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Translations of Hellenistic Inscriptions: 14


TROIZEN HONOURS CITIZENS OF HALIKARNASSOS

Greek text:   Halikarnassos_17 ,   EpOropou_389 ( SEG_13.341 )
Provenance:     ? Halikarnassos ,   Oropos
Date:   c. 303/2 B.C. ,   c. 275-255 B.C.
Tags:     freedom ,   kinship
Format:   see key to translations

Inscription A contains a decree of Halikarnassos, in response to a decree sent to the city from Troizen.  The historical context is probably the campaign of Demetrios in the Peloponnese in 303 B..C., during which he expelled the garrisons of Kassandros - Zenodotos may have acted as an officer of Demetrios; see R.A.Billows, "Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State", page 440 ( Google Books ).

Inscription B, discovered at Oropos in Boeotia, also honours a citizen of Halikarnassos, as was demonstrated by N. Robertson, "The Decree of Themistocles in Its Contemporary Setting" (Phoenix, 1982 - his translation is reproduced here). Because this inscription seems to be slightly later than A, it is usually asssociated with another 'liberation' of Troizen, either from the Spartans or from the Macedonians, although of course it would be neater if both inscriptions could be made to refer to the same 'liberation'; see I.Kralli, "The Hellenistic Peloponnese: Interstate Relations", p.133 ( Google Books ). There was in any case a close relationship between the two cities; acording to one tradition Anthes, the founder of Halikarnassos, came from Troizen ( Strabo, 2.374 ).


[A]   . . . in Troizen on a stele in the temple; and to praise Zenodotos son of Baukideus, since the Troizenians have written in the decree which they sent to the city that he acted as a good man towards the people of Troizen, and arriving at the right time, he offered assistance and endeavoured with them to achieve the freedom of the city and the withdrawal of the garrison, in a manner worthy of his fatherland and of the kinship and goodwill 10 that exists between his city and the Troizenians; and to invite him to dinner at the prytaneion

It was resolved by the people, as proposed by Iatrokles son of Pythion: the other things shall be as the council voted; and the decree about the Troizenians that the council initiated shall be inscribed on a stone stele and placed in the temple of Apollo; the exetastai shall take care of the inscription, and the [(?) treasurer] shall give money for the cost of the inscription 20

 

[B]   When Olympichos was priest. 
  
  From afar the bronze proclaims to the observer Diomedes, 
  Distinguished scion of the splendid stock of Anthas: 
  The Troizenians, because he delivered their city from the enemy 
  And crowned it once more with its ancient laws, 
  Set up his statue to endure for many years. From one house 
  Has Troizen twice shone forth within its ancestral wall. 
  Therefore your fatherland honours you for a double service, hailing 
  A man and a hero as responsible for complete stability.
  
  Xenokrates of Athens made the statue.  

inscription 15


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