Public Records and Archives in Classical Athens (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome)

287 Pages·1999·2.73 MB·English

by  James P. Sickinger

public records and archives
in classical athens
s
studies in the history of greece and rome
P. J. Rhodes and Richard J. A. Talbert, editors
james p. sickinger
Public Records and Archives
in Classical Athens
the university of north carolina press
chapel hill and london
s
∫ 1999 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by April Leidig-Higgins
Set in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sickinger, James P. Public records and archives in classical Athens
/ by James P. Sickinger.
p. cm.—(Studies in the history of Greece and Rome)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn 0-8078-2469-0 (alk. paper)
1. Archives—Greece—Athens—History—To 500. 2. Paleography,
Greek—Greece—Athens. 3. Public records—Greece—Athens
—History—To 500. 4. Greece—History—To 146 b.c.—Archival
resources. i. Title. ii. Series.
cd996.s53 1999 352.3%87%09385—dc21 98-30098 cip
03 02 01 00 99 5 4 3 2 1
for my wife and parents

contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
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chapter one
Thesmothetai, Drakon, and Solon 8
i. Thesmothetai 10
ii. Drakon 14
iii. Solon 24
iv. Conclusion 33
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chapter two
Documents and Records in the Sixth Century 35
i. Sixth-Century Secretaries 36
ii. Didascalic Records and Long-Term Preservation 41
iii. The Archon List 47
iv. Written Records and Kleisthenes’ Reforms 51
v. Conclusion 60
s
chapter three
Records and Archives in the Fifth Century 62
i. Inscriptions and Archives 64
ii. The Archives of the Boule 73
iii. Organization and Dating of Fifth-Century Decrees 83
iv. Conclusion 91
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chapter four
The Athenian Law Code and the Foundation of the Metroon 93
i. The Revision of the Athenian Law Code 94
ii. The Foundation of the Metroon 105
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chapter five
The Archives in the Metroon 114
i. Laws, Decrees, and the Records of the Boule and Ekklesia 116
ii. Financial Records and Accounts 122
iii. Po¯l¯etai Documents 127
iv. Other Documents 129
v. Conclusion 135
s
chapter six
Personnel and Organization 139
i. Personnel 140
ii. Organization 147
iii. Conclusion 157
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chapter seven
Consultation 160
i. Archival Documents and the Lawcourts 160
ii. Archival Documents and Legislation 170
iii. Archives and Historians 176
iv. Conclusion 185
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Conclusion 188
Notes 197
Bibliography 257
Index 267
preface
This study of written records and archives in ancient Athens has its
origins in a dissertation on the Metroon and fourth-century Athenian
archives submitted to the Department of Classics at Brown University in
1992. My interests in Athenian record keeping stemmed from the use of
documents by the fourth-century Attic orators and in works such as the
Ath¯enaio¯n Politeia. But although these issues have been the subject of
considerable scholarly debate, a comprehensive study of the Metroon’s
archives and Athenian record keeping in general has not appeared since
that of C. Curtius, Das Metroon als Staatsarchiv in Athen, published in
1868. So a new study seemed in order. Chapters that formed part of the
dissertation have been completely revised for the present book, and
several new chapters have been added that consider the keeping of writ-
ten records by the Athenian people and their magistrates down to the
end of the fifth century. Most writing and revisions were completed in
December 1996, and I have incorporated references to only a limited
number of works that reached me after that date.
Quotations in Greek have been confined to the notes in the attempt to
keep my discussion accessible to Greekless readers, but I have not dis-
covered a wholly satisfactory or consistent method of rendering Greek
into English in the text itself. My practice has been to retain latinate or
anglicized forms for commonly known Greek authors and terms, but I
have generally transliterated less familiar words directly from Greek into
English.
Completion of this book would not have been possible without the
assistance of numerous institutions and individuals. Financial support
from the United States Educational Foundation in Greece and the Amer-
ican School of Classical Studies at Athens allowed me to visit Greece and
complete most of my dissertation there. I would like to thank Professor
W. D. E. Coulson, former director of the American School, and Dr.
Nancy Winter, librarian of the Blegen Library, for allowing me access to
the school’s facilities and for creating a congenial atmosphere in which to
carry out my work. Work on the book itself was largely completed while I