9) 17, line 11: ev rT7(t) Trpoye[ypaxLtEvI __].
10) 17, lines 13-14: 'v rI(t) tro [___] T.rt f8. xr3o(t).
The exceptions are very few; a significant number of them involve expressions of date or time (nos. 3, 4, 9, 10), suggesting that the "dativeness" of such expressions was no longer clearly felt. In nos. 5, 7, 9, 10, the preposition itself clearly marked the syntactic relation of the words and thus may have engendered the loss of iota.
A survey of the inscriptions in I.G., II2 dating from this period (nos. 1006-1038) shows that the adscript normally appears in the spelling of the dative singular (II2 1011 is the single exception). The only frequent exceptions in these inscriptions occur in the case of 7(t), the day (II2 1006, 1008, 1012), and the cult title r7(t) 'Apre'pt8 r7(L) 'Aypor'epa (II2 1006, 1029). Thus B's practice is not idiosyncratic, but follows that of the period.
CROWNS
Crowns occur frequently on all honorary decrees. 0. Broneer's recent study,
"The Isthmian Victory Crown," demonstrates that they represent a rich source of information and a factor of potential importance in dating.
Catalogue of Crowns Mentioned and/or Depicted in B's Work.
1. 1 (II2 1227), line 28. Gold. Diameter: inside, 0.121 m.; outside, 0.186 m.
The gold leaves are suspended from a wire or band which is set slightly in relief (PI. 4, a). The effect of relief was achieved by cutting away the surface of the stone a little on the inside and outside of the outline of the crown. The letters are nicely arranged in the crown; the crown itself is off-center to the left (supra, p. 18).
2. 2 (II2 1228), lines 7-8. Thallos. Diameter: ca. 0.10 m.38
A crown of aAAo's is normally an olive crown; cf. Herodotos 7, 19: EcarTEavWUaOa
EAalrl7
OaAAch.
The three crowns are identical in overall shape (P1. 5, a). Crowns 2 and 3 are simply outlined;39 crown 1 is in relief. Small details suggest that the work37 The same irregularity appears in the part inscribed by X-line 58: ev r Tyt YUVLKVC() dayVLt.
The practice belonged to the working copy, therefore, and not to the individual mason.
8 The uneven contour of a crown of this type makes measurement difficult. A vertical and a horizontal measurement are taken in order to establish the diameter of the circle in reference to which the crown was drawn. It is this diameter which is given.
39 For convenient reference, the crowns in each inscription are numbered in order from top left to bottom right.
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THE LETTERING OF AN ATHENIAN MASON
on them was hurried. Three olives are depicted in the first, two in the second, and none in the third. In the second crown, once, and in the third, twice, a three-segmented ff instead of a three-pointed leaf Q appears. The right central cluster of leaves in the second crown is unfinished. The third crown is carelessly made, especially the right side which is rather awkward and misshapen. The fact that the first is the most com- plete suggests that it was finished first and that the need for haste caused B to incise the other two only in outline. The crowns and the lettering in them are aligned horizontally.
3. 3 (II2 1136), lines 13-14. Traditional crown of the god at Delphi. Diameter:
ca. 0.13 m.
B set the crown in relief by cutting away the stone rather abruptly around its outline (PI. 6, b); these cuttings are rather wide and uneven on the left side. The asymmetrical appearance of the tie at the top bespeaks some difficulty or uncertainty in execution. It may be that the top of the crown was too close to the title to allow its full articulation. The original misplacement of the title (line 26) proves that the crown was not in place when the title was inscribed. The crown is off-center to the left; the gap between its edge and the edge of the stele is 0.072 m. on the left and 0.077 m. on the right.
The crown of Apollo is laurel (laurus nobilis, sweet bay,40 8a(fvr41); in addition, the parallel wording of FD III 2, no. 20, lines 11-12 (178/7), KCalt crrEca at Sagavas
UTEavjcoL Tr[ut ,r]apa [r]ov E0ov1, Ka06Js aTrdrptv Eoar ZEA,oSr, shows that
this
particular crown is laurel. B has distinguished it in design from the olive and sought to approximate the long, elliptical shape characteristic of bay leaves.4. 4 (II2 989), lines 18-19. Gold. The clause specifying the crown is lost in the second decree. Diameter: of crowns 1, 3, 4, 5 ca. 0.075 m.; of crown 2, 0.075 m. (inside), 0.095 m. (outside).
