121-153

Articles

• Harris, Edward, M.
• Harris, Edward Monroe

This article shows that the document found in Andocides’ On the Mysteries 96-98,which purports to be the decree of Demophantus containing an oath to kill tyrants,is a forgery. The prescript of the decree contains features found in no other decreesof the Classical period (the use of the verb συνέγραψεν, the phrase ἡ βουλὴ οἱπεντακόσιοι λαχόντες τῷ κυάμῳ, the phrase about the secretary introduced ὅτε, themotion formula not found at the end of the prescript, the word τάδε used in theprescript). These unusual features cannot be explained by any unusualcircumstances surrounding the enactment of the decree. The language of the decreeis also not consistent with the language of contemporary decrees (e.g., the use of theword εὐαγής). Finally, the clauses of the decree do not agree with information aboutthe decree of Demophantus found in Demosthenes (20.159) and Lycurgus (Leoc. 124-127) and with the evidence for Athenian law and legal procedure. The decree clearlybelongs in the historical context of the period after the overthrow of the Thirty in403 BCE, which is where Lycurgus (Leoc. 124) places it.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Ιστορία
• Αρχαιολογία

democracy, tyranny, Classical Athens, documentary language of decrees, Attic epigraphy, Andocides

Τα keywords παρέχονται από πηγή εκτός τεκμηρίου

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/tekmiria/article/view/3020
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/tekmeria.319