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.

Cohabitation of metro and museum

The story is not new. Metro lines have been constructed in many capital cities for the past decennia. Excavating the layers covering ancient settlements inevitably led to new discoveries. 

This was the case in Istanbul, Athens and Thessaloniki, Rome and Naples, Sofia (ancient Serdica), Plovdiv (ancient Philippopolis), and many others. In all cases, the finds yielded remains of temples, agoras, private houses and workshops, mosaics, coins, pottery, jewelry, etc. However, each city contributed in its own way to enrich our archaeological inheritance. 

In Istanbul, the construction of the Marmara Undersea Metro Line revealed a large section of ancient ports along the Bosporus, including ships of varied sizes from the 5^th to the 11^th century. The largest concentration of 37 shipwrecks dates from the 6^th and 7^th centuries AD. 

[Vaulted Eridanos River at metro station, Athens]

Athens exposed parts of its old city walls and the still flowing Eridanos River that runs through the Kerameikos, the ancient necropolis. The metro line between Athens and Piraeus yielded a great number of surprises of its own (see: Exposing the Hellenistic past of Piraeus). 

Thessaloniki surprised us with its ancient main street, the Decumanus Maximus, and the Via Egnatia, besides several necropolises (see: Archaeological finds at the Metro of Thessaloniki and Thessaloniki continues writing history). 

In Naples, archaeologists were able to retrace the ancient coastline thanks to a variety of shipwrecks. They excavated an important thermal bath complex, remains of the commercial area around the Greek agora, several houses with their atrium, and the Decumanus Maximus (see: The harbor of Roman Naples uncovered).

Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is no exception: Evidence of antiquity can be clearly seen at the Serdica Station, which exhibits a wealth of unearthed Thracian and Roman ruins and modern architecture.” (quoted from Wikipedia).

Plovdiv, ancient Philippopolis, is another of those capital cities turned upside down by recent archaeological excavations (see: Plans enough to dig out Philippopolis). 

Rome lately made headlines during metro works. Ancient Roman barracks from the 2^nd century AD were discovered some nine meters below today’s street level. The ruins count 39 rooms, and many still display mosaics and frescoes. Following suit with similar situations in Greece and Turkey, authorities plan to incorporate the barracks into a large metro/museum structure. The station is located between the Coliseum and the Forum Romanum, along Line C, which is still under construction.

[Metro Louvre-Rivoli, Paris]

Nowadays, all major cities need more and more to revert to traveling by metro. As the majority of those towns have been built over and on top of ancient settlements, it is inevitable to hit remains from eons past. The municipalities share the most important artifacts with their local museums, but it is an excellent idea to create mini museums or exhibition showcases at the places where the pieces were found!

Paris may have been the first to display copies of telling artifacts from the Louvre. It is a true pleasure to spend time at the telling metro stops in the cities mentioned above and more. 

Exposing the Hellenistic past of Piraeus

Construction works often expose much of our hidden past, and the extension of Athens’ metro line to Piraeus is no exception.

What makes these digs particularly interesting is the fact that they go to deeper levels. In the present case, archaeologists have unearthed a huge amount of wooden artifacts from Hellenistic times. They were mostly thrown into the wells after the Romans invaded Athens in 86 BC. The search revealed wooden vessels, tools, parts of furniture, and even wooden construction elements. Extremely rare is the headless wooden statue of Hermes recovered from a well.

These wells and cisterns also yielded many more bits and pieces, and so far, 4,000 pieces have undergone restoration, together with 1,400 restored vessels and a collection of 1,300 wooden artifacts.

Of interest also is the excavation of the 55-meter-long central tunnel of the old aqueduct, which apparently was built during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. It kept on functioning until it was destroyed by the invading Goths.

For the pleasure of today's Athenians and other visitors, the metro construction company has arranged an exhibition called Stin Epifania, meaning Brought to Light, or to the Surface, and housed in the Xylapothiki building. During the weekends, people are welcome to watch the excavation works from above.

At one of the metro stops, the Municipal Theater, an original salvaged mosaic floor will be exhibited under glass once the station is completed.

The volume of salvaged material from the eight separate excavation sites is vast, and it proves that the construction works can go hand in hand with archaeological excavations.

[Wooden statue, most likely of the ancient Greek god Hermes and an ancient Roman water tunnel from Piraeus, Greece.  EPA-EFE/GREEK MINISTRY OF CULTURE]

There is more to Athens than the Acropolis and the Parthenon

In a recent article, Ancient History wrote about five ancient sites that are usually overlooked by tourists visiting Athens but are very much worth the short detour.

Most visitors rush to the Acropolis and hopefully include a tour of the New Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum as well but there are these little nearby gems that may be as exciting since you can have them almost all to yourself.

On top of the list, I would put the excavations underneath the New Acropolis Museum which are in plain view when you enter the museum. These remains are partly covered by glass plates and show the remains of a Township of Athens as it evolved in time. You can have a close look at some intricate mosaic floors or a round room with a circular pool or the entrance to a building from the 7^th century BC. This underground is accessible from inside the museum.

