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Demosthenes on Liturgies: a Note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. K. Davies
J. K. Davies
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews
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Extract

In 355/4 Demosthenes asserted that there were ‘perhaps sixty or slightly more’ recurrent liturgies performed every year in Athens. Böckh doubted this figure, thinking it a serious underestimate, but neither he nor any later scholar has pressed this doubt to the point of tabulating the relevant evidence in detail. It may therefore be found useful if I do so here, for it will emerge with some clarity that Böckh's doubts were well-founded.

Demosthenes' word ‘recurrent’ (ἐγκύκλιοι) achieved some currency in the last century as a quasi-technical term. By it he meant the civilian liturgies—choregia, gymnasiarchy, etc.—in contrast to the military liturgies the imposition of which was irregular and unpredictable; but since every known civilian liturgy in Athens formed part of the celebration of a festival, it may perhaps be clearer to think of them as festival liturgies and to arrange the evidence not according to the category of liturgy but by festival. I begin with the certain cases.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 87 , November 1967 , pp. 33 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1967

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References

I am very grateful to the Master and Fellows of Balliol College, whose election of me as Dyson Junior Research Fellow of the College gave me the leisure to pursue the investigations of which this is a part; and to Mr D. M. Lewis, who read and improved this article in draft form.

1 Dem. xx 21.

2 Böckh, A., Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener i 3 (Berlin, 1886) 538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Thumser, V., De civium Atheniensium muneribus eorumque immunitate (Vienna, 1880) 53Google Scholar; Hermann, K. F., Griechischer Staatsaltertümer 6 (Freiburg-i-B., 1889) 690.Google Scholar

4 See Deubner, L., Attische Feste (Berlin, 1932) 138 f.Google Scholar, and Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., The Dramatic Festivals of Athens (Oxford, 1953) 55 f.Google Scholar Throughout what follows the phrase ‘till Demetrios’ refers to the abolition of the system of liturgical financing carried through by Demetrios of Phaleron between 317/6 and 309/8 (Douris, , FGH 76 F 10Google Scholar; Köhler, U., AM iii [1878] 240Google Scholar; Ferguson, W. S., Hellenistic Athens [London, 1911] 55).Google Scholar

5 Capps, E., The Introduction of Comedy into the City Dionysia (Chicago, 1904) 25–29Google Scholar; id., Hesperia xii (1943) 11.

6 Pickard-Cambridge (note 4) 75.

7 Cf. IG ii2 2318, lines 320–324; IG ii2 3061; Brinck, A., Choregische Weihinschriften (diss. Halle, 1885) 7Google Scholar; Lewis, D. M., BSA 1 (1955) 23 f.Google Scholar

8 Suda χ 318; Capps, , Introduction … (n. 5) 28 f.Google Scholar, Kroll, W., RE xi (1922) 1226 f.Google Scholar

9 IG xiv 1097, lines 5–6.

10 Hypoth. v to Ar. Clouds; hypoth. i to Ar. Peace; hypoth. i to Ar. Birds.

11 Hypoth. iv to Ar. Ploutos; IG xiv 1098, line 11; Ath. Pol. lvi 3.

12 Schol. Ar. Frogs. 404.

13 The speaker of Lysias xxi served as sole choregos in 404/3 and 403/2 (§ 4), and a single choregos won in 399/8 (IG ii2 2318, lines 165 f.). Capps argued in 1943 ([n. 5] 5–8) that the synchoregia lasted only the one year, 406/3.

14 Schol. Patm. Dem. xx 21 (= BCH i [1877] 147); Dem. xx 21, Dem. xxi 156 and Athen, v 185 C refer either to the Dionysia or to the Panathenaia. Dem. xxxix 7 indicates that hestiatores were appointed by the tribes.

15 IG ii2 2318, lines 201–203.

16 IG ii2 2318, lines 316–318.

17 IG ii2 2325, lines 116 f.; Reisch, E., Zeitschrift für die österreichische Gymnasien lviii (1907) 308Google Scholar; Capps, E., AJP xxviii (1907) 186 f.Google Scholar

18 Hypoth. i to Ar. Acharnions; hypoth. ii to Ar. Knights; hypoth. i to Ar. Wasps; hypoth. i to Ar. Frogs.

19 IG ii2 2322, lines 92–96.

20 IG ii2 2319, line 56.

21 Thus Reisch (note 17) 308, but this depends on assuming that Kallippides’ victory as tragic actor at the Lenaia in 419/8 (IG ii2 2319, line 83) was the first of his five such victories (IG ii2 2325, line 252), and this, as D. M. Lewis points out to me, is a gratuitous assumption.

22 IG ii2 2319, lines 70–83.

23 Schol. Ar. Ploutos 953.

24 Lys. xii 20.

25 Antiphon vi 11; for the date see Dover, K. J., CQ xliv (1950) 44 and 60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarIG i2 770, which may well be earlier if the identification of Kedeides is correct, also manifests the same arrangement. For the fourth century cf. Hesperia xxix (1960) 85 no. 165; IG ii2 3063–3072; Ath. Pol. lvi 3.

