing’’ document – is itemended after every ten years or for every new lease offered by the group? Insofar as anyregular practice is discernible, in the Greek cities mentioned earlier a more centralizedpublic archive may have become the safe place for private documents whereas in Athens,a tradition of more local preservation may have survived longer. Local preservation maybe more of a matter of the size of Attika than a sign of the lesser sophistication of itsarchival practices.

Manumissions were a special kind of sale. While these are documented in a host ofGreek cities, Delphi became the site par excellence for records of the sacral manumissionsof slaves whose former masters were from Delphi and elsewhere: more than a thousandsuch inscriptions have survived, dating from 200 BCE to 74 CE, engraved, for the mostpart, on the polygonal wall of the theater leading to the temple of Apollo.11 The texts areformulaic: date provided by the name of the eponymous archon of Delphi and month;name of the slave whom the former master has given up to Pythian Apollo for x sumof money, statement that he has received the full sum, description of the ex-slave’s newstatus, names of guarantors of the purchase and their duty to protect the former slave,penalties for violation, witnesses, publication clause. Usually one copy is to be inscribedin Apollo’s sanctuary (on the wall) in accordance with the law, and another in the cityarchive (e.g., en ta damosia tas polios grammata or en to damosion grammatophylakion:FdD III 611, ll. 15, 19, 20). Sanctuary and city archive in this instance are two distinctlocations. The inscriptions provided visible proof of the status of the manumitted slave.

Public archives in many cities of Thrace, Macedonia, and Asia Minor became theprotective receptacles for epitaphs that included threats of prosecution and fines againstthe unlawful use of tombs (especially for someone else’s burial). One Smyrnaian textspecifies the archive as [to ar]kheion khreophylakion (I. Smyrna 238b), which editorshave interpreted as an archive for documents relating to debts. Usually only one copy ismentioned; some mention two: one for the archive and the other for the testator or hisfamily (Tituli Asiae minoris V.1.758, V.2.1142, Ioulia Gordos and Thyateira in Lydia).

Archives and micro-archives

Many of the archives mentioned thus far preserved a variety of documents: the Metroonin Athens, the demosia in Miletos and the 12 other cities of the Ionian koinon, thebasilikai graphai in Sardes, the nomophylakion in Gonnos, the grammatophylakia in Arta,Megalopolis, and Sparta, the Hestia in Paros, and possibly the many later attested archeiathat guarded epitaphs. Modern scholars, however, sometimes refer idiosyncratically tosmaller collections of a particular type of document as an archive – for example, ‘‘archivesof the Athenian cavalrymen’’ or ‘‘the archive of bronze tablets from Argos.’’ With a slightdifference, some have designated the zygastra that are mentioned in Delphic inventoriesas ‘‘mobile archives’’: these were wooden boxes in which the Amphiktyonic naopoioi in



charge of the temple’s reconstruction put their dossiers (contracts, offers, payments) asthey traveled back and forth to the building site in the process of verifying accounts andcontracts (Georgoudi 1988a: 235–236).

Sherwin-White, in her well-known (1985) study of the so-called Edict of Alexanderto Priene identified a specialized dossier as another type of Hellenistic archive: these are

selections of public documents, picked out by the community (or responsible authority) tocreate and broadcast a particular theme and message. Decisions adverse to the polis naturallyhave no place among the texts. . . . The creation of an archive or dossier of this sort canlegitimately be regarded as a public act in that it required authorization by the civic assemblyof the polis and to this extent therefore represented the policy of the civic community.(1985: 74)