The gold crown (no. 2)-and for that matter, all of the preserved crowns- reveals a very simple outline design. B lightly incised a guideline with a compass (a segment of the light circle made by this guideline is visible at the bottom of the crown in Plate 8) along which he inscribed, at regular intervals, a series of small gold leaves which, in themselves, form the crown. There is no attempt to suggest a band. The other crowns have shapes identical with the olive crowns in 2, except that there is no decorative triangle at the bottom in crown 3 and no olives are represented.
Spacing shows that B placed four crowns across the stele in line with lines 61-64.
This and the fact that the last preserved citation is placed at the extreme left suggest that there were also four citations in the last (preserved) row. How many others, if
40 Cf. 0. Polunin and A. Huxley, Flowers of the Mediterranean, London, 1965, pp. 73-74 and pl. 31.
41 Liddell, Scott, Jones, s.v.
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II2 1028 CUTTER: CAREER AND HABITS OF INSCRIBING
any, are lost is impossible to say. 4 thus belongs to the transitional period when the number of officials honored was increased from the 8 (or 9) usual in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.42 B did not incise the crowns at the bottom below the first row,43 thus indicating both by position and lack of elaboration the inferior status of these officials.44 B failed to align crowns 1-3, probably because of problems of spacing. The headings over crowns 1 and 2 were placed the usual interline down from line 23; line 40, the first line of the second decree, is crowded up directly under the bottom of the two crowns. Indeed the contours and proportions of their lowest leaves were adjusted slightly to accommodate the line, indicating that they were inscribed after line 40, or at a time when B had determined its exact position (PI. 8). In any case, the concern for space is evident. Since line 23 extends only halfway across the stele, he was free, in the case of the third crown, either to align it with the other two and crowd it at the bottom, or move it up slightly and avoid the crowding. He chose the latter. The choice caused a problem when it came to lining up the lettering in the crowns. The first line of the third crown had to be placed so high that it was impossible to line up the first lines; he, therefore, aligned the last lines. Aligning the lettering on a horizontal line drawn across the crowns was apparently more important than centering the letters well within the individual crown, for the lower half of crown 2 and apparently also crown I (no letter strokes are visible because of wear) was left blank as a result of this alignment.
5. 6 (II2 1028), line 45. Gold. Line 55. Thallos. Lines 122-123. Gold. Diameter:
of crowns 1, 5, 0.085 m.; of crowns 2-4, 0.085 m. (inside), ca. 0.125 m. (outside); of crown 6, 0.071 m.; of crown 7, 0.075 m.; of crowns 8-13, ca. 0.062 m.
A lightly incised circle (still visible in all but the first crown) with a diameter of 0.085 m. was drawn with a compass in preparation for crowns 1-5 (Pls. 14, 15, 38, d).
The crowns are set in relief. The olive crown (no. 5) is composed of leaves articulated into three segments. In contrast to 4, these crowns are not compressed along the bottom despite the problem of spacing in this inscription. The first line of the second decree is, however, placed as close to the line of crowns as possible. The crowns are aligned perfectly; the lettering, however, from one crown to the next is not. Lines 1 and 2 of crown 2 are aligned with lines 3 and 4 of crown 1. At this point, B perceived that alignment on the basis of the lettering in crown 1 could not work, for crown 1 is crowded and the lettering is abnormally small.45 He began anew in crown 3 and lined
42 As M. L. Lethen, Hesperia, XXVI, 1957, p. 28 recognized. Peek, Kerameikos, III, pp. 6-7, discusses this and shows that 20 also belongs to this transitional group.
43 They were undoubtedly painted. Dow, Prytaneis, p. 20, has pointed out that painted (i.e. not incised) crowns were normal on prytany decrees until ca. 125 B.C.
44 Dow, ibid., p. 4, has established that the order of mention and citations is not random but a clear order of precedence, mirroring the relative importance of the officials.
45 The inclusion in crown 2 of those awarding the crown with those honored is unique in B's work and may be due to this attempt to align with crown 1.
