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A Political Sherd

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

A. G. Woodhead
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Extract

Through the kindness of Dr. Charles Seltman I am enabled to publish an inscribed sherd in his possession, the singular character of which has not hitherto been noticed. Its history is obscure; it was bought, so Dr. Seltman informs me, from a dealer who said that it had been found on the North Slope of the Athenian Acropolis. This provenance may well be correct; the sherd is certainly Attic, and the dealer made no financial gain from his statement; nor, apparently, did he regard the inscriptions as more than a curiosity. The sherd measures 11·6 cm. at its greatest length, and is 4·8 cm. wide at 1. 22 of the inscription on the upper surface. It apparently forms part of the rim and body of a plate of the type known as a fish-plate, of which a considerable number exist, both Attic and South Italian, in a complete or fragmentary state, though they have not received much attention from scholars.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 48 , November 1953 , pp. 191 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1953

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References

1 The peculiarities of the sherd and its inscriptions are such that one might suspect a fake. But (a) there is no sign, in its known history that it was ever worth much in a monetary sense, and (b) the skill and knowledge required to produce the inscriptions would surely be more than even an exceptional forger could command, while they lack the purpose that a forger would presumably work for.

2 In this case c. 22·8 cm. in diameter.

3 Cf. Lacroix, L., La faune marine dans la décoration des plats à poissons (Verviers, 1937)Google Scholar. There is one in black-figure, Robinson, D. M., Olynthus V 81, no. 64 (pl. 55)Google Scholar.

4 Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge, no. CAM 257. For other illustrations see Olynthus V, pls. 190–1, XIII, pl. 94. On fish-plates in general, V 143 (no. 231), XIII 124–31.

5 Cf. Lacroix, 19–20. I am indebted to Miss Lucy Talcott and Mr. Peter Corbett for valuable advice on the ceramic problem.

6 Schefold, K., Untersuchungen zu den Kertscher Vasen II and pl. 1.Google Scholar The possibility finds some support with Smith, H. R. W., AJA L 1946, 436CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 For this formula see the examples in Raubitschek, A. E., Dedications from the Athenian Akropolis, nos. 75 and 77Google Scholar, or with a slight variation nos. 34, 102, 109, 169.

8 IG XI 2 124, 1. 37. Ἐπιστάτης perhaps also from Syria in SEG II 811.

9 Acharnion, Hesp. Suppl. VIII, pl. 57, no. 1.

Critias, Hesp. Suppl. VIII, pl. 58, no. 12.

Xanthippus, , e.g. Hesp. V (1936), 40, fig. 39Google Scholar, X (1941), 3, fig. 3.

Megacles, , e.g. Hesp. XV (1946), pl. 25, no. 1Google Scholar, Kerameikos III, pl. 21, no. 4.

Aristeides, , e.g. Hesp. XV (1946), pl. 27, nos. 14–5Google Scholar.

Themistocles, e.g. Hesp. Suppl. IV 32, fig. 24, Kerameikos III, pl. 21, no. 5.

The crossed theta still occurs in ostraca of the ostracism of 443. On these ostracisms see now Raubitschek, A. E. in Actes du deuxième congrès d'épigraphie grecque et latine 59–74Google Scholar, and literature quoted in SEG X 390.

10 Hesperia, Suppl. VIII, pl. 58, no. 9. Cf. that of Thucydides in Carcopino, J., L'Ostracisme Athénien 2, pl. II no. 1.Google Scholar

11 That in Fig. 1 has a diameter larger than that of the original from which the sherd came—26 cm. as against c. 22·8 cm.

12 For ⊙ with a single cross-stroke see now Guarducci, M., Arch. Class. IV (1952), 147–8Google Scholar.

13 Cambridge. Museum of Classical Archaeology, NA 239: Fitzwilliam Museum, CVA Cambridge II, pl. XX no. 7. Both are from Naucratis and probably by the same hand.

14 In this paper references to Thucydides are to Bk. VIII, and those to Aristotle are to the Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία. In the latter case, I have throughout written ‘Aristotle’ as being more convenient, but without prejudice to the question of Aristotelian authorship, upon which the recent views of Hignett, G., A History of the Athenian Constitution to the end of the fifth century (Oxford 1952), esp. pp. 29–30Google Scholar, have much to commend them.

15 Sartori, F., La Crisi del 411 A.C. nell' Athenaion Politeia di Aristotele (Padova 1951), 8.Google Scholar

16 For these contrasted senses of κατάλυσις and διάλυσις cf. Plato Laws XII 945c and IX 864d. Διάλυσις is frequently used of ending wars and reconciling enemies.

17 - - διται presumably is a word-ending, and there is not much choice. Συνοδῑται would have a properly sinister ring to modern ears. But it may be necessary to seek the ultimate epigraphic refuge and postulate a lapsus calami.

18 For the controversies over the events of 411 see most recently Lang, Mabel, AJP LXIX, 1948, 272–89Google Scholar; Cary, M., JHS LXXII, 1952, 56–61Google Scholar; C. Hignett, op cit. Appendix XII; F. Sartori, op. cit.; Vlastos, G., AJP LXXIII (1952), 189–98Google Scholar; Fuks, A., The Ancestral Constitution (London 1953)Google Scholar.

19 Cf. Kahrstedt, U., Untersuchungen zur Magistratur in Athen (Stuttgart 1936), 292Google Scholar.

20 I should like to express my gratitude to all those who have read this paper in MS. or proof, or with whom I have discussed the complex problems of this sherd—in particular to Prof. Sir Frank Adcock, Prof. A. H. M. Jones, Dr. M. N. Tod, and Messrs. J. M. Cook, R. M. Cook, G. T. Griffith, and A. M. Woodward.

It may be well here to elaborate a little further the considerations mentioned briefly in note 1. It would be convenient in many respects if this sherd could be set aside as spurious, but there seems no real ground, other than sheer surprise, for taking refuge in this solution. The recent history of the sherd shows no attempt at profit or mystification, so that there is no obvious reason for forging the inscriptions. It is true that at the bottom (though not at the side) some letters dig more deeply into the edge of the sherd; but the plate may have been already cracked when the inscription was scratched on it.