Ackermann 112-117 no. 2 Decree of Aixone honouring the <i>choregoi</i>, Demokrates and Hegesias, 326/5 BC

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Images: Krateros - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Aixone)

Original location: Aixone (theatre)

Findspot: Pirnari (= Aixone)? (EM 139)

[1] Textual Note AIO's translation follows Ackermann's text, which differs significantly from IG only in the reading of the price of the crown in l. 10 (500 dr.?).

On the deme Aixone and its inscriptions see Ackermann no. 1, with notes. This decree was recorded in the 19th century as having been found in an excavation at "Trachones". Modern Trachones is to the north of Aixone (location of the deme Euonymon), but in the 19th century "Trachones" apparently extended further south and the excavation was most likely at Pirnari, on the eastern side of Glyphada (Ackermann, 112-13). The precise location of the theatre where the decree was originally erected is unknown.

In this decree the deme honoured two choregoi who had sponsored choruses at the local, "Rural" Dionysia (on which see IG II3 4, 498, with notes). The way they are referred to in ll. 2-3 suggests that they carried the complete cost of the choregia in this deme for the year (cf. Csapo-Wilson, 64). The details of the performances they had supported are not stated, but comedy is the only genre of performance attested in this deme (by Ackermann no. 4). For two other decrees of Aixone honouring choregoi see Ackermann no. 3 and no. 4. Of the individuals mentioned in the decree, the proposer, Philoktemon (1), was the son of the eponymous archon, Chremes (3) and was also the proposer of Ackermann no. 3. The choregos Demokrates son of Euphiletos (4, also listed in an unknown context at IG II2 1927, l. 52) was most likely a descendant of the wealthy Demokrates who was father of the Lysis who was eponym of Plato's Lysis (cf. Davies, APF 3518; Traill, PAA 5, p. 214; Athenian Onomasticon, s.v. Demokrates of Aixone).

The demarch Dorotheos (19) is probably also mentioned at Ackermann no. 8, l. 4, which is thereby datable with probability to the same year as this decree, 326/5 BC. Both decrees were also cut by the same mason (see Tracy, ADT 106).