Horoias Reserved Areas Oliver, James H Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1963; 4, 3; ProQuest pg. 141 Horoi as Reserved Areas James H. Oliver I N THE PANATHENAIC ORATION, p. 102 Jebb= 163 Dindorf, Aelius Aristides praises Attica as a first home of man, a xwpos 'TLS av­ fJpcinrwv tOtoS' EK 7TauYJS' yijS' EfnpYJfl-EVOS' J WU7TEp oZ TWV TEfl-EVWV 0pOL. The whole passage and other questions concerning it will be treated in my forthcoming study of the oration; here I wish merely to draw attention to the connection between this passage and the senatus consul tum calling for a determination T{VES' Opat IIEpyafl-YJvwv ELU{V, which stood in the market place of Aristides' own city, Smyrna,! also in Adramyttium 2 and perhaps other cities of Asia. Clearly Aristides is not here using the word Opat in the sense of "boundaries." Rather the opoS' he has in mind was a xwpoS' TLS' which had been set apart in a TEfl-EVOS'. Now the senatus consultum which called for a determination T{VES OPOL IIEpyafl-YJvwv ELUlv concerns estates mentioned in the testa­ ment of Attalus III. Publicans with contracts from the censors of 131 B.C. had apparently tried to operate not only in the territory left to the Romans but also in certain areas which belonged to the Per­ gamenes. This led to an important case which the Senate settled in the extant acta of 129 B.C.3 In the dispute between the publicans and the Pergamenes the word for "boundaries" was probably opLa, as in the later documents of the dossier discovered at Smyrna. The word opoS' had a different meaning. In fact, the above cited passage of Aristides, who compared Attica, the home of man, with other countries which gloried in elephants and lions and horses and dogs, strongly suggests that the OPOL IIEpyafl-7Jvwv were certain areas set apart as TEfl-EVYJ from the land bequeathed to 1 A. Passerini, "Le Iscrizioni dell'Agora di Smirne concernenti la lite tra i public ani e i Pergameni," Athenaeum, N.S. 15 (1937) 252-283. See further L. Robert, "Inscriptions grecques de l' Asie Mineure," Anatolian Studies Presented to William Hepburn Buckler (Manchester 1939) 227-230, and G. Tibiletti, "Rome and the Ager Pergamenus: The Acta of 129 B.C.," JRS, 47 (1957) 136-138. 2 P. Viereck, Sermo Graecus, p. 62, no. l5=IGR IV, 262. 3 Tibiletti, op.cit.; L. R. Taylor, The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome XX [1960]) 171, n.lO. 141 142 HOROI AS RESERVED AREAS the Romans. Later Sulla deprived Pergamum of its special status, but when Julius Caesar restored the special status of the Pergamene terri­ tory, he was honored as a.1ToKaTaaT11aavTa TOtS' {}EOtS' T~V TE 7T6ALV [Kat ,.,ry]v xwpav, and the man who received credit for persuading Caesar was similarly honored as &:7ToKaTaaT~aaVTa TOtS' 7TaTpWLOLC; {}EOtS' I 1\ " - 4 T7JV TE 7TOI\LV Kat T7JV xwpav. The OPOL IIEpyap:rJVwv, which may have arisen after the Attalid bequest by which certain (Pergamene) temple estates were reserved to Pergamum, were probably close to Pergamum; in fact, Elaea and Adramyttium bordered on Pergamene territory, while Smyrna may have been chosen for one copy of the inscription because, as L. Robert suggests, it was the center of a conventus. SEG IX, 352, a bilingual inscription of Cyrenaica, reports that Nero restored to the Roman People reservations occupied by individuals: fines occupatos a privatis, opovc; OtaKaTExofLlvovS' {J7TO l8tWTWV. The word opoc; in the Attic terminology of land tenure5 is well attested for a marker indicating that the estate where it appeared was in some special category. In some places apparently the estate so marked could itself be called a 0p0S'. This meaning occurs in a misunderstood passage of Euripides, Heraclidae 37-38, where the following situation exists. Iolaus, Alcmene, and the Heraclidae have landed at Marathon and taken refuge in the sanctuary of Zeus. lolaus says: ciJv EKaTL TlpfLovaS' I KAELVWV ' A {}7Jvwv T6vo' &:cpLK6fLEa{}' opov. So Nauck and others read the manuscripts. Allen and Italie (Concordance, s.v. opoc;) give H 'A{}7Jvwv T6vo' ••• O. (T~VS' .•• oS6v Steph.)." Both these interpretations are incorrect because the authoritative version calls for no emendation and because the word 'A{}7Jvwv depends from TlpfLovaS' (the confines of Attica) and not from opov (the precinct where the temple and altar of Zeus are located). Marathon on the coast may properly be described as the confines of the Athenians. Translate: "By reason of which relationship we have come to this sacred precinct, to the confines of famous Athens." , For the references see L. Robert, op.cit. 5 John V. A. Fine, Horoi: Studies in Mortgage, Real Security, and Land Tenure in Ancient Athens (=Hesperia, Suppl. IX [1951]), a work in which the important and, in my opinion, correct observation was first made that land in Attica did not become truly alienable until the Plague during the Peloponnesian War changed the basis of Athenian life. See further M. I. Finley, Studies in Land and Credit in Ancient Athens, 500-200 B.C.: The Horos Inscriptions. (Rutgers Univ. Press, 1952), reviewed by H. J. Wolff, ZSS 60 (1953) 411-27. See also Fritz Pringsheim. "Griechische Kauf-horoi," Festschrift Hans Lewald (Basel 1953) 143-160. JAMES H. OLIVER 143 Another example occurs in the L1LTJy~U€LS of the poems of Calli­ machus.6 The citation from Callimachus reads Tvpuvwv T€{XLufLa ll€AaayLKov ElXE fL€ yata. Then comes the explanation: "He is making mention of the separate estates of the Pelasgians at Athens and of the wall built by them." 'IaTop~'i 1T~P;' TWV 'Ae~J/1}aLv II€AauYLKwv opWV Kat, Tofj 1TOLTJOEVTOS 1m' aVTwv TEtXOVS. The horoi of the Pelasgians, it seems, lay within the precinct known as the Pelargi­ kon or Pelasgikon, and could be described as gaia. The development in the Attic use of the word opos may have been from a boundary stone or a stone marker standing in a clearly visible part of an area reserved for a special purpose. It was something to see, not to read, although inscribed horoi doubtless developed along with literacy, at least for new employments as with fourth-century types of hypothecation. The horoi which Solon removed were probably un­ inscribed stones marking fields that had to be used for one purpose, e.g. to produce grain for a creditor's table. The phrase "horoi of the Pelasgians" suggests that a transference of meaning from "stone marking a reserved area" to the area itself occurred quite early. By the Classical period this latter usage was in Attica felt to be archaic perhaps.* THE JOHNS HOPK1;\JS UNIVERSITY May, 1963 8 A. Vogliano, Papiri della R. Universitd di Milano I (Milan 1937) 93. * The author had the benefit of criticism from John V. A. Fine. 2-G.R.B.S.