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THE LETTERING OF AN ATHENIAN MASON
up the first lines of the last three crowns (see commentary on 6, line 83). Within the crowns the lettering was well centered in nos. 1, 2, and 5. For the partial improvement of the spacing in crown 3, see page 42 supra.
The variation of crowns 1 to 5 is interesting. Crown 1 (P1. 14, a) has spade-shaped leaves and is an ivy crown.46 It must have been golden, however, for the honorees were crowned with a gold crown. Kallixeinos of Rhodes, a writer of the mid-second century B.C., mentions just such a crown: a,EO' ovs hXavpotL eaoapaKovTa EaTE- 0>avcoILEvoL KatuvoLS XpvaoLS arTEdavoLt (Jacoby, F. Gr. Hist., 3C, no. 627, p. 168, lines 21-22). Crowns 2 to 4 represent canonical gold crowns; the fifth crown is in shape olive, but its position here indicates that it too was golden.
Of these five crowns, only 2 and 3 were awarded as a direct result of the decrees on the stele. In crown 1, the boule and the demos honor the epheboi and their kosmetes. No such joint crown is explicitly mentioned in the stele though it is im- plied by the two decrees. Crown 4 is most interesting; it was awarded to the epheboi and the kosmetes by the demos of Salamis. This crown is mentioned only obliquely in line 26-e'os oLs Kat erTtrf7lOl av V7Tro ToV 8rjiov rov ZaAapatviov. Crown 5 receives more specific mention in line 118-- aroTEvcoovav aVrov ev T7rL fSovXACt.
The stele thus commemorates all the crowns voted to the epheboi and their kos- metes, not just those awarded by the decrees on it, and the first row of citations is reserved for their crowns. There is a demonstrable order of precedence from left to right of those awarding the crowns; the boule and the demos of the Athenians take first place in the first three. Next follows the demos of Salamis and last, the ephebes.
Similarly, an order is maintained among those honored; the epheboi are consistently awarded first place ahead of the kosmetes in the crowns. This reflects the order of the decrees and shows that the principal purpose of the stele is to honor the ephebes and secondarily, i.e. as a consequence, their teachers.
Crowns 6 to 13 are crowded together in the bottom left half of the stele in three horizontal rows of two, three, and three (P1. 20, b). The right half is occupied by the list of evot. This arrangement is unique among preserved ephebic decrees, which always have crowns in rows across the entire stele; sometimes the crowns are located between decrees I and II and after the list of names (Agora I 286 [Hesperia, XXIV,
1955, pp. 220-239], II2 1008-also in middle of list) and sometimes preceding, in the middle, and at the end of the register of names (II2 1006, 1009, 1011). An unusually long list of 40 foreigners (see commentary on line 288 of 6) led to this unusual arrange- ment. By considerable squeezing and abbreviation, this list was arranged into two columns, each one three-quarters as wide as the columns of the citizens, and placed in the lower right part of the stele. The space thus remaining for the crowns of the
46 A. Wilhelm, Urkunden Dramatischer Auffihrungen in Athen, Wien, 1906, pp. 229-230, illustrates two similar crowns in a discussion of I.G., II, 1356 (II2 3111).
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II2 1028 CUTTER: CAREER AND HABITS OF INSCRIBING
teachers, normally seven in number, was a rectangle higher than it was wide. 6 is the only ephebic text known which has thirteen crowns; all others have twelve, clearly the
usual number. The extra crown was added purely out of considerations of geometry.
Seven round crowns cannot easily be accommodated to a rectangular space which is higher than it is wide, if one wishes to place them in horizontal rows (this habitual arrangement B apparently did not consider abandoning). It was not possible to arrange them in two horizontal rows, the one having three crowns, the other four, which could fill the vertical space. An arrangement of one, three, and three would leave the single crown in the first row uncomfortably isolated because it could not be very large. By adding one crown (no. 6, P1. 21, a) B made three rows of two, three, and three-this was the only spatial solution open to him. He made no. 6 an exact repetition of crown 2 at first, i.e. in shape a standard gold crown (see commentary on 6, line 246). This reveals its status as an addition and also indicates that the gold crown was the only one voted. The change was probably made so that all these crowns would be uniform