Alexander the Great and the polis of Iasus: Salt and Democracy? Notes on the ‚Little Sea’ Inscription (IIasos 24 + 30) and the Ekklesiastikon Decree (IIasos 20)

Abstract

The restoration (apodosis) of the so-called ‚Little Sea’ to Iasus, acted by Alexander the Great and known thanks to the decree IIasos 24 + 30 is herein examined and dated to the final years of the reign of the Macedon, when the Hecatomnid princess Ada was replaced by the new satrap, the Macedonian Philoxenus (326/4–323 BCE). The area, traditionally considered as a sort of vast fishing-ground, is reinterpreted from a new economic viewpoint, as an important site of salt pans and pasturages on regional scale. The apodosis may have produced, therefore, high revenues for the city, perhaps to be used in part (but there is complete uncertainty about this) for the ekklesiastikon payment described in IIasos 20. This event could be interpreted as one of the most relevant expressions of the king’s interest for the autonomia of the Greeks in the coastal area of north-western Caria.