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Iasos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

To a traveller sailing over the Aegean from the West, and threading his course between the Sporades towards the Carian coast, two headlands would stand out as prominent landmarks, Mount Poseidion to the north and the city of Myndos to the south. Between these two points lies the middlemost of the three large bays into which the coastline of Caria is irregularly broken. And nearly in the innermost recess of this central bay —for the bay itself is subdivided into a number of lesser inlets—a little rocky island, of only a mile and a quarter in circumference, lies close to the Carian mainland, to which indeed in later days it has become united by a narrow isthmus. Upon this rocky islet, lurking as it were behind the shelter of inclosing shores, a Greek colony—from Argos, it was said—had early established itself. But in their struggle with the Carian natives, who resented their intrusion, the settlers experienced such reverses, that they were glad to invite the son of Neleus, the founder of Miletus, to come to their relief. This he did, and with important results; for this influx of Ionian settlers from Miletus, while it repaired the fortunes of the little colony, transformed lasos from a Dorian into an Ionian city.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1887

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References

page 83 note 1 Chandler, 's Travels, i. pp. 226, 227, 230Google Scholar: ‘Their city covered a rocky islet lying near the continent, to which it is now united by a small isthmus.’ ‘The north side of the rock of Iasus is abrupt and inaccessible. The summit is occupied by a mean but extensive fortress. At the foot is a small portion of flat ground. On that and on the acclivities the houses once stood, within a narrow compass, bounded to the sea by the city wall, which was regular, solid, and handsome, like that of Ephesus. This, which has been repaired in many places, now incloses rubbish, with remnants of ordinary buildings, and a few pieces of marble. Single pinks, with jonquilles, grew among the thickets of mastic, and we sprung some large coveys of partridges, which feed on the berries.’

page 83 note 2 Polyb. xvi. 12: (I have tried to fill a lacune which exists in the copies of Polybius by an insertion suggested by Thucyd. viii. 26); Strabo, xiv. 658: Halikarnassos itself is an instance of a Dorian colony becoming Ionian in dialect. Cf. Herod. i. 144.

page 84 note 1 See Pape-Benseler, s.vv. Ἴασος, Ἰάσιος. There was a town (πόλισμα) named Ἴασος in Lakonia, see Pausan. vii. 13, § 5. Ἴασον is an epithet of Ἄργος in Homer, , Od. xviii. 246Google Scholar: One of the lasos coins, of imperial times, bears the legend ΙΑСΟС ΚΤΙСΤΗС, with a bearded head of the Oekist (Head, , Historia Numorum, p. 528)Google Scholar.

page 84 note 2 Steph. Byz. Lobeck, , Prolegomena ad Pathol. Serm. Gr. p. 408Google Scholar, in treating of -σ and -σσ, writes: ‘Eadem scripturae in constantia laborant vocabula topica, quorum pauca modo speciminis loco producam), ac primum Cariae oppida a Stephano nominata, primum quem accentum saepe habet in libris nostris, nec raro gravatur (v. Tzsuck. ad Strabon. xiv. 626) plerumque uno sigma scriptum ut in nummis et lapidibus.’

page 84 note 3 The marble on which all the Iasos inscriptions I have myself seen and handled are engraved, is of a peculiarly flinty hardness, and very brittle. It is of a slaty grey colour, and takes a fine polish.

page 85 note 1 Strabo, xiv. p. 658. This capital story will be better appreciated by those who haye watched the herring boats come in, and have heard the marketbell and watched the fish auctions, at Whitby or elsewhere.

page 85 note 2 Herod. i. 28.

page 85 note 3 Herod. i. 174.

page 85 note 4 Herod. v. 103, 117—120.

page 85 note 5 Herod. vii. 93.

page 86 note 1 Thucyd. viii. 26, 28.

page 86 note 2 Köhler, , Urkunden und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des delisch-attischen Bundes (1870), p. 185Google Scholar, &c.; Corpus Inscr. Att. i. p. 231, and No. 230 foll.

page 86 note 3 Corpus Inscr. Att. i. Nos. 230, 233, 238, and Nos. 234, 235, 239, 244. Compare my Manual, Nos. 24, 30, 35.

page 86 note 4 Corpus Inscr. Att. i. No. 262.

