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Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum: 30.1119


DECREE OF NAKONE FOR CIVIL CONCORD


Greek text:   Decreti-di-Entella_Nak.A   ( SEG 30.1119 )
Provenance:   Nakone , Sicily
Date:   late 4th century B.C.
Format:   see key to translations

Concord {homonoia} was an important concept in Hellenistic states, but this Sicilian decree is unusual in its elaborate provisions to preserve concord in the future. For a discussion of civil strife {stasis} in the Hellenistic World, commencing with this decree, see H.Börm, "Stasis in Post-Classical Greece" ( academia.edu ).   The translation is by B.Gray, "Stasis and Stability", pp.38-39 ( Google Books ).



In the magistracy of Leukios son of Kaisios and of Philonidas son of Phil..., on the fourth day of Adonios, it was resolved by the assembly as well as by the council: since, fortune having deveoped in a fine way, the public affairs of the Nakonians have been put in good order, and it is beneficial that they should conduct their life as citizens in harmony for the future, and the envoys who came here from Segesta - Apellikos son of Adeidas, Attikos son of Piston and Dionysios son of Dek... - deliberated concerning the common good for all the citizens; therefore it is resolved to convene an assembly of the citizens 10 on the fourth day of Adonios. For those among whom there was conflict, as they competed concerning public affairs, let them, having been summoned to the assembly, conduct a reconciliation with each other, a list of thirty members having been written in advance for each side. Let those who were previously adversaries draw up the respective lists, each compiling the list of the other side. The magistrates shall write the names of each group separately on lots, and put them in two urns, and draw one from each group, and from the rest of the citizens they should draw lots for three more members, excluding those relatives whom the law requires to be absent from trials in court; and those who have been drawn together20 shall be chosen brothers of one another, united in concord with each other and with all justice and friendship. When the sixty lots have been drawn, and also the others drawn together with them, they shall assign the rest of the citizens by lot to groups of five, not drawing relatives together, as has been written, and those drawn together shall be brothers of one another like those previously drawn together. The hieromnamones shall sacrifice a white goat for the sacrifice, and the treasurer shall provide whatever is necessary for the sacrifice. And likewise all the succeeding magistrates 30 shall sacrifice on this day each year to the ancestors and to Homonoia a sacrificial animal which they have had tested, one for each, and the citizens shall all participate in a festival in groups, in accordance with the creations of brotherhoods. The archons shall inscribe this decree on a bronze plaque and set it up in the entry hall of the temple of Olympian Zeus.


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