Lecture by Adele Scafuro Professor of Classics (Department of Classics, Brown University, USA) entitled ‘Inscribed narratives of the rescue and ransom of exiles and captives’. IG XII 6, 1 17-43 (Samos)

Wednesday 11 December 2019, at 12.00 noon Room 740, 7th floor, School of Philosophy, University Campus, Zografou, Athens

DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS

RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM SERIES 2019-2020

                                         INVITATION                                          

When: Wednesday 11 December 2019, at 12.00 noon

Where: Room 740, 7th floor, School of Philosophy, University Campus, Zografou, Athens

The Department of Classics, Faculty of Philology, invites you to a lecture by

Adele Scafuro

Professor of Classics

(Department of Classics, Brown University, USA)

entitled

‘Inscribed narratives of the rescue and ransom of exiles and captives’.

IG XII 6, 1 17-43 (Samos)

Professor Andreas Michalopoulos

Head of the Department of Classics

For further information please contact the colloquium series organizers:

                    Sophia Papaioannou                                                                Athena  Bazou                                          

               spapaioan@phil.uoa.gr                                                                  bazouath[at]phil.uoa[dot]gr                                  

‘Inscribed narratives of the rescue

and ransom of exiles and captives’.

IG XII 6, 1 17-43 (Samos)

 ADELE SCAFURO

BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROFESSOR OF CLASSICS

What makes a decree ‘elegant’ and can such ‘elegance’ be measured? Do discrete decrees tell stories? Can an assemblage of decrees, enacted over a period of some twenty years, tell a collective story? These are some of the questions that arise from a close study of a series of Samian decrees enacted between ca. 322 and 301. The decrees are designated as ‘DECRETA ΦΥΓΗΣ’ in IG XII 6, 1 17-41, and, together with two additional decrees, IG XII 6, 1 42 and 43, they form the basis of this presentation. Almost all the texts mention either the exile of the Samians that began when the Athenians expelled them from Samos in 365 and turned Samos into a cleruchy, or else they mention their return, in the late 320s, in the aftermath of Alexander’s ‘Exiles Decree’—that momentous proclamation that Nicanor had brought to the Olympic Games in August 324, announcing that Greek cities must now allow the return of their political exiles. While the proclamation brought joy to many, it brought anxious antipathy to the Athenians: would they really have to give up Samos? In response, and in one of their last hurrahs for imperialism, the Athenians sent their ‘General for Samos’ to arrest and bring to Athens the Samians who had tried to make a return.

The decree that honors Antileon of Chalcis and his son (IG XII 6, 1 42, ca. 321/0) is the star of the series. Antileon is celebrated for guarding τήν . . φιλίαν τὴν Χαλκιδεο͂σι καὶ Σαμίοις ὑπάρχουσαν and for ransoming the Samian exiles imprisoned in Athens. The decree is to some extent sui generis, in large part, so I argue, because of its elegant narrative style and manipulation of political rhetoric that looks back to the Athenian imperialism of the fifth century. To derive support, however, for that (in part subjective, but not entirely) assessment, a broader vista is required; my route is as follows: (i) for comparative purposes, a consideration of narrative patterns in Athenian decrees that honor individuals who rescue and ransom exiles and captives; (ii) a consideration of the ‘Decreta ΦΥΓΗΣ’ in the Samian corpus, also with a view to identifying narrative patterns; (iii) a study of IG XII 6,1 42, with attention to (a) chronology and the procedures by which the Samian captives in Athens were condemned to death and then freed by Antileon; and (b) the narrative style and rhetoric of the decree. In the end, the rhetoric of the decree and its monumentality (its accompanying statue) are viewed against the backdrop of the aggregate of the Samian decrees of exile, all set up in the Samian Heraion: together they tell a story of ‘the return of the exiles’; at the same time, they form an archive of commemoration, not just of generous benefactors and their deeds, but of all the emotions and antagonisms born of Athenian imperialism.

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