Another interesting feature is the Township of Koile on the west side of the Hill of Philopappou within walking distance from the foot of the Acropolis. Ancient roads with the grooves left by thousands of cartwheels are always an exciting feature and this road also has a water channel running alongside. Here, you can walk among the ruins of houses and even climb a staircase. Koile was protected by the Wall of Themistocles that ran all the way to the Piraeus but when Philip II of Macedonia arrived here new defenses were built to replace the walls taken down by the Spartans. This new wall put Koile outside the fortification and the town was soon abandoned. It became a burial site the remains of which are still visible.

Particularly noteworthy is the nearby Tomb of Cimon, the athlete who repeatedly won the chariot races at the Olympic Games in 536, 532, and 528 BC. This Cimon was also the father of Miltiades, the general who led the victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC. This tomb occupied a prominent position in its days and it takes some imagination to picture the spot where his winning horses were buried just opposite his own tomb.

Not too far away, there is a spot with three cave-like openings in the rock wall that have been sealed off with iron bars and are known as the Prison of Socrates. Whether or not this is true remains a subject of discussion as other, probably later sources say that the philosopher was executed by poisoning in 399 BC.

My own favorite is the Pnyx Hill where the Athenians gathered to listen to great orators like Themistocles, Pericles, and Demosthenes and where their democratic votes were taken. The speaker’s platform is about the only original structure still standing but overlooking the now disappeared tiers where the audience took place is quite overwhelming. Set against the Acropolis in the background it makes truly a magnificent place to linger.

Of course, there is far more to see and enjoy around the corner of the Acropolis. To name a few, there is the Ancient Agora with the well-preserved Temple of Hephaistos or Theseion and a little further the great remains of the Roman Agora with the newly restored Tower of the Winds and adjacent Library of Hadrian. On the other side of the Acropolis and visible from its top, are the imposing remains of the Temple of Zeus not far from the Gate constructed by Emperor Hadrian carrying on one side the inscription that this was where the city of Athens began and on the other side where it ended. In between the Acropolis and the Gate of Hadrian, one automatically passes by the Tower of Lysicratos.

Practical information and details as to the road to follow to the five highlighted locations can be found in the abovementioned article by Ancient History

The Hippodamian plan, not so Greek after all

Where does an idea originate? Who is the first to “invent” this or that concept? In our modern world, we often hear that the true inventor is not the one who claims the invention to be his, either because the initial creator did not have the means to promote his idea or because he simply didn’t protect it with a copyright.

In antiquity, copyright did not exist, of course, and ideas traveled back and forth in the baggage of the merchants or in the minds of the craftsmen sold as slaves or moved from their homeland for whatever reason.

The grid plan of city building is largely attributed to Hippodamus of Miletus, a Greek mathematician, meteorologist, philosopher, and physician from the 5^th century BC, who also was known as a town planner. He planned the building of many cities around the Mediterranean, the first of which could be the harbor of Piraeus. He also was involved in the reconstruction of Miletus after the Persian destruction, to be followed by the construction of cities like Olynthus and Pella in Greece. His ideal city would be inhabited by 10,000 male citizens, which would correspond to a total of 50,000 people including women, children, and slaves. It would typically have a large central area that soon became the agora, surrounded by neighborhoods of 240 m2 blocks of houses with an upper floor and separated by a wall, all facing south.

Digging a little further into history, it turns out the layout of Babylon was equally following the same grid plan with right-angle streets and the city must have looked very familiar to Alexander when he arrived there in 331 BC. Although Babylon is much older, the city was rebuilt by the Assyrians who made it the capital of their Neo-Babylonian Empire between 609 and 539 BC. King Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned from 605 to 562 BC, added the famous ziggurat and the Ishtar Gate, one of the eight entries to the city. The Hanging Gardens, which counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were also constructed by him. Based on the available descriptions of Babylon, the grid plan was already known in Asia over a century before Hippodamus claimed his “invention”.

Yet, there is more to the ancestry of the so-called ideal Greek city layout. We have to go back 4,500 years in time and all the way to the Indus Valley where cities like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were founded using the very same layout. These cities had a central agora, large public baths, a large central well, and many small wells serving individual houses or a cluster of houses; the sewage was led to drains running under the main streets and many houses had their own bathroom. Both cities were large settlements belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization and located on the banks of the now dried-up Ghaggar-Hakra River, west of the Indus River.

With the coming of Islam and the general decline of the Middle Ages, we in the West lost this marvelously well-organized city planning till it was revived in the 20^th century all over the globe, from Asia to the Americas. Pending whatever discoveries will be made in the future, for now, Hippodamus’ “invention” is just some two thousand years older than generally accepted.

[Picture of Mohenjo-Daro from Assignment Point]

Feneos, one of the many sanctuaries of Asclepius

Feneos lies close to Corinth at the foot of Mount Cyllene, the mythical birthplace of Hermes. Yet the village’s reputation was made when a temple as part of an Asclepion was discovered in the 1950s. Now a good fifty years later, new excavations have confirmed the importance of Asclepius’ presence at this site.

