This inscription, which was published by C.P.Jones and C.Habicht in 1989 ( PDF ), is one of the few texts that provide information about Ptolemaic rule in Cicilia. It records a settlement imposed by Thraseas, the local Ptolemaic governor, between the new colony of Arsinoē (which happened to have been founded by the Thraseas' father) and the neighbouring city of Nagidos. For some more information on Thraseas and his family, see SEG_39.1596.
Adapted from the translation by C.P.Jones. For another translation and commentary on this inscription, see PHRC_10.
[A] Thraseas to the city and the magistrates of Arsinoē, greetings. We have received your letter and heard your envoys Andromenes and Philotheos on the subject of the territory. Since the Nagidians, complying with our request, have marked off the land, so that it is yours and no dispute still remains, you will do well to work and to plant all of it, so that you yourselves may enjoy prosperity and that the revenues which you contribute to the king may be more than those that were produced previously. Indeed we too are eager on your behalf, and wish to make the city worthy of its name, helping to bring about everything advantageous and useful both collectively and individually for each of the citizens. Therefore you will also do well conducting your public affairs properly and performing the customary sacrifices to the king and the queen at the fitting times. We have also sent you the copy of the decree sent to us by the Nagidians on these matters, so that you may comply with what they have written. The further details we have discussed with your envoys Andromenes and Philotheos, commanding that they report them to you. Farewell.
[B] Leosthenes was chairman. On the motion of the presidents: since Aëtos son of Apollonios, citizen of Aspendos and of our city, being commander in Cilicia, occupied a strategic place and founded a city Arsinoē named for the mother of the king, established settlers in the place, and distributed the land which had been ours, expelling the barbarians who were encroaching on it, and now Thraseas his son, sent by the king as strategos of Cilicia, is eager to make the city more splendid, and has requested [us] to cede the public land to those settled on it, for them and their posterity to hold in perpetuity, and wishes magistrates to be established and their own laws [to be given them] and the land to be registered for them in [(?) shares], it was resolved by the council and the assembly to give them the public land, both to the present settlers and whenever Thraseas establishes others there; to praise Thraseas, and that they should then be made colonists of the [Nagidians]. They shall perform the offerings to the king and to Arsinoē [and] to Berenike, and they shall also send tribute, from their own funds. They shall conduct their public affairs and enjoy whatever laws they themselves make. They shall be joint citizens of the Nagidians, and they shall have the right of participation when they are present for the sacred acts. Each of them shall register in a tribe, whichever he is allotted to, paying the fixed amount. The Arsinoeans also shall be invited whenever the city sacrifices to Homonoia {"Concord"}, and shall bring the fixed contribution; so also when the Arsinoeans sacrifice to the Gods Adelphoi, the Nagidians shall be present bringing the same. It shall no longer be permissible for the Nagidians on any pretext to dispute the land given to the Arsinoeans under this decree. If any magistrate tables such a decree or a speaker proposes it, the magistrate shall pay a compulsory fine of ten thousand drachmas [sacred] to Arsinoē, and the speaker a thousand drachmas, and their proposal shall be invalid. For all injuries occurring between individuals of the two parties, if an Arsinoean injures someone in Nagidos or is injured, he shall prosecute or [be brought] to trial according to the laws of the Nagidians, but if a Nagidian injures someone in Arsinoē or is injured, he shall prosecute or be brought to trial according to the laws of the Arsinoeans. For all injuries the limit of time [from which] the injury has occurred shall be a year, and if when the time has elapsed anyone brings a public or private lawsuit, [that lawsuit] shall be invalid. This decree shall be inscribed on two stone steles, and [one] shall be set up in the sanctuary of Aphrodite, and the other in [Arsinoē] in the sacred enclosure of Arsinoē. The funds [for the stele] in Nagidos shall be [paid] by the treasurer [of the Nagidians], and for that in [Arsinoē] by the treasurer of the Arsinoeans.
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