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Two Notes on Athenian Topography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. E. Wycherley
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Extract

In Pollux, VIII. 20 (ed. Bethe, Leipzig, 1900–37) in the section on σκεύη δικαστικά—κιγκλίς, δρύφακτος κτλ.—we read περισχοινίσαντας (περισκηνήσαντας A) δέ τι τῆς ἀγορᾶς μέρος ἔδει φέρειν εἰς τὸν περιορισθέντα τόπον Ἀθηναίων τὸν βουλόμενον ὄστρακον ἐγγεγραμμένον τοὔνομα τοῦ μέλλοντος ἐξοστρακίƷεσθαι. Dindorf described περισκηνήσαντας, ‘quod hactenus vulgatum est’, as ‘ineptissimum’, and it has been given short shrift. Bearing in mind that good authorities speak of a more solid and substantial barrier than a σχοῖνος on occasions of ostracism, he suggested that περισχοινίƷειν could mean simply ‘circumsepire, cingere, circumdare septo, vel cancellis’. But surely the σχοῖνος element of the word is inescapable; περισχοινίƷειν means ‘;place a rope around’; and if he used this word Pollux is in conflict with other writers, notably Philochorus, and is probably wrong. Carcopino, who quotes περισχοινίσαντας without question, thinks that Pollux has simply made a mistake, misled by recollection of the σχοινίον μεμιλτωμένον with which stragglers were shepherded into the assembly. But there would be little risk of confusion with the red rope; the error is due rather to recollection of the roped enclosures mentioned below.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 75 , November 1955 , pp. 117 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1955

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References

1 Notes on VI–VIII, 608–9. Dindorf draws attention to Harpocration on περιστοιχίʒεται which H. equates with περισχοινίʒεται But here it is a question of hunting-nets; ὀρθ ὰ ξύλα are indeed mentioned, called στοίχους but περισχοινίʒεται would refer rather to the ropes of the nets. In Anlh. Plan., 255, σχοῖνος does probably mean a light rush fence, round a garden, rather than a rope (as Paton translates in the Loeb edition); and indeed περισχοίνισμα might be taken to mean such a fence of rushes; but a rope is more likely.

2 ἐφράσσετο σανίσιν ἡ ἀγορὰ καὶ κατελείποντο εἵσοδοι δέκα, δι' ὧν εἰσιὁντες κατὰ ɸυλὰς ἐτίθεσαν τὰ ὄστρακα (Jacoby, , FGH, IIIB, 328 F 30Google Scholar; cf. Schol. Ar. Equit. 855). Plutarch, , Aristides, 7, 4Google Scholar, says the citizens carried their ostraka εἰς ἕνα τόπον περιɸραγμένον ἐν κύκλῳ δρυɸάκτοις. Timaeus, Lex. Platon., s.v. ἐξοστρακισμός speaks of a πη̃γμα ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ εἰσόδους ἔχον

3 L'Ostracisme Athénien (Paris, 1935), 77.

4 See Bethe's introduction and note on text.

5 Et. Magn. on (in the theatre; s.v. ) is confusing rather than helpful, though are said to be Suidas in a similar note s.v. has

6 Note Dio Chrysostom. VII. 23,

7 Demosthenes, XVIII. 169; (some of the Prytaneis) The interpretation of this passage is much disputed; I am inclined to accept Girard's emendation and translate ‘unfolded’ or ‘spread out the barriers’. In LIX, 90 γέρρα seem to be fences used in connexion with the ekklesia. The Schol, on Ar. Acharn. 22 says and shut off the roads not leading to the Ekklesia’. Note also Harpocration on γέρρα.

That Aristophanes mentions σκηναί in association with the Pnyx, (Thesmoph. 658)Google Scholar is probably not relevant. These σκηναί are usually taken to be those used by the women at the festival (624 and Schol.). But they may be structures of the kind we are discussing; the Schol. on 658 says

8 Judeich, , Topographie von Athen 2, 350.Google Scholar

9 One may note occurrences of in contexts outside Athens; Dion. Halic., VII. 59, (at Rome); Appian, VIII (Punic Wars) 78, the consuls are separated from the Carthaginian envoys by a

10 XXV. 23. Cf. Harpocration,

11 123, See also 141, Pollux also mentions here the roping of shrines on certain occasions, e.g. at the Plynteria.

12 II. 3. 11 (IV. 18. 11); the dramatic date of the epistles is supposed to be the fourth century B.C. ‘Where in Egypt’, says the writer, ‘shall I see the ekklesia and the voting, and the

13 Pausanias, I. 8. 4. The temple of Ares is not shown in our plan, since it was not elected on its site S.E. of the Stoa of Zeus and opposite the temple of Apollo till Augustan times.

14 Recherches sur l'Agora Grecque (Paris, 1951), 325–7; cf. a preliminary study in BCH LXVI–LXVII, 1942–3, 282 ff. Since I only seem to mention it to disagree with it, I should like to acknowledge here the enormous value of M. Martin's studies of the agora.

15 In addition to the points dealt with here, I must re-affirm earlier objections to his theory that the Stoa Basileios, with its wings, is a reflection of the -shaped assembly-place (see JHS LXVIII, 155).

16 Hesperia XXI, 1952, 93; the only precise information we have about this shrine is in schol. Ar. Equit. 410; See also Hesychius, IG I2 34. 5, cf. Dittenberger, , Sylloge 3, 526.Google Scholar Zeus Agoraios is mentioned more vaguely in Aesch. Eumen. 973, and Ar. Equit. 410 and 500. We learn something of the shrine of Zeus Agoraios from Eurip. Heracleidae (note lines 33, 42, 70, 73, 78–9, 121, 127), but the shrine in which the scene is set is at Marathon; however, the setting of the play may have some relevance to the cult at Athens (see now Zuntz, G., Political Plays of Euripides, p. 97Google Scholar).

