DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47233#0143
CHAP. VII.]
INSCRIPTIONS OF MEGALOPOLIS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.
1 27
A block of stone, only inscribed on one side, broken irregularly all round, β-f" thick,
greatest length and breadth U 5 J" by 9 J", letters f" high and very regularly cut, being, with the
exception of omikron and omega (the text is not accurate to this extent), almost all of the same
height. It was found in excavation on the site of the Agora, just against the outer wall of what we
have taken to be the Temenos of Zeus Soter, between this wall and the column bases (cp. Paus,
viii. 30. 10. κεκόσμηται πέριξ κίοσι). As it relates to the city archives, it might be thought to
go to prove that the building in which it was found was the αρχεία mentioned by Pausanias ;
but it would be unsafe to draw any such conclusion, inasmuch as it neither suits the description
of Pausanias nor the results arrived at by excavation (Chapter V. on the Agora). It is at any
rate an interesting and valuable fragment of a decree of the people dealing with the preservation
of the laws and state documents. From it we learn that there were at Megalopolis state officials
called νομογράφοι, who entered in the statute-book the laws passed, as in the cases of the Aetolian
League, Sparta, Hermione, and the neighbouring Arcadian city of Tegea; and others called
γραμματοφνλακες, whose business was to have charge of the archives, as at Teos and Smyrna
(ό γραμματοφιλαξ τη$ βουλή? καί του Ζήμου, Ditt. Syll. 171. 55): these two offices were probably
combined at Athens in the one of νομοφΰλακες.
1—4 is the end of a paragraph, and apparently contains some cjuestion of fines for offences,
but defies restoration. A break occurs between the two paragraphs, and it is possible that the first
ended and the second began in what I have accordingly numbered as a line.
6—7. The length of the lines is settled with something like certainty to be approximately
34 letters by the restoration here. The case seems to be dealt with in which a matter arises
for which the existing laws have no provision. The last letters of 7 are without any doubt εφετο-,
the o is not complete, but enough of it remains to show that it was that letter and no other. The
word must obviously be connected with εφί-ται, but εφετών cannot be read, and I have restored
with some hesitation εφετον δικαστήριον. The word εφετάς is found in authors as the verbal adjective
of εφίεμαι, but it may just as well be that of εφίημι. If this is correct, it makes still more unlikely
the derivation of εφετης from επί . . ετης. The Senate of Megalopolis then having consented to
transfer its functions, a special court of appeal decides in case of offences to which the existing laws
do not seem to apply. (There is probably no reference to εφέσιμοι Βίκαι submitted to an
εκκλητος 7τόλό$·.)
12. What has happened in this line is obvious. The stone-cutter by an ordinary mistake
wrote ευΰοκείσωσι . . . μεταθήναι for ευΰοκήσωσι . . . μεταθείναι. Tile subject of ευΖοκήσωσι is probably
the νομογράφοι, and γραμματοφύλακες : μεταθειναι means probably ‘ alter,’ ‘ amend,’ as in Polybius, not
‘to remove to another place.’ The documents are not to be altered except under certain
circumstances as prescribed by statute.
It is not easy to fix the date of the inscription. The small omikron, and the alpha with its
cross-bar straight, point to the third century b.c., while the forms of theta and pi point rather to
the first. Probably it belongs to the second century. The great length of the letters epsilon and
sigma is a peculiarity.
V· S
m
“1
Letters apparently 2" in height.
This is the inscription of an interesting relic, which we found lying on the ground near the
Demarch’s house, and used as a pig-trough. It is a large slab of stone, 11" in height, 2' 3" in width
where it is complete, and 2' 7" in length to the point where it is broken. It contains, sunk in its-
upper surface two complete basins, and two that are broken off where the stone has been smashed.
The largest contains the above inscription, the letters starting from the rim downwards at four
points of a cross: they are only preserved close to the rim, but it is easy to restore ’ Αμ[φορε\υε
Μ€γ[αλο7τολί]τωυ. There is room in each case for one letter more, so that it was inscribed without
INSCRIPTIONS OF MEGALOPOLIS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.