She introduced this category to distinguish state record offices from the archive ofdocuments inscribed on the walls and architectural features of the temple of AthenaPolias in Priene. The latter contained Alexander’s dedication of the temple at the topof the temple’s anta, the edict beneath it, and then fragments from at least threeseparate texts (I. Priene 14–16): a Prienian decree for King Lysimachos, a royal letterof Lysimachos, and a royal edict, possibly Lysimachos’. At the top of the left-handside of the sidewall, the Rhodian adjudication of a dispute between Samos and Prienewas inscribed (I. Priene 37 , c.196–192 BCE). More documents follow, all concerningdisputes in which Priene was involved and several that confirmed the Rhodian decisionin favor of Priene, (all c.155–135 BCE). On the basis of letter forms, Sherwin-Whitepersuasively argued that Alexander’s edict was published at least 40 years after thededication was inscribed and at the same time as I. Priene 14–15. She further arguedthat it is an extract from an edict, and that the Prienians’ purpose in publishing it in soprominent a position, together with the other select texts, was to create an archive ordossier that would document and provide proof of their contemporary rights as a polis(1985: 78, 81–82). Among other such archives, Sherwin-White adduced that inscribedon the perimeter walls of the agora of Magnesia-on-Maiander. This is the largest archiveof responses from cities, leagues, and kings to another city’s request for asylia; it wassought for a crowned competition in the sanctuary of Artemis Leukophryene. While morethan sixty decrees and letters survive, Rigsby suggests this may represent ‘‘little morethan two-thirds of what was once inscribed’’ and notes that ‘‘subscriptions appendedto fifteen of the decrees . . . name more than 100 other cities whose decrees were notinscribed at all’’ (1996: 180). The display of the archive was important to Magnesia: itprovided not only enormously visible proof of the city’s inviolability, but also exaltedthe status of the city and its inhabitants.

One last micro-archive will be mentioned here: the collection of citizenship andproxeny decrees on the walls of the Artemision in Ephesos. Some 135 Hellenistichonorary decrees are known from this city. Most confer citizenship rights, a few conferproxeny, either with or without citizenship. That the inscribed marble blocks on whichthe texts are found belonged to the walls of the Artemision is discernible througharchaeological criteria and through a detail of the provision ordering publication in athird of the decrees: ‘‘the neopoioi are to publish this decree in the temple of Artemis,where they also publish the rest of the citizenship decrees’’ (or similar). Walser (2008:321–322) points out that the close connection between city and sanctuary is not only



manifested by publication of the citizenship decrees in the Artemision, but also in thecentral role played by cult personnel who allotted new citizens to phylai and chiliastyen.The decrees were enacted between 322/321 and 275 BCE, breaking off at that timeperhaps in connection with the city’s refoundation and transfer to a new site. Perhapsa new practice, publication on stelai, evolved, since there was now a greater distancebetween city center and temple.12 Of interest is the appearance of two decrees in whichthe gerousia and epikletoi take the initiative (I. Ephesos1449, 1470): some have arguedon their basis that an oligarchy ruled Ephesos for a short period, others that these bodiesadministered only the Artemision (Walser 2008: 66–70 for references). The initiativeintroduced by the gerousia and epikletoi (I. Ephesos 1449) was to honor Euphronios forsuccessfully carrying out their request, to make arrangements with the general Prepelaosfor quartering troops with ateleia in the Artemsion. While the temple may have prosperedunder such circumstances, the people of Ephesos will not have. The decree has not beenerased; there is no evidence of a damnatio memoriae: this may attest acquiescence orindifference – or possibly, a city imbued with the impulse to preserve its history.

Epigraphic Habits and the Presentationof Political Culture

An increase in the number of preserved Athenian inscriptions in the last quarter ofthe sixth century BCE has been associated with the reforms of Kleisthenes and birthof democracy (Merritt 1940; Davies 1994a). Another, even grander spurt in the450s is associated with the aftermath of Ephialtes’ democratic reforms (Davies 1994a;Rhodes 2001b: 140).13 Few doubt a connection between a democratic impulse tocommunicate information and surges in epigraphic publication not only in Athens,but also elsewhere – in Argos, Miletos, Thebes, the larger Aegean states, the Achaianand Aitolian leagues – and few hesitate to correlate the paucity of published texts inSparta, Korinth, and Rhodes with oligarchic regimes (Davies 2003: 338). Publicationspurts, however, once an impulse to publish (whether democratic or not) is in place,may have more particular motives: in Delphi (not quite a democracy), the rebuildingof the collapsed temple of Apollo in 373/372 called forth an immense amount offinancial documentation (Davies 1998). The ‘‘Peisistratid building program’’ might beresponsible for the increased documentation in the last quarter of the sixth century inAthens (Hedrick 1999: 398).

