About decrees and multilingual inscriptions

In antiquity, news was carried by word of mouth, but legal matters and other important information were cut in stone and placed in a conspicuous spot for everyone to see. 

The majority of inscriptions are Decrees of which I can only mention a selection. 

At the Acropolis Museum, there is a stele with decrees for the construction of the temple and altar of Nike by Kallikrates, for the reorganization of the cult, and for the salary of the priestess of the goddess dated 427-424 BC (side A) and 424-423 BC (side B).

Also a stele with a series of Decrees by which the Athenians bestowed economic, commercial, and military privileges on their ally Methone in Pieria. 

It shows the goddess Athena shaking hands with perhaps Artemis, dated 430-423 BC.

Very broken but still readable is the Athenian Decree honoring Neapolis (modern Kavala) for its support in the war against Thasos and its constant commitment to her. 

In the upper right corner, we recognize the goddess Athena extending her hand towards another figure, probably the goddess Parthenos of Neapolis, dated from 410-409 BC.

A very elegant stele with a horse and an olive wreath carries an inscription in which the Athenians honored King Alcetas of Epirus for his help during their military expedition to Corcyra (modern Corfu) in 373-372 BC.

And finally, still at the Acropolis Museum, there is the long Decree of Chalkis on the island of Euboia in which the islanders were forced to swear loyalty to Athens after failing in their revolt of 446-445 BC. 

The people of Chalkis could punish their own citizens, except in cases that involved death, exile, or the loss of their rights as citizens, where the power of Athens prevailed.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens has its own rich collection of Decrees. A good example is the honorary inscription from Piraeus dating from 347-346 BC. 

The stele honors the three sons of Leukon (depicted), king of the Cimmerian Bosporus, thanking them for services rendered to the people of Athens and allowing them to import grain free of duty.

A particular stele from 355-354BC was found near the Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. 

It honors Philiskos, son of Lykos of Sestos in the Thracian Hellespont as a public guest and benefactor of Athens. In 356 BC, Philiskos had warned the Athenians of the hostile presence of the fleet of Byzantium that threatened the city’s grain supply.

The Eleusis Museum, in turn, exhibits a decree providing for the construction of a footbridge across Lake Rheitoi on the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis, dated 421 BC.

Two fragments from an unidentified monument carry a Royal Decree of Alexander, which defines the limits of ‘land’, meaning the agricultural area that Philippi supervised. 

The (partial) inscription dates from 336-334 BC, just before Alexander started his campaign East. It is kept at the Museum of Philippi.

On a different level, there is a Decree sanctioning the people and city of Iasos for conspiring against King Mausolos of Caria. 

It is kept at the Louvre in Paris and dates to 370-350 BC. 

 

The Foundation Decree of Cyrene in North Africa is a covenant between the citizens of Cyrene in ca. 322 BC and those of their mother-state of Thera. 

The exact purpose is uncertain, but it is thought that the citizens of Thera, including the early settlers of 631 BC, were granted the same rights and freedoms as the Cyreneans, even though Cyrene was wealthier than Thera at the time.

Of another level is, for instance, the trilingual stele from Letoon in the Xanthos Valley found near the Temple of Apollo. It holds a public Decree authorizing the cult of the deities and establishing the provisions for its officers.
The Decree is written in Lycian, Greek, and Aramaic, which are not verbatim translations of each other. Each version contains information that is not translated into the two other tongues. The Aramaic text with 27 lines is the shortest, followed by Greek with 35 lines, and Lycian with 51 lines. Useless to point out that this stele helped to decipher the peculiar Lycian language. This unique document can be seen at the Fethiye Museum.

The story of this stele reminds us of the Rosetta Stone, which helped to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Demotic script using the Greek version carved on the same stone. The text is a Decree issued by King Ptolemy V of Egypt in 196 BC and was key to deciphering the hitherto unknown hieroglyphic signs. 

Trilingual inscriptions are not isolated cases. In ancient Persia, it was current practice to leave inscriptions in three languages to make sure everyone in the vast empire would be notified: Elamite, Old Persian, and Babylonian. The best-known lines are carved on the cliff wall of Bisutun, where Darius I celebrates his victory over Gaumata and eight more pretenders to the throne in 518 BC as represented above.

The trilingual inscriptions on the Palace walls of Pasargadae, and Persepolis are mainly continuous reminders of the power of the King of Kings who ruled by the grace of Ahuramazda, repeating their title of Great King. These were defined in full by Cyrus the Great: Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World.

Perhaps the most remarkable panels are set in the spectacular landscape close to the fast-running mountain river and lovely waterfalls of Ganj Nameh, some five kilometers southwest of Hamadan. As is customary, each text starts by praising Ahuramazda and continues describing the lineage and deeds of Darius I on the left panel and his son Xerxes on the right. It reads: "The Great God [is] Ahuramazda, greatest of all the gods, who created the earth and the sky and the people; who made Xerxes king, and outstanding king as outstanding ruler among innumerable rulers; I [am] the great king Xerxes, king of kings, king of lands with numerous inhabitants, king of this vast kingdom with far-away territories, son of the Achaemenid monarch Darius." (see: The Bisutun relief of King Darius I).