1 27
A block of stone, only inscribed on one side, broken irregularly all round, β-f" thick,
greatest length and breadth U 5 J" by 9 J", letters f" high and very regularly cut, being, with the
exception of omikron and omega (the text is not accurate to this extent), almost all of the same
height. It was found in excavation on the site of the Agora, just against the outer wall of what we
have taken to be the Temenos of Zeus Soter, between this wall and the column bases (cp. Paus,
viii. 30. 10. κεκόσμηται πέριξ κίοσι). As it relates to the city archives, it might be thought to
go to prove that the building in which it was found was the αρχεία mentioned by Pausanias ;
but it would be unsafe to draw any such conclusion, inasmuch as it neither suits the description
of Pausanias nor the results arrived at by excavation (Chapter V. on the Agora). It is at any
rate an interesting and valuable fragment of a decree of the people dealing with the preservation
of the laws and state documents. From it we learn that there were at Megalopolis state officials
called νομογράφοι, who entered in the statute-book the laws passed, as in the cases of the Aetolian
League, Sparta, Hermione, and the neighbouring Arcadian city of Tegea; and others called
γραμματοφνλακες, whose business was to have charge of the archives, as at Teos and Smyrna
(ό γραμματοφιλαξ τη$ βουλή? καί του Ζήμου, Ditt. Syll. 171. 55): these two offices were probably
combined at Athens in the one of νομοφΰλακες.
1—4 is the end of a paragraph, and apparently contains some cjuestion of fines for offences,
but defies restoration. A break occurs between the two paragraphs, and it is possible that the first
ended and the second began in what I have accordingly numbered as a line.
6—7. The length of the lines is settled with something like certainty to be approximately
34 letters by the restoration here. The case seems to be dealt with in which a matter arises
for which the existing laws have no provision. The last letters of 7 are without any doubt εφετο-,
the o is not complete, but enough of it remains to show that it was that letter and no other. The
word must obviously be connected with εφί-ται, but εφετών cannot be read, and I have restored
with some hesitation εφετον δικαστήριον. The word εφετάς is found in authors as the verbal adjective
of εφίεμαι, but it may just as well be that of εφίημι. If this is correct, it makes still more unlikely
the derivation of εφετης from επί . . ετης. The Senate of Megalopolis then having consented to
transfer its functions, a special court of appeal decides in case of offences to which the existing laws
do not seem to apply. (There is probably no reference to εφέσιμοι Βίκαι submitted to an
εκκλητος 7τόλό$·.)
12. What has happened in this line is obvious. The stone-cutter by an ordinary mistake
wrote ευΰοκείσωσι . . . μεταθήναι for ευΰοκήσωσι . . . μεταθείναι. Tile subject of ευΖοκήσωσι is probably
the νομογράφοι, and γραμματοφύλακες : μεταθειναι means probably ‘ alter,’ ‘ amend,’ as in Polybius, not
‘to remove to another place.’ The documents are not to be altered except under certain
circumstances as prescribed by statute.
It is not easy to fix the date of the inscription. The small omikron, and the alpha with its
cross-bar straight, point to the third century b.c., while the forms of theta and pi point rather to
the first. Probably it belongs to the second century. The great length of the letters epsilon and
sigma is a peculiarity.
V· S
m
“1
Letters apparently 2" in height.
This is the inscription of an interesting relic, which we found lying on the ground near the
Demarch’s house, and used as a pig-trough. It is a large slab of stone, 11" in height, 2' 3" in width
where it is complete, and 2' 7" in length to the point where it is broken. It contains, sunk in its-
upper surface two complete basins, and two that are broken off where the stone has been smashed.
The largest contains the above inscription, the letters starting from the rim downwards at four
points of a cross: they are only preserved close to the rim, but it is easy to restore ’ Αμ[φορε\υε
Μ€γ[αλο7τολί]τωυ. There is room in each case for one letter more, so that it was inscribed without