17 Lex. Platon.

18 Anab. III. 16. 7.

19 Hesperia XIX, 1950, 94.

20 Hesperia XXI, 355–9 no. 5; XXII, 51–3 and 129.

21 On the general sense note particularly Photius, Plato, Theaetetus, 173d, Hesychius has simply

22 In Hesperia VI, 215, n. 4, H. A. Thompson suggested that Synedrion meant Bouleuterion (i.e. of the 500); W. A. McDonald, who has an interesting discussion of the word in Appendix II, pp. 295–8, of Political Meeting Places of the Greeks, agrees with this, but more recently Thompson prefers to identify the Synedrion as the Old Bouleuterion. Miss M. Crosby has looked diligently for the Synedrion, but admits to being baffled; in Hesperia VI, 447, she suggested that Synedrion was to be equated with Thesmothesion (see below) and to be found in the Old Bouleuterion; but in Hesperia XX, 187, she raised the possibility that it was the so-called Greek Building to the south-west of the Tholos. Professor Meritt, B. D. in Hesperia VII, 103Google Scholar, associates Synedrion rather more vaguely with Bouleuterion.

23 Macdonald points out (op. cit. 295–6) that Dio Cassius uses ‘Bouleuterion’ and ‘Synedrion’ (at Rome) synonymously.

24 (14–16; cf. 18–20).

25 (24–6). Meritt has a supplementary note on the difficulty of translating this phrase; I do not think there is any great difficulty if one refers the whole thing to the Hill of Ares.

26 In Andocides, I, 78 (decree of Patrocleides) we get something approaching our usage, and we naturally translate ‘judgement was given by the Areopagus’; but in fact Areios Pagos still means Hill of Ares; so also in Deinarchus, I. 47; and probably even in Acts, 17, 22.

27 The word is used passim in this speech; see also III. 7, where in the same sentence Deinarchus uses synonymously and Note also Lycurgus, Leocr. 12.

28 Cf. Lysias, XIV. 21 and XVI. 16; and Plutarch, , Nicias, 5. 1 and 15. 2.Google Scholar

29 For the Strategion see Judeich, , Topographie von Athen 2, 346Google Scholar, and add now to his references Ag. I 863, Hesperia IV, 562, no. 40; and Ag. I 15 and 96, Hesperia II, 156, no. 5; two other new inscriptions with honours to generals may also possibly be associated with the Strategion—Ag. I 1033, Hesperia XVI, 162, no. 59, and Ag. I 5925, Hesperia XVII, 41, no. 29. For the Strategos, Heros (RE IV. A (1931), 184)Google Scholar, who was possibly attached to the Strategion, see now in addition to IG II2 1035. 53 (now dated mid second century a.D., Hesperia VII, 17, n. 3), Ag. I 147, Hesperia XV, 221, no. 48.

30 Dated 239/8 B.C.; Hesperia VI, 444, no. 2.

31 Xenophon, , Hell. II. 4. 23Google Scholar; cf. Plato, , Apol. 32c–dGoogle Scholar; Diog. Laert. VII. 1. 5; Lysias, XIII. 37. It would be hazardous to associate the ‘Synedrion of the Hiera Gerousia’ (see Hesperia, Suppl. VI, 125, no. 31, line 13) with any Synedrion which we have been discussing; see Thompson, H. A. in Hesperia XXII, 52, n. 51.Google Scholar The inscription concerned, in which it is said that bronze statues of Ulpius Eubiotus and his sons are to be set up is of the early third century A.D., and by Roman imperial times the character of the public buildings on the south and south-west of the agora had radically changed. But one notes that the fragments of this stele were found in close association with the Tholos, which retained its identity.

32 Hesperia VII, 100, no. 18.

33 Ibid. 109, no. 19. For the use of Synedrion in connexion with the archons, note also that Graindor, , Athènes de Tibère à Trajan, 74Google Scholar, mentions a number of dedications in the name of the in the cave of Apollo (see n. 35 below), the Synedrion here being very probably the college of the nine archons.

34 See n. 3. For the Thesmotheteion or Thesmothesion see also Suidas under note παρά—here it is a question of δικάƷειν, and the court is apparently attached to but distinct from the office. Schol. Plato Phaedrus 235d says the place where the Thesmothetai met and dined was called Themistion—no doubt a corruption of Thesmothesion. When Scholia on Plato Protag. 337d and Herodotus I. 146. 2, commenting on give this is no doubt due to a misunderstanding of a list of the three chief syssitia of Athens, found in garbled form (e.g. with for ) in Hesychius under

In Demosthenes, XXI, 85, may be the Thesmotheteion; and the stoa in which the nine archons dined, screened by a curtain (Hypereides, quoted by Pollux, IV. 122), was probably associated with the Thesmotheteion.

Plutarch (Quaest. Conviv., VII, 9, cf. also I, i. 2) compares with in Crete and Sparta. When Hypereides (IV. 6; ca. 330 B.C.) says he probably means hardly more than, ‘The Thesmothetai hold a session to deal with the matter’, without any particular reference to the Thesmotheteion.

35 See Judeich, op. cit. p. 303. To IG II2 2891–2931 add further examples more recently found to the south-east of the agora: Hesperia X, 252, nos. 54, 55, and 57; XV, 138, nos. 1 and 2; and unpublished fragments Ag. 14540, 4543, and 5437.

36 Hesperia XXIII, p. 33 ff.; on p. 45, n. 14, Professor Thompson raises the possibility that ‘South Stoa I’ was the Thesmotheteion, but is inclined to reject it, probably rightly.