page 86 note 5 Thucyd. viii. 28: Comp. ch. 26.

page 86 note 6 Thucyd. viii. 27, 54.

page 87 note 1 Corpus Inscr. Att. i. pp. 226 foll.

page 87 note 2 Grote, ch. 74; my Manual, Nos. 65—70, 78—81.

page 87 note 3 Corpus Inscr. Att. ii. No. 17; Manual, No. 81.

page 88 note 1 Waddington, , Mélanges de Numismatique, pp. 7 foll.Google Scholar; Gardner, Percy, Samos and Samian Coins, p. 54Google Scholar: Head, , Historia numorum, p. 528.Google Scholar

page 88 note 2 Maussolus and his father were only kings (βασιλϵῖς) by courtesy: satrap was the proper title, and is duly transcribed into Greek letters in the wellknown decrees from Mylasa (C. I. G. 2691, c, d, e); Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 76, where see note; my Manual, No. 101.

page 88 note 3 My Manual, No. 102, where see notes.

page 89 note 1 Manual, No. 101.

page 89 note 2 Discovered in 1880, and first published by Hauvette-Besnault, MM. Am. and Dubois, M., Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, v. (1881); p. 491Google Scholar; Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 77.

page 89 note 3 Arrian, , Anabasis, i. 19Google Scholar, § 11:

page 90 note 1 xii. p. 538, ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις. Compare Arrian, vii. 14; Plutarch, Alex. 72: Droysen, , Hellenismus, i. 2, p. 312 foll.Google Scholar

page 90 note 2 See Grote, ch. 95; and his note on the Satyric Drama Agen, quoted by Athenaeus, xiii. p. 596, and acted before Alexander at Susa in the spring of this very year.

page 91 note 1 Hellenismus, i. 2, p. 313.

page 91 note 2 C.I.G. 2672; Hicks, , Manual, 132Google Scholar; Dittenberger, , Sylloge, 116Google Scholar; Droysen, , Hellenismus, ii. 2, p. 361.Google Scholar

page 91 note 3 This unusual name occurs more than once in the lists of subscribers to the Dionysia inscribed in the theatre at lasos; Le Bas-Waddington, , Voyage Arch. iii. Nos. 285, 287.Google Scholar

page 91 note 4 I cannot agree with Dittenberger in understanding μικρὴ θάλασσα to mean a ‘lake’ or large fish-pond; he compares Sylloge, No. 6, line 44. After what we have seen of the prevailing occupation of the Iasians, it seems natural to take ‘the little sea’ to mean some part of the Iasian gulf especially valued for its fishing, the exclusive right over which may have been lost to Iasos for a while, after Alexander's reconstruction of the government of Caria. Such rights to a fishery would be termed θάλασσα; see my Manual, No. 38; compare the fishery of the Mare Piccolo at Tarentum (Head, , Historia Numorum, p. 44).Google Scholar

page 91 note 5 The ἀρχϵῖον at Iasos, or Record Office, was a building of some importance, and adjoined the βουλϵυτήριον. Both appear to have been restored by the bounty of Antiochus the Great, as we shall see presently.

page 92 note 1 Hicks, , Manual, 135Google Scholar: Dittenberger, , Sylloge, No. 119Google Scholar; see the interesting dissertation of Curtius, C., Inschriften und Studien zur Geschichte von Samos, p. 22Google Scholar; compare Gardner, , Samos and Samian Coins, p. 58.Google Scholar

page 92 note 2 Diod. xiv. 75; Hellenismus, ii. 2, p. 29.

page 93 note 1 See the letter of Antiochus Soter to the Ionian city Erythrae, Hicks, , Manual, No. 164 (B.C. 278 ?)Google Scholar: The Syrian monarchy so far lacked stability and concentration, that it was glad to purchase the allegiance of the Greek cities on the coast by allowing them to enjoy autonomy. The decree of Iasos in favour of Antiochus the Great, which will be presently mentioned (Inscriptions in the British Museum, No. ccccxlii.) expressly says:

page 93 note 2 Historia Numorum, p. 528.

page 94 note 1 Compare the audacious story of Pausanias, iii. 25, § 5.

