Guest Post by Bram ten Berge: New Research

on the Athenian Tribute Lists

From Stone to Screen’s latest blog post features a guest author, Bram ten Berge, writing on the
ATL’s from Athens, Greece. Enjoy!

Hello all,
My name is Bram ten Berge. I’m a PhD candidate in the
Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan, and
am currently living in Athens as a regular member of the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA). In this short blog I
would like to share with you some of the new developments in the
scholarship on the Athenian Tribute Lists about which I learned in
a recent tour in the Epigraphical Museum; this new research
shows that the digitization project at UBC coincides with an
exciting time for Greek epigraphy.

Bram investigating an inscription at the Epigraphy Museum, Athens

First some background information. The ‘Athenian Tribute Lists’

(ATLs) are inscriptions that record tribute payments made annually
by Athens’ allies – the members of the Delian League – after 454
BC, when the League Treasury was moved to Athens from the
island of Delos. What these inscriptions record are not the actual
tribute lists (of which not a single fragment survives today), but
rather a 1/60th part of each ally’s total assessed tribute, which was
dedicated to the goddess Athena as ‘first-fruits’ (aparchai). These
amounts are commonly referred to as the ‘tribute quota’ and the
inscriptions that record them as the ‘tribute quota lists’. These
amounts were annually inscribed on stone slabs (stelai), some of
which have survived from antiquity. For the first fifteen years, from
454/3 to 440/39 BC, the tribute quota lists were inscribed on the
four sides of a massive stele of Pentelic marble, the so-called Lapis
Primus (‘First Stone’). For the following eight years, from 439/38 –
432/31 BC, the lists were inscribed on a smaller stele of Pentelic
marble, the so-called Lapis Secundus (‘Second Stone’). In all
subsequent years, down to 415/14 BC, each list was inscribed on
its own marble stele and on one side only. The tribute quota lists
were recorded annually after representatives of the allied cities
delivered their tribute during the City Dionysia, a large festival in
honor of the god Dionysus. The stones on which they were
inscribed stood on the Acropolis, where visitors and allied
representatives could witness them, a physical representation, if
you will, of Athenian power. Some of these stones eventually made
their way down to the Athenian Agora. Most of the fragments of
these stones are now in the Epigraphical Museum in Athens, where
they have been stored since their discovery. Many of the squeezes
in the McGregor collection come from the above stones and
allowed him to continue studying the evidence while away from
Athens.

The Lapis Primus (Photo courtesy of M. Miles)

The tribute quota lists form crucial evidence for our conception of
fifth century Athenian financial, political, and military history. They
are commonly used by modern scholars, together with other major
inscriptions and the principal historical events, to reconstruct the
nature and development of Athenian power in the Aegean
throughout the fifth century. There are many other concerns,
especially economic in nature, that are connected with the lists as
well, such as the financial details of the building program on the
Acropolis, for which we know part of the tribute surplus was used,
the financial upkeep of the Athenian democratic institutions and
judiciary system, supplied in part by the incoming tribute, the
economic vitality of allied cities, and the location and identification
of lesser-known cities based on the lists.
The major edition of the lists consists of four monumental volumes
edited by Malcolm McGregor and his colleagues Benjamin Meritt
and Henry Wade-Gery, titled The Athenian Tribute Lists and
published over 14 years from 1939-1953. The volumes were a truly
massive accomplishment on the part of the authors and still
constitute the authoritative edition. Their reconstructions of the
lists as well as their historical conclusions soon became orthodoxy
and they remain the starting-point for any examination of the
finances, history, and geography of the Athenian empire. All this is
not to say, however, that the last word on these topics has been
spoken, much less that our evidence is final or fixed. On the
contrary, recent developments have left the field wide open to new
interpretation.