[Picture from the International Business Times]

The original sanctuary seems to date from the end of the 4th century BC, and the town reached its peak about 200 years later when the main hall was rebuilt and new statues were added. Archaeologists have found a pedestal carrying an inscription referring to the statues of Asclepius and his daughter Hygeia made by the sculptor Attalus. Asclepius, the god of medicine, was depicted three times larger than life and seated next to the standing Hygeia, represented only twice life size. The center of the hall was covered with a mosaic floor in geometric patterns. In the room behind this hall, the base for two bronze statues was found, and it seems these statues were replaced by stone ones at a later date. In front of these now-vanished effigies stood a marble sacrificial table. At the entrance, a ramp led to a courtyard that was once lavishly decorated and plastered with colorful mortar.

So far, we don’t know what really happened here, but supposedly the healing sanctuary was destroyed by an earthquake at some time during the first century AD and rebuilt to serve Roman imperial worship instead.

Isn’t it striking that beyond the renowned Asclepion of Epidaurus with important branches on the island of Cos and at Pergamon in modern Turkey (see: Pergamon is simply huge), there are also several smaller sanctuaries where Asclepius was venerated for instance in Trikka or Trikala, Gortyn, Tegea, Messene, Athens, Piraeus and Titani in Greece or Cnidos in Turkey (see: What did Alexander the Great know of Cnidos?) or Butrint in modern Albania (see: The surprise of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum in Epirus), and there probably are many more. The cult also moved to the Italian mainland in early antiquity, but we know for sure that in 293 BC, the sacred snake was taken from Epidaurus to the Tiber Island to cure a plague.

All these sanctuaries were erected in places of great natural beauty, where the physician-priests practiced a healing ritual centered around dream therapy. After preliminary treatment, the patient underwent a series of cleansing baths and purgations and had to follow a special diet for several days. When entering the inner sanctuary, the patient had to make some kind of offering (gold, silver, or a marble statue) after which the priest would put him in the right frame of mind, probably using some narcotics like opium made from the poppy seeds. He was then ready to receive a healing dream from Asclepius.

Alexander in Athens

Alexander’s visit to Athens is one of those events that is generally overlooked when reading about his exploits, even by ancient historians.

After the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC where Alexander annihilated the Theban Band at the head of his father’s left wing, the young prince went to Athens together with Alcimachus and Philip’s weathered general and most probably senior diplomat, Antipater. Their goal was to negotiate peace with Athens, a highly sensitive matter that required serious political skills. They took with them the ashes of the cremated Athenians from the battlefield, as well as the two thousand Athenian prisoners made at Chaeronea for which no ransom was demanded. They only requested that an Athenian embassy would go to Philip to discuss a mutual peace.

For Antipater, this was not his first mission as envoy of King Philip and not his first mission to Athens either. During earlier negotiations for peace in 346 BC, Athens had sent a heavy embassy of ten men to Pella which was answered by Philip’s usual confusing diplomacy. What Philip really wanted was a treaty of peace and alliance where he and the Athenians were equals, something that probably did not sink in with the Athenians. As soon as the delegation including Philip’s sworn enemy Demosthenes left, the king set off for Thracia. In order to keep Athens on their toes he sent Antipater, together with Parmenion and Eurylochus to the city. Demosthenes, however, convinced the Assembly to go for a Common Peace in which every state was free to join. Antipater bluntly refused, because these were not his king’s terms. In the end, the Athenians and their allies had to comply and they swore their oaths to the peace and alliance to Macedonia.

Now, in 338 BC after the Battle of Chaeronea had ended all parties’ uncertainty whether to side up with Philip or with Athens, these two main players finally agreed on a treaty of friendship and alliance. The Athenians went even as far as conferring citizenship to Philip and Alexander, which by itself was not an exceptional gesture but it shows that they set a step forward in order to please the King of Macedonia. They even erected an equestrian statue of Philip on the Agora.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any details about Alexander’s visit. Was Alexander, only 18 years old, merely accompanying Antipater? Or was Alexander put in charge, upon instructions of his father and coached by Antipater? Or was Alexander’s presence at the negotiations simply part of his education, or maybe his presence added more weight to Antipater’s argumentation? We can speculate at length about any of these theories, but no answer will be conclusive, I’m afraid.

I also wonder where Alexander, with or without Antipater, met the Athenian delegation. The Pnyx is not a likely location for this is where the Athenian people gathered for their own democratic elections, which have nothing to do with foreign policy. The Theater of Dionysus sounds like an appropriate place in my eyes but it may be too large for the assembled company, so the smaller Bouleuterion on the Agora would offer a better alternative. Who knows?

It is pretty safe to assume that while in Athens Alexander walked up the Acropolis. The Parthenon, the Temple of Niké, and the Ereichteion would have shone in their freshly painted flamboyant colors. From there the young prince would have looked out over the harbor of Piraeus only 12 km away and beyond that all the way to the island of Salamis, just as we can today. Whether or not the meeting with the Athenian delegation took place at the Theater of Dionysus, I’m sure he would not have missed the opportunity to attend a play by one of the most popular protagonists at that time.

It is very difficult to look at Athens through Alexander’s eyes, simply because we hardly have any facts to go by. So, I just keep on wondering and dreaming …