page 95 note 1 It is observable that Βιττώ is known as the name of the women of Cos, of Samos, and of Halicarnassus, all neighbours of Iasos (see Pape-Benseler, s.v.) I suspect βρύασσις to be a mistake for Βρύαξις, a name which occurs repeatedly at Iasos (see Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, part iii. p. 66; and Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 77, passim. But comp. Bechtel, Inschriften des Ion. Dial. No. 104, note.

page 95 note 2 Manual, No. 182: Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, part iii. No. ccccxli.; compare Le Bas-Waddington, , Voyage Archéol. part v. 251Google Scholar. This is the document described as follows by Chandler, , Travels in Asia Minor, i. p. 227Google Scholar: ‘By the isthmus is the vaulted substruction of a considerable edifice; and on a jamb of the doorway are decrees engraved in a fair character, but damaged, and black with smoke; the entrance, which is lessened by a pile of stones, serving as a chimney to a few Greeks, who inhabit the ruin.’ This door-jamb is now in the British Museum, the most perfect portion of the inscription being of course the last twenty lines, which had been concealed from view and from injury by the accumulation of soil, until the marble was removed ex situ.

page 96 note 1 ‘Kinsmen,’ because Iasos was originally a Dorian colony from Argos.

page 96 note 2 Compare Polyb. xvi. 12; xvii. 8; with Livy xxxii. 33; and xviii. 27 (44) with Livy xxxiii. 30.

page 96 note 3 See Polyb. xviii. 30 (B.C. 194); ibid. 33:

page 96 note 4 xxxvii. 17.

page 97 note 1 The ἀρχϵῖον is named repeatedly in the series of decrees which I have assigned to a century before Antiochus; C.I.G. Nos. 2673 foll. See above.

page 98 note 1 Polyb. xxx. 5: So Polyb. xxxi. 7; Livy xliv. 15.

page 98 note 2 Travels in Asia Minor, i. p. 227. Chandler's description of the contents of these inscriptions is not very accurate. There is one dedication (C.I.G. 2681 = Le Bas-Waddington, No. 269) made by Sopater son of Epicrates, who is also named in No. 259 ibid. This determines the date of the dedication, and leads us to connect the expression τῷ δήμῳ with the revival of autonomy at Iasos in B.C. 168.

page 100 note 1 Bas-Waddington, Le, Voyage Archéol. No. 281Google Scholar; Lüders, , Die dionysischen Künstler, pp. 87, 181.Google Scholar

page 100 note 2 Lately published in Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, Part iii. No. ccccxliv; see lines 16 foll.:

page 102 note 1 See Polyb. xxxi. 7, where the Rhodian envoys at Rome bitterly complain of their loss of Caria and Lycia: They reckon their revenue from Caunus and Stratonicea alone to have been 120 talents (£30,000) yearly.

page 102 note 2 Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, Part iii. No. ccccxx., where I have given reasons for assigning it to this date upon internal evidence alone. In reference to the subject of this decree and the many others of its class, we may gather that δίκαι were a favourite weapon of faction and revolution— ‘domestica seditioni tela’—from Thucydides' account of the Coreyrean sedition (iii. 70), and Aristotle, , Politics, viii. 3Google Scholar, § 3—4 (Congreve = p. 1302 B.):

page 103 note 1 It was found in the island of Caryanda. ‘Il resterait à connaìtre le nom de la ville qui a rendu ce décret. Il semble probable que la pierre a été apportée dans l'île de Karyanda par quelque pêcheur, qui l'aura prise pour lester sa barque. Elle vient donc d'une des villes voisines, Iasos, Bargylia, on Karyanda. La présence des νϵωποῖαι dans l'assemblée (C.I.G. 2671, &c.), l'époque des séances (le 6e jour du mois, C.I.G. 2673 b. &c.), nous font penser à Iasos; c'est d'Iasos, croyons-nous, que I'inscription aura été apportée.’—Bulletin de Corresp. Hellén. viii. (1814), p. 218 foll. Its Iasian origin is amply confirmed by the Iasian names it contains.

page 105 note 1 This will appear from a dedication of the first century A.D., soon to be published in Part iii. of Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, section 2.