Economic drive and democratic impulse, over time, do seem entwined. Some scholarshave criticized the inscribed accounts, inventories, and other financial documents of theAthenians, especially of the fifth century: they are incomplete and so misleading. Whydid they publish them – why misinform the people? Some have responded by heedingmore closely the physical aspect of the inscribed texts and have focused on the size of,for example (and most often), lapis primus, on its monumentality, its placement on theakropolis, its symbolic significance. Other scholars have found answers in the civic arenaof accountability: financial documents and inventories publicized the fact that moneysand treasures had passed through the hands of polis officials. Enticing and baiting thepublic may have been as entrenched an Athenian political characteristic as informingit was a democratic value: if you are curious, if you are skeptical, inquire and learn



more, seek out retiring officials, prosecute – or let yourself be allotted or appointed tosupervisory positions – Athens is your oyster!14 Let foreigners stand in awe! And maythe gods protect us!

A great amount of publication throughout the Greek world looked both at thenative city and the outside. This is true of texts announcing or preparing for festivals.Host cities must be attractive and well ordered; bridges and roads must be repairedin advance (SEG 28.100, Amphiktyonic text before the Pythian festival; IG II2 1191,Eleusinian festival). Published archives of theoric texts recognized the inviolability ofcities and sanctuaries, and advertised their celebrations. Festivals brought revenues.Early Thasian publication may even have aimed primarily at foreign readership andadvertisement, good for promoting trade and orderly conduct between native andforeigner, good for maintaining an attractive city (Osborne 2009a). Honorific decreesin the Hellenistic world of Asia Minor show a dynamic relationship between king andsubordinate/autonomous city. Interdependent with one king or another in need ofsecure neighbors, the democratic assemblies vote honorific statues and sanctuaries, andwin rewards and recognition (see a letter of Eumenes II to the Ionian koinon, withMiletos as prime winner: I. Didyma I.9).

Inscribed texts make visible the cultural values of the polis – this is true not only ofinscribed laws and honorary decrees with their blatant trumpeting of polis values, butof treaties of alliance or sympoliteia that secured legal protections guaranteed by oath,of international arbitrations presided over by foreign judges that secured boundaries andprotected property and revenues. Broad-scale publication (and proclamation) of manu-missions made visible changes of civic status, so important to individual recipients. Thepublication of multiple citizenship awards to multiple worthy (and less worthy) recipients,even if activation was never really anticipated by the bestower nor effected by the recipi-ent, proclaimed the former’s assessment and made visible the city’s attractiveness – aboveall, to its own inhabitants: our city is a prize! Publication of building contracts provideddescriptions of materials, their costs as well as instructions for builders and penaltiesfor failure of execution; by showing city inhabitants how revenues were used, theycreated an opportunity not only for holding officials accountable but also for imagininga beautiful new building or reinforced security afforded by the repair of a decrepitold wall.

Archaeologists, architectural historians, and epigraphists, by crossing disciplines (e.g.,Boegehold 1995; Miles 1998; Ma 1999; Bielfeldt 2011), have been leading the way inshowing how inscribed texts on stelai, on walls, on architectural features of buildings,on statue bases and altars, visibly fit into the urban topography and political culturesof different cities. We can now envision many sanctuaries and agorai: we can lookat reconstructions on paper and computer screens and see where buildings, statues,and stelai were located, how they interacted, how public space worked. But we needto see the people too, milling around the streets in throngs, entering shops, offices,lawcourts, and temples, surrounded by texts with painted letters on stelai and wallsand statue bases. We should keep in mind that the publication of texts was part ofa continuum of civic decision-making and bureaucracy that often included assigningsecretaries and public slaves to take notes and fetch documents. It could also includeassigning heralds to send abroad to announce festivals or proclaim honorary awards atdramatic, choral, and gymnastic contests (Ceccarelli 2010); or assigning theoroi who,



in making requests of foreign cities for asylia, might bring along texts illustrating theantiquity and honor of their own city, texts that would have to be readied in advance(Rigsby 1996: 181); it could include selecting men to go abroad to tender and receiveoaths from new allies or to barter with kings for grain in return for proffered crowns andcitizenship. The continuum included the votes of civic bodies; the disbursement of fundsfor inscribing and sculpting marble stelai or wall blocks; the designation and securing ofplace for installing texts. The civic decision-making and bureaucracy that lies behind theepigraphic habits of Greek cities was variegated and changed over time. The inanimatestelai and wall blocks we see in museums and ancient sites are relicts of complicated andcolorful social machinery.

