Greek Inscriptions: insights and resources in the classroom and beyond by Peter Liddel

arts of this 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 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 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 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 : 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 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 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 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 . 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 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 : it seems very plausible that Constantinople in AD 324). The of , 478–404 BC (a Spartan 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 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 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 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 deep gap in the specifications. community. Accordingly, it is possible to ( 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 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 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 to Apollo inscribed Decree of Themistocles (see C. where the specifications are inscription- at as a thank-offering for their Fornara, From Archaic Times to the End of rich in the The Julio-Claudian , 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/ , 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. IP address:Greek 170.106.202.226 Inscriptions:, on insights 24 Sep 2021and resources at 22:26:11 in, subject the classroom to the Cambridge and beyond Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S205863101700006X his view that ancient history was a subject How are inscriptions relevant to worthy of study primarily because it the subject criteria for Ancient entailed reading extended passages of Thucydides in the original Greek. In his History? multi-volume History of Greece, George Grote criticised the German historian The DfE’s published subject content for August Boeckh’s use of inscriptions, A and AS Level Ancient History (https:// making the same claims about the dangers www.gov.uk/government/uploads/ of ‘conjecture’; as with Jowett, it seems to system/uploads/attachment_data/ be the case that a preference for file/497229/Ancient_History_AS_A_ Figure 3. | Squeeze (paper impression) of the Thucydides lay behind Grote’s aversion to level_subject_content.pdf) sets out the Athenian decree on the priestess of Athena inscriptions. Furthermore, it is perhaps Aims and Objectives of study. Among Nike. true to say that at some points in the other requirements, they state that twentieth century, the study of Greek specifications in this subject must inscriptions was dominated by arguments Nike (ML 44 = OR 137; see Fig. 3), for ‘understand the nature of historical about letter-forms and problematic instance, constitutes the earliest piece of evidence from the ancient world and its restorations, and that the reputation to evidence for the appointment of a scarcity to build an understanding of which this gave rise has been rather priestess ‘from all Athenians’ rather than historical periods studied and the damaging to their reputation. But as we from a particular genos or family, and is methods used in the analysis and shall see, the study of epigraphy has suggestive of a democratising process in evaluation of evidence’. Moreover, moved on. Athenian religion over the course of the students are expected to ‘develop an Another answer may be to do with fifth-century BC; as Josine Blok suggests, awareness and understanding of relevant the nature of Greek history itself. In there may be a link to Perikles’ Citizenship historical debates and how these can be their long and elaborate historical law of 451 BC. The trickle of new investigated’. In terms of Subject accounts, the works of Herodotus and discoveries (such as the discovery, in the Content, specifications ought to require Thucydides transmit to the modern excavations relating to the construction the study of ‘relevant literary and material world continuous narratives that are in of the Athenian Metro system in the sources from the ancient world, as themselves challenging and engaging 1990s, of a new casualty list referring to appropriate, as evidence for the historical enough to fulfil key aspects of the Athenian interventions in mainland events studies’. In terms of Knowledge, subject criteria. Combined with Old Greece in the last quarter of the fifth Understanding and Skills, students are Comedy and biography of the Second century) and new interpretations of required to ‘understand the nature of Sophistic, they enable learners to get a long-known inscriptions (e.g. the dating historical evidence from the ancient world partial sense of Greek history and its of the treaty of the Athenians and the and the methods used by today debates without needing to think about Segestans (ML 37) now firmly to the in analysis and evaluation’ and to use inscriptions. Whereas the literary sources archonship of Antiphon in 418/17 BC) ‘relevant and appropriate literary and emphasise the Big Men and their mean that modern historians are material sources from the ancient world in reputations in Greek history, inscriptions constantly led to re-formulate their order to support evidence-based bring out the long-term developments, interpretations of key events. arguments about the key events studied, and shine light on aspects of Athenian including analysing the reliability and society in which the historians – context of the evidence used’. preoccupied with politics and military To point out that inscriptions are What is the problem? affairs – are less interested. But the fact relevant to these subject criteria would be that inscriptions can tell us about to labour the point unnecessarily: to read Why is it the case that Greek inscriptions identity, , citizenship, the inscriptions is an important part of are largely excluded from the history of gender, and social life should understanding how ancient historians specifications, despite their clear relevance be a reason to study them. reconstruct developments in historical to the subject criteria? One answer might Perhaps another deterrent is that the periods, how they advance historical be that it is very hard to get students to study of inscriptions has the reputation arguments and how they treat literary read them partly owing to their of being off-puttingly ‘hard’, of being sources critically. One cannot, for reputation: this has its roots in a negative inaccessible to those without Greek, and instance, understand the debates about tradition about them that has existed since challenging even to those with Greek; the changing nature of Athenian at least the late nineteenth century. In his their often poor state of preservation imperialism without awareness of the 1881 essay ‘On Inscriptions in the Age of means that their texts are often inscribed decrees that have – after many Thucydides’, Benjamin Jowett complained fragmentary or heavily reliant on years of debate – been dated to the period of the ‘evil tendency’ of inscriptions ‘to restorations. The ongoing translation by after the death of Perikles. Fifth-century encourage the habit of conjecture, which scholars of inscriptions in source- inscriptions are vitally important to our has already been one of the great means, however, that inaccessibility is less understanding of both Athenian culture corruptions of ’; what lay of a problem; furthermore, in the past and Athenian democracy: the decree of c. behind this perspective may not be quite decade or so, significant new digital 450 or 438 BC on the priestess of Athena so straightforward, and may be related to online, open-access, resources, have made

