To defend the fatherland, to obey the laws and authorities, and to honour the State's cults are the principal points the Athenian citizen promised to fulfil in his oath of allegiance—called ephebic, because he took it as a recruit (ephebos)—at least since the second half of the fourth century B.C. (Lycurg. Leoc. 76). These duties are fundamental for the citizen's attachment to his polis, so one will hardly assume that the content of the oath depends upon the existence of the Athenian institution of cadet-training (ephebeia) which is attested by inscriptions not earlier than 334/3 B.C. Some ambiguous passages in fifth- and fourth-century authors give no reliable clue to determine the form or origin of the ephebeia. I shall consider sworn civic duties and the organisation of military training as different things, and shall treat the oath independently from the disputed question of when the ephebeia came into existence. My purpose is to draw attention to some fifth-century allusions to the oath which seem to have remained unnoticed so far.
This oath is transmitted by Pollux (viii 105 f.), Stobaeus (iv 1.8), and a fourth-century inscription from the Attic deme Acharnae. I give the epigraphic version, following G. Daux's text. I omit the first part of the whole inscription (lines 1–4: dedication of the stele by the priest of Ares and Athena Areia, Dion of Acharnae) and the last part (lines 20 ff.: oath before the battle against the Persians at Plataea).