The Lapis Primus (Photo courtesy of M.Miles)

The Lapis Primus, side
view (Photo courtesy
of M.Miles)
As part of the
ASCSA regular
program, I
have had the
wonderful
opportunity to
visit the
Epigraphical
Museum
several times
this year, and
the last time
under the
guidance of well-known epigrapher Angelos P. Matthaiou. Judging
from what our group discussed with him that morning I can tell
you this is a great time for Greek epigraphy. First off, new
discoveries of fragments constantly encourage us to reconsider the
current configuration of the tribute lists as reconstructed by
McGregor, Wade-Gery, and Meritt. Professor Matthaiou showed us
a number of recently discovered (and still unpublished) fragments
of the lists as well as a new fragment of the so-called “Thoudippos
Decree” on tribute reassessment (425/4 BC) that proved that some
of the seemingly secure restorations of the editors are in fact
incorrect. Such new evidence reminds us of the risks inherent in
restoring words (especially large chunks of text) that are not in
fact present on the stone. Since the tribute lists and texts like the
Thoudippos decree are crucial sources for any reconstruction of 5 th
century Athenian history, any changes in the lists’ configuration
can have far-reaching implications for the historical conclusions
that depend on them.
In addition to the discovery of new fragments, the resolution of the
so-called “three-barred sigma controversy” is leading to the re-
dating of many important 5th century inscriptions that are highly
relevant to the tribute lists. Some of these will have their date
shifted from the 440s to the 420s BC and vice versa, with
significant implications for our reconstruction of the nature and
development of Athenian power throughout the fifth century. Until
about 15-20 years ago, there existed among epigraphers an
orthodoxy (challenged early on by Harold Mattingly: see esp. The
Athenian Empire Restored, 1996) whereby inscriptions containing
a so-called “three-barred sigma” had to pre-date 448/7 BC, the
year in which, according to this ‘rule’, sigmas with three bars went
out of use and were replaced by sigmas with four bars. It has now,
with the help of laser-beam technology, been sufficiently proven
that three-barred sigmas did in fact continue to be used after
448/7, vindicating Mattingly, questioning letterforms as a secure
dating-criterion, and opening up many 5th century inscriptions to
re-dating and re-interpretation. A great place to see some of the
new directions taken in the scholarship as a result of these
developments is the recent volume edited by John Ma, Nikolaos
Papazarkadas, and Robert Parker (Interpreting the Athenian
Empire, 2009).
But perhaps the most exciting development, and certainly the one
that will have the biggest impact on future scholarship on the
ATLs, is the proposed dismantling and reassembling of the Lapis
Primus, with its 180 fragments of ancient white marble. The
interior rods of this massive stone (at c. 3.5 meters high it easily
rises above all other inscriptions in the museum) have slowly
deteriorated over time and, as Professor Matthaiou and the current
director of the Museum told us, will soon (pending financial
support) be replaced by titanium rods. When this happens (and we
all hope it will be soon), it will give scholars the opportunity, for the
first time since 1927, to reexamine the inscribed fragments from
every side, to re-measure them, and, ultimately, to reassemble
them again. Matthaiou and the director further told us there are
plans for similar projects for the Lapis Secundus and the stele of
the Thoudippos Decree, although I believe these plans are much
less formalized for the time being. In addition to the above
developments, careful searches through the storerooms of the
Agora and Acropolis museums may yield further fragments of the
lists that as of yet have remained undiscovered (Matthaiou recently
found one such fragment in the storeroom of the Acropolis
Museum). All of the above developments make for an amazing time
in Greek epigraphy and the study of ancient Greece more
generally. Given the projected dismantling and reassembling of the
Lapis Primus it is all the more significant that the McGregor
squeeze collection as well as McGregor’s personal charts be
preserved online. It will preserve for posterity copies of the stone’s
fragments as McGregor and his colleagues studied and configured
them.

The Lapis Primus (Photo courtesy of M. Miles)

I would like to congratulate the graduate students at UBC for

initiating this wonderful project of digitizing the McGregor squeeze
collection, including squeezes of the Athenian Tribute Lists and
McGregor’s personal charts. These are truly remarkable resources
that I’m confident many around the world cannot wait to be able to
consult online. Congratulations also on the recent acquisition of
additional funds from the Teaching and Learning Enhancement
Fund at UBC. The project could not be happening in a more
exciting context for Greek epigraphy!

All the best,

Bram ten Berge (bltenber@umich.edu)