Athens and Macedon: Attic Letter-Cutters of 300 to 229 B.C.

Conclusion: Inscribers of the Years 300 to 229 B.C.

154 Conclusion: Inscribers of the Years 300 to 229 b.c. The two most prolific cutters at work during the years 300 to 229 b.c. were the Agora I 3238 Cutter and the IG II2 788 Cutter. Their careers overlap beginning about the year 260. For about fifteen years—that is, down to about the year 245—they exercised a virtual monopoly in Athens over the inscribing of long measures on stone. To illustrate the point, I provide here a checklist of forty decrees assigned to this fifteen-year period by J. Kirchner in Inscriptiones Graecae II, 2d ed. (nos. 765 to 804). IG II2 765 2 788 Cutter 766 2 788 Cutter 7671 worn, unfamiliar 768 ⫹ 802 2 788 Cutter 769 ⫹ 441 2 788 Cutter 770 2 788 Cutter 771 identical with IG II2 122 (addendum p. 667) 772 I 3238 Cutter (268/7) 773 dates to 275/4 774 IG II2 776 Cutter 775 ⫹ 803 Agora I 6664 Cutter 1. I have not seen this inscription. Although Kirchner describes it (IG ad loc.) as In museo nat., the inventory at the Epigraphical Museum has no record of it. There exists, however, in the archives of Inscriptiones Graecae in Berlin a squeeze that I have been able to consult. 776 IG II2 776 Cutter 777 I 3238 Cutter 778 2 788 Cutter 779 2 788 Cutter 780 I 3238 Cutter 781 2 788 Cutter 782 I 3238 Cutter 783 dates to the year 164/32 784 I 3238 Cutter 785 dates to the second century, probably 184/33 786 dates after 2294 787 2 788 Cutter 788 2 788 Cutter 789 dates to about the year 190 b.c.5 790 2 788 Cutter 791 2 788 Cutter 792 I 3238 Cutter 793 2 788 Cutter 794 dates to the year of Hagnias (216/5) 795 2 788 Cutter 796 dates to 305/4 797 dates to 305/4;6 II2 689 Cutter 798 2 788 Cutter 799 2 788 Cutter 800 dates to the fourth century b.c.7 801 I 3238 Cutter 802 part of II2 768 Attic Letter-Cutters of 300 to 229 B.C. / 155 2. B.D. Meritt, Hesperia 3 (1934) 29–31. 3. This text belongs to the year of Charikles; for his date see D.M. Lewis, “The Archon Charikles,” Horos 6 (1988) 19–20. 4. See also ALC 46. 5. ALC 71, 73. 6. IG II2 796 and 797 are now known to have been enacted during the year of Euxenippos (305/4); see B. D. Meritt, “The Seventh Metonic Cycle,” Hesperia 5 (1936) 201–203. 7. S. Dow, “The Preambles of Athenian Decrees Containing Lists of Symproedroi ,” Hesperia 32 (1963) 358–363. 803 part of II2 775 804 ⫹ 718 I 3238 Cutter Two of these measures, IG II2 802 and 803, make physical joins with others in this group; eleven others—namely, IG II2 771, 772, 773, 783, 785, 786, 789, 794, 796, 797, and 800 —are now known to date outside the period . This leaves twenty-seven inscriptions, twenty-three of which were inscribed by these two men, sixteen by the II2 788 Cutter and seven by the I 3238 Cutter. Their dominance and importance is obvious.8 And, judging by the evidence of other periods, dominance to this extent seems rather unusual .9 How it came to pass is not at first glance clear. It will be helpful to provide here some general background on inscribing during the years immediately prior to the period covered by the present study. The careers of inscribers certainly suffered during the years 317 to 307 under Demetrios of Phaleron, when very few measures passed by the state were inscribed on stone. Even so, several cutters managed to work across this ten-year period and one to pick up a career that most probably had been interrupted by it.10 The self-styled democracy of the years 307 and following made it a matter of policy to inscribe many measures on stone. The leaders of the assembly, among them Stratokles of Diomeia, used this policy as one way of proclaiming the difference between their regime and that of their predecessor, Demetrios of Phaleron.11 There was thus a great surge of inscribing at the end of the fourth century and quite a number of cutters can be documented as active during the years from 307 to 300. They are...