I’d like to close with the impressive Monument of Opramoas in Rhodiapolis. He was a great benefactor who contributed lavishly to the reconstruction of most Lycian cities after the devastating earthquake of 141 AD. He must have been terribly wealthy, for it seems that every single Lycian city mentioned his name in thanks. The construction blocks of the Monument listing his good deeds were strewn over a wide area until, in 2016, archaeologists managed to sort them out and reconstruct the walls of his Monument (see: The Monument in honor of Opramoas of Rhodiapolis is taking shape).

Its text, the longest ever found in Lycia or perhaps even in all of Anatolia, contains 12 letters Opramoas exchanged with the Roman Emperors and Antoninus Pius in particular, 19 letters to the Roman Procurator, and 33 various documents related to the Lycian League. 

The reasons for leaving an inscription widely vary, and the list is endless. I stopped at a few of the most telling examples that caught my attention.

How to purchase your own archaeological site

For a rough 35 million Turkish Liras anyone can become the owner of the ancient Greek city of Bargylia located 30 kilometers from Bodrum between Iasos and Myndos.

Legend has it that the city was built by Bellarophon after his horse Pegasus killed his dear friend Barglos. The theme of Pegasus on the coins of Bargylia is referring to this myth.

This is a strange story for it is known that the site has been looted repeatedly by illegal treasure hunters knowing that no official or legal excavations were ever carried out. The reason for this ambiguous situation is that the land of Bargylia is on private property since 1927 where officials are unable to protect its historical heritage. 

It is everybody’s guess what treasures have disappeared and how much has been left to discover. Property owners would like the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to expropriate the land or exchange it for another plot. Yet not all the co-owners want to sell.

On the side, it should be noted that Alexander the Great spent some time in Bargylia while taking control of the region. Together with all the neighboring land, it later on became part of the Roman Empire.

Bargylia, which allegedly seems to include an amphitheater, a temple of Artemis (mentioned by Strabo), a bath complex from Roman times and a necropolis from the Byzantine era, is riddled with holes left by illegal excavators. A single example has been recorded where a mosaic was destroyed and stolen by smugglers.

It is terribly worrying to see the remains of ancient sites being plundered and looted but Turkey simply has too many of them. It is said that out of 192 archaeological sites in the province of Muğla alone, only 22 have been taken under protection and that does not mean that treasure hunters can no longer access the sites.

[Pictures are from The Archaeological News Network], except the Temple of Artemis which is from Guncel 7/24]

Andriake, port of Myra

The site of Andriake lies just across the road from Myra. Driving up, I can’t miss noticing the huge Granary that Hadrian built: 65 meters long by 32 meters wide, a real eye-catcher! It is now marshy land, and it seems nothing much has been done to revive the ruins when I stopped here in the Spring of 2008, but there is enough to entice me.

The road ends at the harbor from where the day tourists are taken by glass-bottom boats to visit the sunken remains on the north side of Kekova Island, which I saw when I sailed the Lycian Coast with Peter Sommer Travels. There is plenty of activity in the local dry docks where seasoned craftsmen are hammering and soldering to get their vessels in shape for the upcoming season. I walk through the sand that the Lycian winds have blown into Andriake harbor over the past centuries, turning it into a swampy area with plenty of waterfowl.

It is easy finding the Granary that Hadrian built here when he visited Myra in 131 AD, although there is no actual path leading to it. After passing the remains of uninspiring walls amidst the bushes, I come to an open space revealing the building on the higher side of the slope. This Granary or Horrea comprises nine successive rooms that could hold 6,000 cubic meters of grain. Each chamber inside the building is connected to the next, while each has its own wide entrance door to the outside also. There must have been massive locks on these doors, considering the empty space in the side wall where the bolt fitted in. The façade and the partition walls are built with rectangular blocks, but the more sturdy polygonal technique was used for the back wall. Looking closely, I discover the bust of Hadrian and his wife Sabina still in place above the central room. Between the square guardhouses that frame the façade at each end, I also find the reliefs depicting the dreams of the warehouse keeper who served here in the 5th century AD. One of the door lintels shows a relief of shields and spears. Protruding blocks may have held decorative statues between the windows above (that must have provided the necessary ventilation).

Andriake does not look much today, but in antiquity, it was a chief port for Egyptian vessels on their way to Rome. Egypt was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, so Andriake was a major transshipment port for grain from Alexandria. Like the bay of Iasos in Western Turkey, Andriake harbor could be closed off by a strong chain.

As I walked on, I reached the Agora or Plakoma, surrounded by shops on three sides. What strikes me here is the vast underground cistern half hidden under the large white slabs of the Agora floor where the city stored its fresh water. I see nothing more than a partial pavement half hidden under the low bushes, with gaping openings to the entrails of the cistern. I move around with caution, carefully avoiding these pitfalls.

Some more walls and buildings look like Basilicas and baths, but I need help to figure them out correctly in this overgrown terrain. From my readings, I remember that there must have been statues here to honor Germanicus and his wife Agrippina, who visited Myra in 18 AD, but I’m not sure where.

I leave the rest of the city with its hexagonal tower, its mixture of polygonal and rectangular walls, and the necropolis with Lycian sarcophagi higher up the hillside for what it is. I have seen enough for now.

[Click here to see all the pictures of Andriake]