Ekklesia materials
Athenian Dedication: Dedication of Kallimachos
Text:
[Καλλίμαχος? μ’ ἀν]έθεκεν Ἀ〈φ〉ιδναῖο[ς] τἀθεναίαι·
ἄν[γελον ἀθ]ανάτον ηοἱ Ὀ̣[λύμπια δόματα] ἔχοσιν,
[. . . . 8 . . . . πολέ]μαρχος Ἀθεναίον τὸν ἀγνα·
τὸν Μα̣[ραθον . . 4. .]ελενονο[. . . . . 11 . . . . .·]
παισὶν Ἀθεναίον μ̣ν̣[εμ . . . . . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . . .]
Translation:
[Kallimachos(?)] of Aphidna ded]icated [me] to Athena,
the mess[enger of the imm]ortals who have O[lympian homes],
[....8.... pole]marchos of the Athenians the battle
of Ma[rathon ..4..] of the Hellenes(?) [.....11......]
to the sons of the Athenians a mem[orial? ........19.........]
Date:
490-485 BCE
Provenance:
Athens, Acropolis. Now in the Epigraphic Museum in Athens
Major editions:
- Print: IG 1(2).609; IG 1(3). Att.784; DAA 13; Meiggs & Lewis 18
- Photographic: Wikimedia: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:EPMA-6339-IGI(2)609-Kallimachos_dedication-1.JPG
609-Kallimachos_dedication-1.JPG){kind=link}
Commentary:
This inscription was carved on two flutes of an Ionic column in hexametric verse and represents an historically significant but epigraphically problematic text. The first two metrical lines, inscribed in the first flute, apparently record a dedication to the goddess Athena by Kallimachos from the Athenian deme of Aphidna, and the "messenger of the immortals" most likely refers to a carved figural dedication that would have sat on top. A winged female sculpture - perhaps Nike or Iris - found on the Athenian Acropolis sat atop an Ionic capital whose base's diameter matches that of the upper column; thus the winged figure may represent the dedication. The last three lines of meter, inscribed in the second flute, refer to the Athenian polemarchos at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, who was this same Kallimachos and whom Herodotus relates perished in the battle waged by the Athenians and Plataeans against the Persians in the first wave of attacks on the Greek mainland (the second begins in 480 at Thermopylae and concludes at Plataea in Boeotia and Mycale in Ionia). Kallimachos appears in a famous painting described by Pausanias (1.5.3) which depicted the Battle of Marathon and which hung in the Athenian Agora's Stoa Poikile or "Painted Stoa."
The controversy lies in reading the dedication of lines 1-2 in the context of lines 3-5: how can someone who died in battle erect a dedicatory inscription and statue after that same battle? Explanations usually assign the "Kallimachos" stanzas to the dedicant's lifetime and the "Marathon" verses to some moment after the battle, either with all of the text copied on the column by Kallimachos' supporters in an attempt to diminish the role of thestrategos Miltiades, son of Kimon and hero of Marathon (B. Shefton, BSA 40 [1950] 140-164), or with the dedication pledged by Kallimachos before the fighting and fulfilled by others after his death (Meiggs & Lewis 18). Regardless, the inscription refers to an historical figure who played a significant role in one of the nascent Athenian democracy's first military engagements, in this case against overwhelming odds and the Persian army.
Herodotus' account (6.103, 109-111) raises the question of the authority of the polemarchos vs. the ten strategoi within the Athenian demos' military hierarchy. Aristotle claims that, prior to the battle (501/0 BCE), thepolemarchos possessed ultimate authority in battle (Athenian Constitution 22.2), but Rhodes (s.v. 22.2) rightly asserts that the Herodotean account demonstrates that the polemarchos was a "titular commander-in-chief, who could vote with the generals" (p. 265), but that they, not he, had ultimate military authority from the demos. The presence of ten strategoi, one from each Athenian tribe, at the battle reflects one of the manifestations of the recent Kleisthenic reforms of 508/7 BCE - the division of the demos among ten tribes, sanctified by the Delphic oracle, and the early stages of (s)electing representatives of each tribe for official duties.
Bibliography:
- Christopher W. Blackwell, “The Assembly: Elections of Officials” in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of March 26, 2003.
- Thomas Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander, 8.3.4, “The Battle of Marathon.”
- P.J. Rhodes, A Commentary on the Aristotelian ATHENAION POLITEIA, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.