NOTES

1 Davies (2003: 126) offers, as a wild guess: ‘‘The total number of epigraphic documentswritten in Greek and surviving from the eighth century BC until the early seventh century ADmust be well over 200,000.’’

2 The phrase ‘‘pigraphic habit’’ comes from MacMullen (1982); cf. E.A. Meyer (1990, 1993).3 Discussion of the lapis primus, the first and most monumental of the tribute lists, often leads

to discussion of the symbolic value of inscriptions, sometimes, even, to the exclusion of thevalue of their written texts. For a fair presentation of both sides of the question and brief buteloquent defense of ‘‘inscriptions published to be read,’’ see Rhodes (2001b: 139–142).

4 For evidence of the preservation of other non-inscribed decrees and documents before thecreation of the Metroon, see Sickinger (1999: 36–61, 74–82).

5 No boxwood pinakia are preserved, but about 200 bronze ones from Athens survive (Kroll1972; Boegehold 1995: 61–76) from the first half of the fourth century BCE. Presumably,the material was altered to wood around 350. Similar bronze pinakia have been discoveredin Rhodes, Thasos, and Sinope (Fraser 1972).

6 Cf. the decree enacted by the Delphinians that regulated Attalos II’s education fund (Syll.3

672). The names of borrowers and their sureties were to be copied on two whitened pinakes,one in the temple (surely a display copy) and the other in the public archive (damosiongrammateion). Since the loans were to be repaid in the fifth year, the debt was probablyannotated or else deleted; whether the archival copy was preserved is not known; presumablythe display copy, at least, had served its purpose.

7 R. Thomas (1989: 37) cites Clanchy’s (1979) study of medieval documents as a model forthe gradual evolution from collecting documents to creating archives: ‘‘Making documentsfor administrative use, keeping them as records, and using them again for reference were threedistinct stages of development which did not automatically and immediately follow from oneanother.’’ It may be that in Athens and elsewhere certain kinds of documents passed throughthese stages more quickly than other kinds. Consider IG I3 6, a polis decree c.470–460.It is a sophisticated and rather comprehensive document suggesting consultation of earlierregulations and compendia having to do with the celebration of the Mysteries at Eleusis;record-keeping in sanctuaries may have had a longer history than that in the polis center; seeScafuro (2010).

8 References in publication clauses for the copying of decrees on stelai and statues bases intemples and sanctuaries are abundant all over the Greek world; it is difficult to know whetherthese publications signify that the temple was an archive.

9 I. Milet I.3.140; cf. Syll.3 684 for the aftermath of the criminal burning of a public archivein Dyme around 138 BCE.



10 Lambrinudakis and Worrle (1983: 358) adduce parallels of this kind of double archivingfrom Egyptian Philadelphia at approximately the same period and also from Magnesia on theMaiander at the beginning of the third century CE.

11 McLean (2002: 294–297); Klaffenbach (1957: 83–88), with additional observations onsimilar documents from Beroia during the reign of Demetrios II; Klaffenbach (1960:37–40), with concern over the whereabouts of the original.

12 Walser (2008: 322) also redates these decrees (321–356), offering a relative chronology witha few firm dates, basing his study not only on formal dating criteria, but also on stylisticpatterns and syntactic and dialect usage.

13 While the Athenian tribute lists begin in the 450s, the growing tendency to down-date somany early decrees to the 420s calls for new assessments of the democratic impulse to publishdocuments in the 450s; see Ma et al. 2009; Matthaiou 2009.

14 Also known as ‘‘the school of Hellas:’’ Thuc. 2.41.

Keeping Record, Making Public. The Epigraphy of Greek Government

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