Greek Inscriptions: Insights and Resources in the Classroom and Beyond by Peter Liddel
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Greek Inscriptions: insights and resources in the classroom and beyond by Peter Liddel arts of this paper are based on a talk Among the pieces of primary of their official transactions on stone P delivered on the CA Teaching Board evidence that are crucial to the tablets. In the middle and later fifth INSET day for teachers of Ancient History interpretation of ancient Greek history, century BC, they appear to have A Level at the Leeds City Museum, November inscriptions – by which we refer to frequently written up on stone decisions 2015. examples of writing incised on stone or concerning the organisation of their metal objects – loom large. According to empire; they also wrote up on stone one recent estimate, there survive at least treaties and agreements with other states. Introduction: the value of 200,000 inscriptions written in the Greek These stones tell us a great deal about the language which date to the period 800 Athenian treatment of their imperial inscriptions BC – AD 600. From ancient Athens subjects in the fifth century BC. For alone, there are around 20,000 in some instance, were it not for the record of The learning of ancient history at every state of preservation. State decisions of inscriptions, we would know little about level – school, FE and HE – offers its great relevance (treaties, regulations, the ways in which the Athenians behaved students the opportunity of close honours) were written down on stone towards those allies who had revolted engagement with ancient evidence first slabs of marble; they appeared also on a from their empire (see, for instance, hand. We want our students to develop range of other metal and stone objects, LACTOR 1, 4th edition, 216A-B, 217, the ability to approach texts and artefacts adorning buildings, dedications and 218, 21) nor would we have a detailed with confidence, to place them in context, public and private monuments. view of their financial exploitation of and to cultivate their own perspectives on Inscriptions stood in public places in these city-states (see, for instance, ancient history through engaging with Greece: they were written down in LACTOR 1, 4th edition, nos. 136, 137B, them. We need to teach them that this conspicuous locations, such as 138). process – the antithesis (or even the sanctuaries and marketplaces (agorai). On an important level, inscriptions antidote?) to the quick-fix of Wikipedia They are the most important form of offer us factual details about the ancient or the Google search – is crucial to the documentary information surviving past. They give information about treaties methodology of the historian and is at the from the ancient Greek world. As a form and cult practices; they preserve the same time an exciting way of thinking of evidence, inscriptions are unique: they names of politicians who proposed about the past. Close engagement with combine written words, inscribed in particular decrees and offer a view of the inscriptions is a way of getting to the core antiquity for people to see, with physical means by which those decisions were matters of ancient history. In this article I presence. In this way events, phenomena reached. They tell us about the style of set out the insights and opportunities that and decisions were granted physical and commemoration of individuals (both the study of inscriptions offers to those monumental commemoration. men and women; citizens and non- getting familiar with Greek antiquity at citizens) and groups of citizens whose the pre-university stage; I consider the names were written up on casualty lists. In obstacles that teachers and students face this sense, then, they offer snapshot when trying to access them and also the History and inscriptions perspectives on ancient history, opportunities that modern publications preserving details that are skipped over (digital and traditional) offer to At some point in the late sixth century, without comment by the literary sources. overcoming them. the Athenians started to write down some Without the inscribed base of the The Journal of Classics Teaching 18 (35) p.43-47 © The Classical Association 2017. