MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis Hasan Malay PART OF AN INSCRIBED block was brought from the village of Maldan, about five km. southeast of ancient Aigai, to the Ma­ nisa Museum in 1981. In 1983, after having been informed that the block had been found in the modern cemetery of the village and that there were other inscribed blocks there, I visited the village to look for the remaining part of the inscription. With the invaluable help of the villagers, I in fact discovered the upper part of the text, although the beginning of the inscription and several lines between the two fragments are missing. The abundance of ancient blocks in the cemetery as well as at Sivri mevkii, three km. northeast of the village, and rock-carved tombs at Aktepe mevkii, south of the vil­ lage, lead us to conclude that there was a settlement in this district.l Two blocks of local hard brown stone.2 The stoichedon order is aban­ doned after line B.13 and the remaining lines are inscribed on a rasura on which there are still some vestigia Iitterarum of the previous text (see the facsimile infra). Height 0.92 (upper part) + 0.85 (lower part) = 1.77 m.~ width 0.57~ thickness 0.14. Letter height 2.8 to 3.0 cm. Inv. no. of the lower part: 5893. PLATES 5-6. rTOIX.12 A [ - - - Bw]­ [p]~av 'TEAELV 8[E]- , l:., \ ' Ka'TYlv, ",v~LVOV BE Kap7Tov 'TWV iJ- 4 p,epwv oyBoYlv, 7T­ PO/3(XTWV BE Kat alywv 7TEV'TYlKOcr- , \' ,f, ~ 'TYlV' ~YI'f'e'TaL u- 1 I also found here a votive stele of Roman times dedicated to ZEVS- ·OAll/.,/TrW" Kat €~KOOC;, two architectural marble blocks with mouldings, and a small Byzantine deco­ rated pillar, which will be published elsewhere with other new inscriptions from Aigai. 2 The stone is of the same kind as that of the opoc; inscription of Aigai published by P. Herrmann, who described it as "Poroser brauner Kalkstein": DenkschrWien 77.1 (1959) 4-6 no. 2~ see also for the same inscription L. Robert, Villes d'Asie Mineure 2 (Paris 1962) 279-80, and Bult.epigr. 1960, 340. 349 MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 350 A ROYAL DOCUMENT FROM AlGAl IN AIOLIS 8 " , " E af.'vov Kat Xtf.'- atpav' T7j~ BE e1r- '"' ,.,. tyOV'rI<; f.''rI Etva- t TEAO<;' A-ry.pera- 12 ~, , , t uE Kat uf.''rIVEW- v ..q~PWV oyBo'rl- fJ ' ~,., V' 'rIpa<; uE a1rO u- , , '\ I A..~ VO<; Kat E",a'P'-'v 16 UKEAO~' El~ BE A- I TlTOVpyta~ 1rap- E~VTat [1rpo]<; u- T[p]aT[ELaV .... ] B .A&ETO ..... . TOL<; BE epya' [0] - I , • f.'E VOt<; Ta E1rt T- 4 -ryBEta 1rapE~OV­ Ut e' {3aUtAtKOIJ' "... ~ , \, , Y'rlv uE Kat af.'1rE- AO~ Kat. OlKLa- 8 <; Qua acf>'rItPTJ~- .,. • I ~ •• va TJuav, a1rEuwK- '"' , . EV 1rautv Ta Eav- TWV' El BE n<; Ta- 12 vTa Ka'TaAVot e- \ \, \. ' 1rt Ta E",auuova, 'A1rOAAWV Kat. ZE~ , "A ' ''AfJ Kat PTE",,<; Kat - 16 'rI va aVTo v e~o- I "( ') ,. AEUEt Kat av TOV Kat E- ['Y'Y] «? ~O~. non-LTOIX. to pay the tithe [as gift], and one eighth of the fruits of the cultivated trees, and one part in fifty of the sheep and goats. He also will receive a lamb and kid. The offspring will not be subject to tax. He also will receive one eighth of the beehives. Concerning hunting, (he will also receive) one leg from each boar and deer. They will supply ... [for military affairs] as public service ... . . . to the workers they will give the things that are necessary from the royal treasury. As for the land and vineyards and houses of which they have been deprived, he gave back to all their property. If anyone should diminish these (provisions), may Apollo, Zeus, Artemis, and Athena destroy him and his descendants. MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 HASAN MALAY 351 Because of the expression /3aUtAtKOlJ (B.5) as a substantive mean­ ing 'royal treasury', the inscription certainly belongs to the time of the Hellenistic monarchs.3 Because of the proximity of the find-spot to the site of Aigai, property which is said to have been given back by a king (or by one of his officers) to the people living here possibly belonged to the territory of Aigai.4 It is difficult to determine by whom these properties were ch/:n..,tpYJl-tElJa. One may