page 106 note 1 But Dittenberger's explanation of the discrepancy in the number of prytanes enumerated in C.I.G. 2677 will not stand, as the is named also among the πρυτάνϵις. Perhaps we should add in the secretary to make up the number to six. Compare my note on p. 66 of Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, Part iii.

page 107 note 1 The use of the term προστάτης in Greek authors and in the inscriptions is worth a careful enquiry; see Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 317, note 3, quoting Sauppe. As to the metrical dedication of a statue of Hermes found at Cnidus by Mr.Newton, , I quite concur in Kaibel's explanation (Epigrammala Graeca, 783)Google Scholar. But if at Cnidus the board of prostatai was such as I have described, the appropriateness of the expression in this place is vastly enhanced. The inscription runs as follows: (Then follow fifteen names.)

Kaibel's comment is: ‘Quindecim viri, quorum nomina infra scripta, aliunde Cnidum profecti Cnidiam civitatem adepti sunt eorumque auspiciis Mercurius, quem olim in ipsorum patria maxime coluerant cuive ut mercatores imprimis addicti erant, Veneri socius conlocatur … προστατᾶν minime publicum intelligo munus.’

page 107 note 2 See Schömann, , Griech. Alterthümer, i. pp. 382, 395, 396Google Scholar; and the Lexicons, s.vv. and

page 107 note 3 Plato, , Laws, xii. 961 B.Google Scholar:

page 108 note 1 See Aristotle, , Politics, vi. 13Google Scholar (Congreve = 1297 A.), a chapter which affords an admirable example of impartial and penetrating criticism of the actual working of Greek political machinery. Plato, , Laws (vi. 764 A.)Google Scholar, approves of thus compelling the richer citizens to attend: This Aristotle stigmatizes as oligarchical in his criticism of the Laws, Politics, ii. 6. § 19 (Congreve = 1266 A.)

page 108 note 2 Pollux, viii. 104: Pollux is no doubt copying from some much earlier authority.

page 108 note 3 Acharnians, 21:

page 108 note 4 Griech. Alterthümer, i. 395. ‘Die Strafe bestand aber ohne Zweifel nur darin, dass ihnen die Marke (das σύμβολον) nicht eingehändigt wurde, dessen Vorzeigung zur Erhebung des Ecclesiastensoldes nothwendig war, so dass sie, auch wenn sie wirklich noch der Versammlung beiwonten, doch des Soldes dafür verlustig gingen.’

page 109 note 1 Certainly not long before the acting of the Ecclesiazusae, B.C. 392; see Schömann, , De Comitiis, p. 65 foll.Google Scholar; Curtius, , Greich. Gesch. ii. 202, and noteGoogle Scholar; Böckh, , Staatsh. i. 320.Google Scholar

page 109 note 2 Passages to the same effect, proving that the τριώβολον found plenty of claimants, occur in the Plutus, line 171: and line 329, foll.:

page 109 note 1 Politics, vi. 13 (Congreve = 1297 A.), referred to above.

page 109 note 2 Schömann, , De Comitiis, p. 153Google Scholar; Aristoph, . Thesmophoriazusae, 277Google Scholar: Compare Andocides, De Mysteriis, § 36. The payment of dicasts is a parallel but distinct subject: with them too, at Athens, the signal for attendance was a similar flag. See Wasps, 689:

page 111 note Such, I feel sure, is the exact meaning, although I have never seen the lines so explained; observe the imperfect προσέρραινον, they had not done clearing the agora, and chalking idlers with their rope, before the return of the citizens from the Pnyx told them it was all over.

page 111 note 2 Appian, , Mithr. 63Google Scholar:

page 113 note 1 On the meaning of this word, which is important to the understanding of Romans xvi. 23, see Menadier, , Qua condicione Ephesii usi sint, p. 77Google Scholar; and C.I.L. iii. 447.

page 113 note 2 Bulletin de Corr. Hell. viii. 1884 p. 457.

page 113 note 3 See Head, , Historia Numorum, p. 528.Google Scholar

page 115 note 1 Greck Inscriptions in the British Museum, Part iii. No. 440.

page 115 note 2 Travels in Asia Minor, i. p. 228.

page 115 note 3 And such some certainly were, as the following epitaph from lasos (C. I. G. No. 2690, now at Oxford) will show: