Institutions of the Polis CLAS3001 2008 Institutions of the Polis

Evidence Primarily in the form of inscriptions Permanent record in stone More direct evidence than literary texts, that are passed down to us through copying Evidence

Difficult to Read Usually fragmentary stones Sometimes the characters are hard to make out

Copying Inscriptions Standard technique is to make a 'squeeze' or reverse copy with paper http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/Laconia/Inscription09.ht ml shows how

Conventions for Indicating the State of the Text ] and [ to encompass material that is lost ]of Hestia [about 9 letters missing] [?????]

Lost Stones

In Your Texts Italicized sections indicate foreign words given in their original form These are usually important words Often have to deal with missing material This is the fun of ancient history

C38: Legislation at Chios In later context: Boule = council Rhetra (pl. rhetrai) = decisions of a council demos = the gathered people demarchos = leader of the demos

C37: Legislation at Dreros What institutions are taken for granted? What cultural practices are already in place? What is being established? Why?

The 'Spensithios Decree': C39 What is being decided here? What is innovative? What is old-fashioned (cp. C37 Dreros Decree)?

Next Class Greek Tyranny C21-35