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1 1. G. Steinhauer, “Demendekrete und ein neuer Archon des 3. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. aus dem Aphrodision von Halai Aixonides,” AM 113 (1998 [2001]) 238–248. Steinhauer dates the new archon Ambrosios on prosopographical grounds to the year 290/89. I doubt the precise year; see 45 below. 2. Petrakos, Rhamnous II no. 20. Cf. SEG 41 no. 87. 3. Habicht, Untersuchungen 128–146; Meritt, “Mid-Third-Century Athenian Archons,” Hesperia 50 (1981) 78–99, esp. 94 –96; Osborne, “The Chronology of Athens in the Mid Third Century b.c.,” ZPE 78 (1989) 209–242, esp. 241; Osborne , “Philinos and the Athenian Archons of the 250s b.c.,” in Polis and Politics : Studies in Ancient Greek History Presented to M.H. Hansen, ed. P. FlenstedJensen , T.H. Nielsen, and L. Rubinstein (Copenhagen 2000) 507–520; Steinhauer, “NeÒtera stoixe›a giå tÚn salam¤nio y¤aso t∞w Bend›dow,” ÉArxaiologik Ø ÉEfhmer¤w 1993 (1995) 31– 47, esp. 47. Introduction the third century and problems of chronology Efforts to establish the Athenian archon list of the third century b.c. continue and progress is being made. More will be possible when all relevant texts now known are published. The recent publication of a fragment containing the name of a new Athenian archon, [A]mbrosios, who must date between the years 290 and 250;1 the discovery that Aristion must be moved from the 230s to about 290 (38– 45 below); the addition of Mneseides to the list of those who served in the 230s;2 and the reported downward dating of Athenodoros by more than a decade reveal the continuing state of uncertainty and flux in the list of this period. Over the past twenty-two years, Ch. Habicht, B. D. Meritt, M. J. Osborne, and G. Steinhauer have discussed, sometimes at great length, the dating of archons and have offered lists, particularly for the very difficult period from the year 260 to about 235.3 Osborne has made a strong case that the secretary cycle was not in op- 2 / Introduction 4. Osborne, “The Chronology of Athens in the Mid Third Century b.c.” 5. I see no reason to alter this statement, which summarized my view of the problem in 1988 (“Two Attic Letter Cutters of the Third Century: 286/5–235/4 b.c.,” Hesperia 57 [1988] 322). 6. Steinhauer, “NeÒtera stoixe›a” 47, places him without discussion in 238/7 and indicates the date as certain. 7. IG II2 662 and Agora I 6560 ⫽ Osborne, Naturalization no. D74A ⫽ Agora XVI no. 172. 8. IG II2 784. 9. A. Burford, Craftsmen in Greek and Roman Society (Ithaca 1972) 88–90, calls attention to teenagers and some even younger who are described as master craftsmen. 10. On this point see also my “Athenian Letter-Cutters and Lettering on Stone in Vth to Ist Centuries b.c.” in Greek Letters: From Tablets to Pixels, ed. M. S. Macrakis (New Castle, Del., 1996), 43–53, esp. 53. For long careers in a far more dangerous line of work, see E. Birley’s list of centurions who served forty to sixtyone years (The Roman Army: Papers, 1929–1986 [Amsterdam 1988] 219–220). 11. See the account of his work in my “Two Attic Letter Cutters” 304 –311. eration for much of the 250s and 240s.4 He may be correct. As I observed years ago, “At the least, the cycles in this period are less regular than presently constituted lists presume.”5 One of my purposes in concentrating on the third century was to help if possible with the chronological problems that plague it. Unfortunately, except for the discovery concerning Aristion, I can add little. The careers of the cutters of this study do not fall out in such a way as to provide significant guidance. Careers generally make sense; that is to say, there is for most cutters a “clustering effect” in the dates of the texts they inscribed. That fact is in itself encouraging. The one exception is the very prolific Cutter of Agora I 3238. With a date for the archon Athenodoros around 239/8,6 we now have a career for him that began in the ninth prytany of the year 286/57 and lasted until the twelfth prytany of Athenodoros’ year,8 a span of forty-seven years or more. While not impossible, this begins to strain credulity. Cutters did learn by an apprentice system and presumably began to work by...

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