Carol L. Lawton, Attic Document Reliefs, Art and Politics in Ancient Athens (Selections)

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1.

The collection of tribute

IG I3 68 Athens, EM 6595 426/25 Plate 1

Thirteen fragments, ten found on Akropolis and South Slope. Twelve fragments now EM 6595 and set in relative positions in plaster reconstruction (photo, AJP 88 [1967] pl. 2): I (a + b, c), II (d, e + f + m), III (g + i + j + l, h). Position of fragment K (EM 2494) uncertain. Both edges preserved. Fragment I b preserves part of left edge of relief and inscription, otherwise broken all around. Relief separated from inscription by taenia and cyma reversa. Moulding and inscription extend 0.115 beyond edge of relief. Surface battered, corroded. White, medium-grained marble. Restored minimum dimensions of stele without relief: h. 1.40, w. 0.592, th. 0.163. Relief: p.h. 0.13, p.w. 0.195, th. 0.115, relief h. very low, h. of letters 0.009.

The stele records two decrees containing a number of provisions for the collection and enforcement of the tribute, with emphasis upon the personal responsibility of the local tribute collectors. It is assumed that these decrees are the result of provisions made in the second Methone decree (no. 2, lines 51-56), which is dated to the first prytany of 426/25. The stele was to have been set up on the Akropolis while Kekropis was in prytany (lines 24-25); Kekropis held the second prytany in 426/25 (IG I3 369, line 6).

All that remains of the relief is a small fragment of the lower left corner depicting containers, which must represent the collected tribute. Standing at the left is a hydria and above and behind it perhaps another. Pots were convenient storage containers for coins; the accounts of the treasury at Delos list stamnoi containing money (F. Durrbach, Inscriptions de Délos, comptes des Hiéropes [1929] no. 399 and 63), and Raubitschek (TAPA 72 [1941] 356-62) has argued that the tribute collected at the time of the City Dionysia was displayed, one talent per hydria, in the theatre (see also Isok. 8.82). Next to the pots are a number of bulging sacks tied at the top, which resemble those on the nearly contemporary frieze of the Ilissos Temple (NM 1780: C. Picon, AJA 82 [1978] 51, fig. 1) and must also represent tribute. There may originally have been at least one figure, perhaps Athena, in the missing part of the relief.

K. S. Pittakys, L'ancienne Athènes (1835) 315-16; ArchEph (1838) 134 no. 85, fig. 85 (drwg.); ArchEph (1939) 180 no. 163; Rangabé I, 347 nos. 263, 264; 351-52 no. 269; 361 no. 283; Pittakys, ArchEph (1855) 1319 no. 2652; ArchEph (1856) 1432 no. 2911; ArchEph (1860) 1961 no. 3809, 1964 no. 3817; IG I 38; IG I Suppl. I, 25 no. 116m; H. Lolling, ArchDelt (1889) 52 no. 4; IG I Suppl. III, 141 no. 39a; W. Bannier, AM 27 (1902) 301-2; A. Wilhelm, AnzWien (1909) 53-56, pl. opp. 54; O. Walter, ÖJhBeibl 14 (1911) 59; IG I2 65; Binneboeßel, 3 no. 4, 27-28; A. Hess, Klio 28 (1935) 27, pl. I; B. D. Meritt, Documents on Athenian Tribute (1937) 3-42, figs. 1-7; ATL I, 123-26, 166-67 D8, 213, figs. 178-84; A. E. Raubitschek, AJP 61 (1940) 475-77; TAPA 72 (1941) 356-62; P. Jacobsthal, AJA 47 (1943) 308; ATL II, 52-58; SEG 10.72; ATL III, 133; SEG 13.10; N. Platon, ArchDelt 19 B.I (1964) 22, pl. II; B. Meritt, AJP 88 (1967) 29-32, pls. I, 2 SEG 23.18; Meiggs and Lewis, 184-88 no. 68; SEG 25.29; Meyer, 265 A 3.