guess that these people had been driven out or expropriated5 and now were rein­ stalled.6 The subject of none of the verbs in this text is preserved. The verbs ATl'peTat (A.7 and A.II) and (bTEiiwKElJ (B.9) could refer to the king or perhaps his OiKOlJOJ.W~ or one of his officers, while the future 1rapegoVut seems to point to some officials.7 About the political relations of Aigai in the time of the Hellenistic kings we have no clear information beyond the statement of Polybius that many cities, including Aigai, were taken by Attalus I in 218 B.C.8 :l On the term /3amALKolI in the royal documents see C. B. Welles, Royal Corre­ spondence p.321 with n.18, and the examples collected by M. Holleaux, Etudes II 106- 08: OO(JiJllat £K hoi!) /3amALKoi! "faire allouer par Ie Tresor royal," and "L 'adjectif /3aULALKOII employe substantivement a, comme on sait, un sens different: dans toutes les monarchies hellenistiques, comme au reste dans LOute monarch ie, TO /3amALKolI ou /3aULAtKOII (sans article), c 'est Ie 'Tresor royal', Ie fisc et, par extension, I'adminis­ tration du fisc." 4 See for example W. Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London 1890) 116: "the territory of Aigai must have been very wide." 5 If the reason was not a war, one may suppose that the land that belonged to the temple of Apollo Chresterius had included the property of these people but then had been diminished by some ruler. G. E. Bean, in publishing a stele from At~llar KoyU marking the consecrated area to this temple, commented, "If we should assume that the other stelae were placed at a similar distance around the temple, the dedicated area would be very large": Belleten 30 (I 966) 526 (Bull.epigr. 1968, 446). For the lands belonging to various temples in Asia Minor see D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor II (Princeton 1950) 1016-17. 6 Perhaps they were cultivators on royal land (xwpa /3amALK.ry) whom we normally would call Aaoi~ see Royal Corres. II, 18, 20~ I. Sardis 1; P. Briant, Annales litt. Besan­ con 140 (I972) 93-133. 7 Compare the inscription from (:amilcakoy, about ten km. south of Maldan where the present inscription was found, which records an arrangement concerning the boun­ daries of Aigai, published by Herrmann (supra n.2): (T1)1IT(X~aIlTO~ /3aULAEW'; 'AIITLOXOV OpOL TiJ~ Alyaifjo~ oi n(JEIIT€S lJ'TTO 'A7r£'AAEO~ TOll M1)TPOf)W[pov. Because of the moun­ tainous nature of this district, Herrmann considered that problems concerning boun­ daries were frequent. For some other boundary stones between Aigai and Myrina see J. Keil/A. von Premerstein, 1. Reise (DenkschrWien 53.2 [1908]) 98 nos. 204-07. R 5.77: KaTa Sf TOil KatPOII Ka(J' 011 'AxaLO~ £7rOL£.LTO T-ryll E7rt TO~ L£'Ay£.r:~ UTpanW:1I "ATmAo~ £XWII TOV~ raAam~ E7r£.7r0p£.vHo Ta~ KaTa T-ryll AioAiSa 7rOAH~ Kat T(l~ (T1)1I£.­ Xfl~ mvmL~, DuaL 7rpOT£.pOII 'AxauiJ 7rPOUEKEXwp.ryKHuall fjt£l TOil qx)f3011 ... 7]uall S'ai TOTE I-/-Em(JEI-/-Uat 7rPO~ aVTOII 7rPWTOII ~II KVI-/-1) Kat LI-/-Vplla ,(emended to MvpLIJa: U. Wilcken, RE 2 [1896) 2162 s.v. "Attalos 9," cf Holleaux, Etudes II 19) Kat WKata' ~Ta Sf mvm~ Alyat£'fS Kat T1)l-/-vtmL 7rpOUEXWp1)Uall Kam7rAaYEIITE<; TTjIl £cpoSOII. MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 352 A ROYAL DOCUMENT FROM AlGAl IN AIOLIS But the general appearance of the present inscription suggests a date early in the third century S.C.,9 and it is hard to make a connection between the events in the time of Attalus I and the reinstallation recorded in our document. I prefer to suggest the long reign of An­ tiochus I Soter (281-261) for this inscription. There are still some ex­ amples of stoichedon style in this period,IO and varying letter heights, as in our inscription, are a peculiarity of the stoichedon inscriptions of the fourth and the third centuries. ll In any case, we need further evidence to know what happened in this district in the early Hel­ lenistic period. LINE A.I. The traces at the beginning of the first line may be re­ stored as 8wp]Eav though the letter epsilon is doubtful. The traces are seen as . on the stone. The