26 Gorgias 472 A-B. See D. M. Lewis ap. Dodds ad loc. and JHS Ixxxiv (1964) 156 f.

27 [Xen.] Ath. Pol. iii 4:

28 IG ii2 1138, lines 9 f.: The absence of the Panathenaia from this list is curious.

29 Stengel, , RE viii (1913) 290Google Scholar; Deubner (n. 4) 212.

30 And. i 132.

31 Polemon ap. Harp. s.v. λαμπάς; Istros, , FGH 334Google Scholar F 2(a) and (b); Schol. Ar. Frogs 131; Bekker, I., Anecdota i 228Google Scholar, lines 11 f.; schol. Patm. Dem. lvii 43 (=BCH i [1877]11); Suda λ 88.

32 IG ii2 3201, lines 7–11: The date derives from the fact that the honorand is recorded in lines 1–5 to have been taxiarch in 346/5.

33

34 Hdt. viii 98. 2.

35 Imhof-Blumner, F. and Gardner, P., A Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias (1885–1887)Google Scholar Plate P, no. ix; Head, B. V., Historia Numorum 2 (Oxford, 1911) 433Google Scholar; Malten, L., RE viii (1913) 314.Google Scholar

36 Thus the now vulgate text, but the reading and restoration are very uncertain (see Kenyon, ed. maior3 166 note) and Aristotle's language is more than a little odd as a reference to a festival which indubitably existed before 329/8. ‘I have always hoped that the Amphiareia stood here’ (D. M. Lewis) (cf. SIG 3 298 and sect. J, p. 39 below). There is a reference to in the 320's (IG ii1 4332, line 5 [p. 294]) but the year is not recoverable.

37 IG i2 84, line 37: see notes 27, 28 and 31 above.

38 Deubner (note 4) 211.

39 Cf. IG i2 84, line 37; Lys. xxi 3; Isaios vii 36.

40

41 IG i2 84, lines 6 and 33, where ἡ πεντετηρίς is generally supposed to be the Great Panathenaia; Polemon ap. Harp. s.v. λαμπάς; schol. Ar. Frogs 131; Suda λ 88.

42 IG ii2 3019; IG ii2 3023; IG ii2 2311, line 76, where Jacoby's doubts about the supplement <λαμπάδι> (Commentary to Philochoros, FGH 328 F 102, n. 6 sub fin.) are illfounded in view of the entry in line 77, which records the prize to be given to the winning lampadephoros.

43 IG ii2 2311, line 75.

44 IG ii2 3022. [And.] iv 42 manifests the same phraseology and can safely be taken as evidence for Athenian practice.

45 For the phrase ἐπὶ Σουνίῳ cf. Lys. xxi 5; for the theoria see sect. K (b), p. 39 below. That the boatrace existed in the 390's is demonstrated by Plato F 183, i 651 K., and that it was part of the Panathenaia in the fourth century is proved by IG ii2 2311, but in 123/2 and subsequently it appears in connexion with the cult of the Dioskouroi (IG ii2 1006, lines 29 and 71–72; IG ii2 1028, lines 20–21) (but see SIG 3 717, n. 11). Solders', S. attempt (Die ausserstädtischen Kulte … [Lund, 1931] 74)Google Scholar to connect the theoria with the Dioskouroi depends on assuming that the Sounion kouroi are statues of the Dioskouroi, an assumption which lacks both proof and probability (see Richter, G.M.A., Kouroi 2 [London, 1960] 1 f.Google Scholar and 43).

46 IG ii2 2311, lines 78–79.

47 Lines 79–81 run:

48 Schol. Patm. Dem. xx 21 (= BCH i [1877] 147).

49 Lys. xxi i and 5.

50 Latte, K., De saltationibus Graecorum (Giessen, 1913) 32Google Scholar with note 3, followed by Ziehen, L., RE xviii (1949) 483.Google Scholar The transmitted text runs Bentley's deletion of δέ, which entailed a comma after τραγῳδοῑς and allowed τῇ … φυλῇ to be coupled with πυρριχισταῑς, leaves the μέν suspended and implies quite wrongly that the tragic contest at the Dionysia was tribal and involved more than three competitors. See Wyse, W., The Speeches of Isaeus (Cambridge, 1904) 454Google Scholar, for the correct interpretation.

51 IG ii2 2311, lines 72–74; IG ii2 3025 b; IG ii2 3026.

52 Lys. xxi 2; IG ii2 3025 a.

53 Plut. Per. xiii 9–11; schol. Ar. Clouds 971, reading with Meier See vison, J. A. Da, JHS lxxviii (1958) 33 f.Google Scholar

54 Lys. xxi 2 and 4.

55 See Ziehen (n. 50) 487 f. Kirchhoff, 's emendation in the text of [Xen.] Ath. Pol. iii 4Google Scholar would, if accepted, provide positive evidence for it (see nn. 27 and 33).

