Ancient archives: the edict of Alexander to Priene, a reappraisal

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Hellenic Studies.'THE historical value of an object depends not so much on the nature of the object as on its associations, which only scientific excavation can detect."' The full significance of an inscription may equally rely on knowledge of its archaeological context. In practice, however, users of inscriptions often neglect this aspect. The standard commentaries, new and old, on Alexander's famous 'edict to Priene' (hereafter 'AE') tend to ignore the physical context of the inscription (I.Priene I) and to treat the text as an isolated or one-off document.2 Consequently no-one reading Dittenberger, Tod or now Heisserer would learn that it is one of a series of public inscriptions with a consistent theme belonging to an 'archive' of connected texts. The inscription is not discussed as one of a group of documents, its monumental setting is largely ignored and the rich corpus of Prienian inscriptions is not exploited fully as a control and source for the historical background of the AE. It is the purpose of this article to try to show that the AE cannot be properly studied in this archaeological limbo. 'The associations' of the AE are vital. They provide a new perspective from which to study the text.The main new points about the AE which this study aims to establish are the following: (i) The AE is neither an edict nor a letter, but a section of a longer edict of Alexander dealing with Prienian affairs.(ii) It was not inscribed on stone in Alexander's reign, as is commonly supposed, but in the reign of Lysimachus, at a time when at least two important documents relating to Lysimachus were also inscribed.(iii) The AE belongs to a public 'archive' of related texts created in the reign of Lysimachus. I. PHYSICAL CONTEXTThe new city of Priene was built at the well-known site (modern Turunqlar) at an uncertain date within the third quarter of the fourth century BC.3 The quest for its founder, whether a Hecatomnid or Alexander, has been unsuccessful, but the important part played in the early history of the polis by the kings Alexander and Lysimachus was memorialised in the temple of Athena Polias, patron deity of Priene. The temple, a fine building of the Ionic order, is itself an early example of the grandiose, personal and royal patronage of civic religion that Alexander I am grateful to Prof. A. B. Bosworth, Dr D. M. Lewis, Joyce Reynolds and Charlotte Rouech6 for their comments on this paper from which I have greatly benefited. An earlier version was given at the London Summer School in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, in the Institute of Classical Stu...

The dual-processual model in ancient Greece: Applying a post-neoevolutionary model to a data-rich environment

“…1 The temple was dedicated to Athena. From epigraphical references, we know that Alexander the Great had a hand in its construction (McCabe 145; IPriene 156, see also Sherwin-White, 1985). 2 An inscription on the wall of the temple mentions Alexander as its dedicator.…”

Priene: Civic Priests and Koinon- Priesthoods in the Hellenistic Period

“…8 The members of the social and economic elite were present in the city not only in person during their lifetime, but also 'eternally' through their inscribed monuments, their votives and by the display of honours in stone and bronze with statues or small architectural ensembles such as exedrae on the agora. On the date and location of the inscriptions attached to the temple-walls, see Sherwin-White 1985, Crowther 1996. The temple may have been completed only later (at the beginning of the third century BC).…”

Shepherds beating the bounds? Territorial identity at a dependent community (IPriene 361–63)

“…5 Vidal-Naquet (1986) 106-28; Osborne (1987) 145-49. 6 On the Rhodian arbitration document at Priene, see Magnetto (2008); on the Prienian dossier more generally, see Sherwin-White (1985) and now Thonemann (2013). On these texts more broadly, see ; Chaniotis (2004) on the different kinds of evidence they present.…”