accusative 8wpEav was commonly used as an adverb meaning 'as gift, freely' .12 LINES A.l-2. It may be supposed that the BEKaT11 is a tax on cereals, for which the BEKaT11 may have been customary in the Persian­ Seleucid tradition.13 LINES A.2-3. The expression Kap11'oi TWV T,~pWV seems to mean here 'fruits of cultivated trees' rather than 'fresh fruits' since it was quite common to present fresh fruits to a king or official.14 LINES A.5-7. The 'TT'EVT11KOU"TT, is supposed to have been elsewhere a tax on imports: L. Robert, Hellenica XI-XII 193, cf I.Erythrai I 9 ("die Importsteuer"). For 'TT'PO/3aTLKfW and qxJpo~ 11'po/3chwv see Hes­ peria 27 (I958) 77 and Bull.epigr. 1959, 43. LINES A.8-9. Because it is used together with a~vo~, the word x.i~"pa must mean here 'kid' rather than 'she-goat'. LINES A.9-1I. It is interesting to find that the offspring of goats and sheep are not subject to taxes, so that the inhabitants would not have to pay excessive amounts. LINES A.ll-13. We know from some inscriptions that there existed a tax on beehives. See for this practice L. Robert, Coli. Froehner 79 9 Note that the letter forms (except xi) are very similar to those of the <;amhcakay inscription (supra n. 7), about which Herrmann wrote, "Es ist keine Frage, dass es eine typische Schrift des 3. Jhdts. ist" (5 n.l). 10 See Holleaux, Etudes II 53. 11 See R. P. Austin, The Stoichedon Style in Greek Inscriptions (Oxford 1938) 30-31. 12 See for example OGIS 229.l02-03, inrapXELv aVTO'" TOt,.; TPE'" KAT,POV'; OOJPEUV ... &lOT/Val aVTO'" KAT/POV i1T7TLKOV OOJPEUV TWV 1TapaKEL~VWV TWL 8T,J-LWL; 748.2, Ta& {OOJKE V 4>LAETaLpO" 'A TTaAov OOJPEU V TWL 8T,J-LW1. 13 See for this practice M. Warrle, Chiron 8 (I978) 223 with n.112, and Royal Corres. 51.17f. 14 On ~ALVOL Kap1TOL see TAM II 1.14 (OGIS 55.14); Warrle (supra n.13) 218f; Welles ad Royal Corres. 51.17. MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 MALAY INSCRIPTION FROM AlGAl IN AIOLIS UPPER FRAGMENT PLATE 5 MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 PLATE 6 MALAY INSCRIPTION FROM AlGAl IN AIOLIS LOWER FRAGMENT MALAY, HASAN, A Royal Document from Aigai in Aiolis , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 24:4 (1983:Winter) p.349 HASAN MALAY 353 (Theangela)~ JSav 1976, 176, line 18 with the commentary at 186- 87; BCH 102 (1978) 494. LINES A.l4-17. People who hunted boars and deer in this land had to give as a tax one leg from each animal. LINES B.3-4. What were the E7TI:TT,Beux which the royal officers had to give to the Jpya,6f..LEvOL from the royal treasury? If we are right in thinking of them as farmers, the word E7TI:T.ry8eux should denote here . seed and agricultural tools. LINE B.12. On the verb KaTaAvHv see M. Worrle, Myra, Eine Iykische Metropoie in antiker und byzantinischer Zeit (Berlin 1975) 284 n.703: "Aufhebung der Rechtswirksamkeit." LINES B.14-18. The apodosis of the curse against the person who would diminish (cancel) the orders has been changed into another formula, inscribed non-stoichedon. Here we give a facsimile of this part with some distinguishable traces of the earlier text: r IT A[ I\At.. t.O toIA Ar 0- /\ ,/\,.;'"\. N tt A' ,1: E Y 1 leA IAPTEM J ~ " A I A 0 HNAA,( T ON E1 0 "E~ E"" AIAy KA IE From the traces in B.14, the beginning of the apodosis may perhaps be restored as [eUH U[K]01rOV or [l]gH U[K]OTOV, although these terms are not common in the maledictions of early times. I5 The temple of Apollo Chresterius at Aigai is well known. The present inscription, jn recording the name of the god before those of the other three divinities, is additional evidence that Apollo was the chief deity worshipped here. I6 EGE UNIVERSITY, IZMIR September, 1983 15 For two examples of o"KOTO~ in Byzantine imprecations, see L. Robert, Dacia 22 (1978) 327. 16 I should like to thank Kubiliiy NaYlr, Director of the Manisa Museum, for giving me permission to do this work, and Ersin Doger, Hamza GUney, and Kadir Acarkan for their assistance during my visit to the village. I am also very grateful to P. Herr­ mann and Th. Drew-Bear for their kind help with this article.