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address:Greek 170.106.202.226 Inscriptions: ,insights on 24 Sep and 2021 resources at 22:26:11 in the, subject classroom to the and Cambridge beyond Core terms of use, available at 45 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S205863101700006X inscriptions accessible to a wider audience in Fornara’s From Archaic Times to the End means that even those without Greek can than ever before. of the Peloponnesian War (2nd edition, be led to consider the implications of 1983). The LACTOR series is particularly precise Greek terms – such as philotimia – strong when it comes to translated which are difficult to render into English. Resources for studying Greek inscriptions, and in particular Osborne’s A search facility offers the possibility to LACTOR 1 (Athenian Empire, 4th edition, search both transliterations, historical inscriptions 2000) and LACTOR 5 (Athenian phenomena (e.g. ‘sacrifice’, ‘battle’, Democracy, 2015). Melvin Cooley’s ‘democracy’), and names. Links to online Epigraphers are consistently among the LACTOR 21 (forthcoming 2017) is the images of the inscriptions, that emphasise first classical scholars to make their work first sourcebook dedicated to Sparta and the physical aspects of these documents, accessible in an online, open-access form. will translate many Spartan inscriptions are gradually being introduced. Very soon The Packard Humanities Institute into English for the first time. More it will be the case that all the major epigraphical database, a comprehensive detailed for fifth-century Greek fifth- and fourth-century Athenian source for Greek texts of epigraphical inscriptions is Meiggs and Lewis’ Greek inscriptions will be available, free of publications, once accessible only to Historical Inscriptions (revised edition, charge, in English translation to all. owners of the PHI CD, is now open 1988), which will soon be replaced by One does not need to know Greek to access; one can browse the epigraphical Osborne and ’ Greek Historical understand and appreciate the physical corpora and search for Greek terms Inscriptions 478-404 BC (forthcoming; the aspects of inscriptions. We have already (http://epigraphy.packhum.org/). The fourth century equivalent, Greek Historical commented on the way in which the Attic website of the Centre for the Study of Inscriptions 404-323 BC is already available Inscriptions Online project incorporates Ancient Documents (http://www.csad. in hardback [2003] and paperback transliterations into its translations of ox.ac.uk/) is an important hub and [2007]). inscriptions and may well lead learners to starting-point for online epigraphical The resource, however, that is consider the potential that a knowledge research (it contains an excellent database currently enabling the accessibility of of Greek – even a little – offers to those of images of squeezes – paper inscriptions to all is Stephen Lambert’s interested in understanding the Greek impressions – of inscriptions); it contains Attic Inscriptions Online (Fig. 4). This website world in detail. The study of inscriptions, links to important resources such as provides, free of charge, translations of then, presupposes no prior knowledge of Poinikastas (http://poinikastas.csad.ox. the inscriptions of the ancient city of Greek. But we should not rule out the ac.uk/), a database containing resources Athens and its surrounding area, Attica. possibility of using inscriptions to assist for the study of writing in the archaic Its translations, based on the most recent the learning of Greek. Images of the period of Greek history. While the scholarly readings of the inscriptions, are Attic Stelai displaying the 1/60th of the present author is constantly frustrated by accompanied by a useful set of tribute of the Athenian allies dedicated to his students’ determination to use interpretative notes concerning historical Athena’s treasury are readily available Wikipedia uncritically, he is happy to controversies and information on their online, and could be used to assist acknowledge that Wikipedia contains a physical form and findspot. They are learning the in its number of very good pages on individual browseable by publication, and the fifth-century Attic form (as well as the inscriptions, which should always be website makes available already a great intriguing Athenian use of alphabetic treated carefully and analytically! proportion of the inscriptions of letters to signify numbers). But When it comes to translations, there relevance to the classical period (including inscriptions could be used to introduce is a very rich seam of epigraphical the Chalkis and Thoudippos decrees learners to the in a material in published form. There is a which are on the syllabus). It is possible to historically-engaged way: some years ago wide range of translated inscriptions for incorporate transliterations of key Greek Graham Shipley and Eva Parasinou put the study of fifth-century Greek History words within the translations, which together an introductory Greek course – entitled Hellenizein – which was based on engagement with simple Greek inscriptions; it was published in electronic form by the Higher Education but is now available free of charge directly from Graham Shipley at Leicester or from the author of this article.

