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LALONDE, GERALD V., The Athenian Agora Vol. XIX INSCRIPTIONS: Horoi-- Poletai Records-- Leases of Public Lands, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, 1991
From the results of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the present volume is the third in the series on the Athenian Agora that is devoted to inscriptions on stone. It is triple in both substance and authorship but homogeneous in that all its parts are alike in presenting documents of civic importance. In Part I, Gerald V. Lalonde publishes all the boundary markers (horoi) found in the excavations. Only a small portion of the stones had stood originally in the ancient Agora; the majority, as in the case of the tombstones, has been brought into the area in late times for re-use. Part II, by Merle K. Langdon, comprises all known epigraphic records of the transactions of the Vendors (poletai), a Board of civic officials responsible for the sale or lease of public and confiscated property, the lease of mines and taxes, and the letting of contracts for public works. The majority of the stones have been found in the excavation of the Agora where all the records were originally displayed. In Part III, Michael B. Walbank deals with the terms and procedure for the leasing of public and scared property. The responsible officials might be those appointed by the state, i.e.. The Vendors, or representatives of lesser political bodies such as demes, or spokesmen for sacred establishments such as sanctuaries. By no means all the records of such transactions need have been set up in the Agora, but the present study is confined to those inscriptions that surely had stood in the Agora and are now to be found either in the Agora Museum or the Epigraphical Museum in Athens.
The authors of the present volume have confined their additions to text based on autopsy with epigraphic notes and bibliography but without translation or detailed commentary. In each part of the volume, however, the catalogue of texts is preceded by a discussion of the theme based on all the available evidence both epigraphic and literary. Again in line with established practice in this epigraphic series, illustration is generally confined to those stones for which photographs are not available elsewhere, almost always in Hesperia. The individual authors have made their personal acknowledgements to helpful colleagues and benefactors. Those authors in turn deserve the gratitude of the Publications Program of the Agora Excavations for the years of back-breaking and eye-trying labor devoted to the study of the precious but sadly fragmented public records of ancient Athens. Equally deserving are the Editor and her staff who have made the results of all the research so readily accessible to the reader. The manuscripts for two more epigraphic volumes are now nearing completion: Vol. XVI, The Decrees by Geoffrey Woodhead (done) and Vol. XVIII, The Dedications and Imperial Letters by Daniel J. Geagan. |
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