56 See Deubner (n. 4) 9–12.

57 Olympia: And. i 132, Dein, i 81. Isthmia: And. i 132. Nemea: Dem. xxi 115, IG ii2 365 a, lines 7 and 10. Pythia: IG ii1 4332, line 2.

58 And. i 132; Lys. xxi 5; Aristotle, , Nik. Eth. 1122Google Scholara 25.

59 IG ii2 1642, revised by Woodward, A. M., BSA lvii (1962) 5 f.Google Scholar

60 Though cf. the Athenian refusal to send theoroi to the Pythian festival in late summer 346 (Dem. xix 128).

61 The most recent résumé is that of Coupry, J., Atti del 3° Congresso Internazionale di Epigrafia … (Rome, 1959) 55 f.Google Scholar, in anticipation of his long-promised but still unpublished study Les Amphictyons d'Athènes à Délos.

62 I. Délos 43, revised by Coupry, J., BCH lxxviii (1954) 285 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 IG ii2 1638, lines 43–47; etc., etc.

64 Plut. Nikias iii 5–8. Cf. Xen. Mem. iii 3, 12.

65 BCH x (1886) 465, lines 107 f. Consistently, the crown dedicated in 355/4 was the fifteenth (IG ii2 1640, lines 4 and 9–10).

66 BCH xlv (1921) 179 f.

67 Coupry (n. 61) 56 f. The case for 331/0 as the terminus depends on the fact that the 21st penteteric crown was the last of the series (IG xi 2, 161 B, line 114, etc.), but there is room for doubt and for a lower date (Coupry 57 f.).

68 IG ii2 1635, line 34; Coupry (n. 62) 289.

69 IG ii2 1635, lines 34–35.

70 BCH xxxv (1911) 5 no. 1, lines 40 f., revised by Coupry, in BCH lxii (1938) 91 f.Google Scholar and BCH lxxviii (1954) 289.

71 Ath. Pol. lvi 3, where the usual restoration is ἀρχεθέω[ρον]. The choregic dedications I. Délos 44–46 may reflect this later arrangement.

72 Plato, , Phaidon 58 A-CGoogle Scholar; Xen. Mem. iv 8, 2; Ath. Pol. liv 7.

73 SIG 3 298, line 45 (see n. 36 above).

74 [Plut.] Mor. 842 A.

75 E.g. Deubner (n. 4) 215; Andrewes, A., BSA xxxvii (1936–1937 [1940]) 6 n. 4.Google Scholar

76 As Schoemann, G. F. suggested (Opuscula Academica i [Berlin, 1854] 317)Google Scholar and Deubner (n. 4) 215 accepted.

77 Aristodemos, , FGH 383Google Scholar F 9 ap. Athen, xi 495 F; Hermann (n. 3) 691.

78 Deubner (n. 4) 144 f.; Ferguson, W. S., Hesperia vii (1938) 36 f.Google Scholar

79 Aristodemos l.c. as corrected; schol. Nikand. Alex. 109; Proklos, , Chrest. 87–92Google Scholarap. Photios, , Bibl. 322 a 13 f.Google Scholar Bekk. See Severyns, A., Recherches sur la Chrestomathie de Proclos i, 2 (Liége-Paris, 1938) 249 f.Google Scholar

80 IG ii2 1232, lines 16–20, with the restorations of Ferguson (n. 78) 62 f.

81 Wyse (n. 50) 365 f.

82 Hdt. vi 105. 3; Simonides F 133 B; Judeich, W., Topographie von Athen 2 (Munich, 1931) 301 f.Google Scholar

83 Bekker, , Anecdota i 228Google Scholar, lines 11 f.; schol. Patm. Dem. lvii 43 (= BCH i [1877] 11).

84 Pouilloux, J., in republishing IG ii 23105Google Scholar (La Forteresse de Rhamnonte [Paris, 1954] 111 no. 2 bis), has restored lines 1 and 3 from Hesperia ix (1940) 59 no. 8 to give a date in 333/2. This is impossible. The lampadephoroi are indeed presumably of roughly ephebic age, but one of them, Alkimachides of Pergase, served as councillor in 335/4 (IG ii2 1700, line 16), while another, Epikrates of Euonymon, was lessee of a silver mine before 342/1 (IG ii2 1582, lines 123 f.). C. 345 is the latest possible date for IG ii2 3105, and it could well be ten years earlier.

85 See Deubner (n. 4) 230; Pouilloux (n. 84) 82.

86 IG ii2 3206, lines 12–15. The date is an infer ence from his receipt of a crown from the Athenian demos in Imbros (lines 8–11).