The Physicality of Inscriptions

As observed above, one does not need Greek to appreciate the ‘physicality’ of inscriptions. It is possible to appreciate inscriptions by visiting them in museums: Figure 4. | Attic Inscriptions Online homepage the , Fitzwilliam Museum

Downloaded46 from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address:Greek 170.106.202.226 Inscriptions:, on insights 24 Sep 2021and resources at 22:26:11 in, subject the classroom to the Cambridge and beyond Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S205863101700006X and Ashmolean Museum (and other nature of the online experience, through A. Missiou, and Democracy in Fifth- collections too: for a work-in-progress list blogs and wikis – are being constantly Century Athens, 2011 – discussing the wider see http://ukepigraphy.humanities. trained to digest gobbets of information implications of inscriptions for understanding manchester.ac.uk/index.php/Greek_ and opinions; perhaps, in some sense, writing and literacy. Inscriptions_in_the_UK) have large Greek inscriptions are attuned to this collections of Greek (and Roman) modern way of receiving information: inscriptions which can give viewers a many of them offer bite-size chunks of sense of the physical manifestations of text which repay close scrutiny and careful Electronic Resources: texts: what types of objects were they analysis. There can be few better ways of written on? Were they legible? Why were training our students to think critically Attic Inscriptions Online: a fast-growing site they written up on stone? about the texts that they encounter, their translating all inscriptions of ancient Attica: And if you do not live close to a producers, and their audiences. atticinscriptions.com collection of Greek inscriptions, villages Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents: and towns and cities across the UK are http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/ full of inscriptions: just as they were in Peter Liddel, Senior Lecturer in the ancient Greek world they adorn Ancient History, University of Greek inscriptions: http://epigraphy. buildings, in grave-monuments, on Manchester; Chair, Classical packhum.org/ statue-bases, and other war memorials. Association Teaching Board The search facilities of the Imperial War [email protected] Imperial War Museum: http://www.iwm.org. Museum (http://www.iwm.org.uk/ uk/memorials/search memorials/search) and the War Poinikastas: http://poinikastas.csad.ox.ac.uk/ Memorials Online websites (https:// www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/) offer Abbreviations: LACTOR (London Association of Classical an easy way to track down war Teachers: Original Records): http://www. memorials – many of them bearing ML: Meiggs, R. and Lewis, D.M, Greek lactor.kcl.ac.uk/summ.htm inscriptions – in any area of the UK. We Historical Inscriptions to the end of the Fifth Century can encourage our students to think about BC (revised edition, 1988). UK Greek inscriptions: http://ukepigraphy. what they say: when they were written up, humanities.manchester.ac.uk/index.php/ OR: Osborne, R.G. and Rhodes, P.J., Greek why, and for whom? And does anyone Greek_Inscriptions_in_the_UK Historical Inscriptions 478-404 BC (forthcoming). read them or do passers-by think of them War Memorials Online: https://www. as mute stones? warmemorialsonline.org.uk/

Further Reading: 1On the use of the Tribute Lists as historical Conclusion sources, and their physical form, see LACTOR B. F. Cook, Greek Inscriptions, 1987. 1, 4th edition, pages 86-97. In contrast to the extensive literary sources C.W. Fornara, From Archaic Times to the End of 2And there are no inscriptions specified in the for ancient Greek history, inscriptions the Peloponnesian War, 2nd edition, 1983. new specifications for A Level Classical offer snapshots of state action, of Civilisation, in spite of their obvious relevance community decisions, and daily life. We P. Easterling, Greek Scripts: an illustrated to the modules on Greek Religion, Athenian live in a world where learners – by the introduction, 2001. Democracy, and Greek Art.

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