DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52591#0295
MONUMENT OF THE THESSALIAN PRINCES 279
of Acnonius, as the first Thessalian who won the Pancra-
tium (a combination of wrestling and boxing) at Olympia;
and, as we have seen, the lifetime of Agias can be fixed in
the middle of the fifth century, i.e. about a hundred years
before the statue was made. The lists of Olympic victors
in the fifth century are preserved, but there are some
lacunae in the period 460-440 B.c. where we should expect
to find the name of Agias.
The epigram acquired a new and unexpected interest
when a German epigraphist, Erich Preuner,1 showed that
an almost identical replica stood on a base at Agias' native
town of Pharsalus. In September 1811 two well-known
archaeologists, the German Baron Stackelberg, and the
Dane Brondsted, visited Pharsalus, and in Stackelberg’s
diary of the journey, which is now in the University Library
at Dorpat, was an inscription copied from a stone which
at the time lay in the stable of the Turkish inn. At the
end of the nineteenth century two other archaeologists,
the Italian De Sanctis, and the Russian Pridik, travelled
in Thessaly, found and copied another fragment of the
same inscription, which stood on a fragment of a statue
base. These two fragments, copied at an interval of almost
a century, have been put together by Preuner, and compared
with the epigram of the statue of Agias ; so that the original
Thessalian inscription has been reconstructed as in fig. 140,
where the large letters are those which can be read with
certainty in the two copies, while the rest is supplied by
help of the Delphic inscription, or by considerations of
probability.
There is a slight discrepancy between the Delphic and
Pharsalian texts. In the Delphic inscription, it is stated
that Agias was victorious “ five times at Nemea, thrice in
the Pythian, and five times in the -Isthmian games.” The
Pharsalus inscription ran “ Five times at Nemea, as often
(τόσα) in the Pythian, and five times in the Isthmian games.”
This divergence of the two was very reasonably explained
by Preuner in this way. In his native town, Agias could be
without hesitation given his five victories in the Pythian
games: but at Delphi they had to tell the truth, and be
1 Ein delphisches Weihgeschenk, Leipzig, 1900 (especially 17 f.)·
of Acnonius, as the first Thessalian who won the Pancra-
tium (a combination of wrestling and boxing) at Olympia;
and, as we have seen, the lifetime of Agias can be fixed in
the middle of the fifth century, i.e. about a hundred years
before the statue was made. The lists of Olympic victors
in the fifth century are preserved, but there are some
lacunae in the period 460-440 B.c. where we should expect
to find the name of Agias.
The epigram acquired a new and unexpected interest
when a German epigraphist, Erich Preuner,1 showed that
an almost identical replica stood on a base at Agias' native
town of Pharsalus. In September 1811 two well-known
archaeologists, the German Baron Stackelberg, and the
Dane Brondsted, visited Pharsalus, and in Stackelberg’s
diary of the journey, which is now in the University Library
at Dorpat, was an inscription copied from a stone which
at the time lay in the stable of the Turkish inn. At the
end of the nineteenth century two other archaeologists,
the Italian De Sanctis, and the Russian Pridik, travelled
in Thessaly, found and copied another fragment of the
same inscription, which stood on a fragment of a statue
base. These two fragments, copied at an interval of almost
a century, have been put together by Preuner, and compared
with the epigram of the statue of Agias ; so that the original
Thessalian inscription has been reconstructed as in fig. 140,
where the large letters are those which can be read with
certainty in the two copies, while the rest is supplied by
help of the Delphic inscription, or by considerations of
probability.
There is a slight discrepancy between the Delphic and
Pharsalian texts. In the Delphic inscription, it is stated
that Agias was victorious “ five times at Nemea, thrice in
the Pythian, and five times in the -Isthmian games.” The
Pharsalus inscription ran “ Five times at Nemea, as often
(τόσα) in the Pythian, and five times in the Isthmian games.”
This divergence of the two was very reasonably explained
by Preuner in this way. In his native town, Agias could be
without hesitation given his five victories in the Pythian
games: but at Delphi they had to tell the truth, and be
1 Ein delphisches Weihgeschenk, Leipzig, 1900 (especially 17 f.)·