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits Downloaded non-commercialfrom https://www.cambridge.org/core re-use, distribution,. IP andaddress: reproduction 170.106.202.226 in any, onmedium, 24 Sep 2021provided at 22:26:11 the original, subject work to the is Cambridge unaltered Core and termsis properly of use, cited. available The at written 43 https://www.cambridge.org/core/termspermission of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/S205863101700006X University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. co-ordinating a unified response to the threat of the Persians in 480 BC, in fact it appears to have been written up for propagandistic reasons in the second half of the fourth century BC – perhaps as part of the effort among Greek states to stir up resistance to the rise of Macedonian power in the 340s BC. Inscriptions, then, like any other text, should always be considered in the light of their context of production and intended audience. Greek Inscriptions in the Specifications Figure 1. | Phrasikleia Kore, exhibited at the Yet despite all this promise, when one National Archaeological Museum of Athens. looks at the specified ancient sources for the new Ancient History A Level (and magnificent statue of Phrasikleia from AS Level) qualification (http://www.ocr. sixth-century Attica (Fig. 1), we would org.uk/Images/313570-specification- know considerably less about the accredited-A Level-ancient-history-h407. commemoration of women who had died pdf) one finds only very few Greek before marriage in archaic Attica. inscriptions: three of them are specified While they tell us a great deal about as relevant to the period study Relations daily life and its regulation, there is also a Figure 2. | The Serpent Column. between Greek states and between Greek and very important sense in which non-Greek states, 492–404 BC: the inscriptions were religious objects. The war effort are incised upon the coils. Thoudippos Decree (LACTOR 1.138), Athenians of the classical period set up The inscription still exists, and is set up the Chalcis Decree (LACTOR 1.78), the their public decisions upon stone slabs in at the ancient Hippodrome in Istanbul Serpent Column (Fig. 2); one is specified sacred places, most frequently the (it was removed by Constantine I to for the depth study The Politics and Society Acropolis: it seems very plausible that Constantinople in AD 324). The of Sparta, 478–404 BC (a Spartan epitaph they were trying to make some kind of dedication of this column was an act of (IG 5.1.1124)). The specifications for The religious connection with their decisions. piety by the Greek states to the god Politics and Culture of Athens, c.460–399 Of direct religious significance are the Apollo as a thank-offering in BC depth study specify no Greek Athenian Tribute Lists. After moving the recognition of his intervention in the inscriptions: when we consider that treasury of the Delian League to Athens Persian wars. But literary sources public writing and the epigraphic in c. 454 BC, the Athenians started preserve a very rich account of the habit– as attested by inscriptions – dedicating 1/60th of the imperial tribute history of the inscription, telling us that formed such a significant aspect of to the treasury of the goddess Athena it supported a golden tripod, and was popular fifth-century culture across the Polias. They wrote up the amounts appropriated by the Spartan regent Greek world, we realise that there is a dedicated in this way by each contributing Pausanias with a boastful epigram deep gap in the specifications. community. Accordingly, it is possible to (Thucydides 1.132). In this case, our The lack of Greek inscriptions from work out from these lists precisely what understanding of an inscription is the specifications is disappointing even the Athenians received in any year when enriched by the literary testimonia. when compared with the previous the amount was written down and While inscriptions can be useful as specifications for A Level Ancient survives.1 documents of ancient Greek life and History (which cited four inscriptions in One of the most spectacular political transactions, we have to be aware the Delian League to Athenian Empire inscriptions from fifth-century Greece is that they were objects liable to political module). It is disappointing also when the Serpent Column, a bronze column, manipulation by the humans – or human compared to the specifications for Roman moulded so as to represent intertwined groups – who created them. The subjects at Ancient History A Level, snakes, offered by the Greeks to Apollo inscribed Decree of Themistocles (see C. where the specifications are inscription- at Delphi as a thank-offering for their Fornara, From Archaic Times to the End of rich in the The Julio-Claudian emperors, 31 victories in the Persian Wars (see C. the Peloponnesian War, 2nd edition, 1983, BC– AD 68 period study and the Ruling Fornara, From Archaic Times to the End of no. 55; also https://en.wikipedia.org/ Roman Britain, AD 43–128 depth study.2 the Peloponnesian War, 2nd edition, 1983, wiki/Decree_of_Themistocles) is an All this is in spite of the fact that Greek no. 59; Fig. 2). The names of 31 Greek excellent example of such practice: while inscriptions are of clear relevance to the communities which contributed to the it purports to refer to the Athenians subject criteria for Ancient History. Downloaded44 from https://www.cambridge.org/core.