This is a decree from Oropos, dating from the mid-2nd century BC, in which the Oropians honour a benefactor, the Achaean Hieron, for pleading their cause during exile and helping them recover their homeland. Hieron is awarded major honours, such as the granting of a bronze statue and the public proclamation of the honour bestowed on him during the gymnastic agon of the Amphiariae. His benevolence and nobility of spirit are praised, alongside the concrete assistance he offered in times of extreme difficulty for the city. Reference is to the Athenian attack on Oropos, now isolated on the international chessboard after the dissolution of the Boiotian League in 172 BC. Pausanias (7.11.4-12.1) provides the context of the events alluded to in the epigraphic document, but his account is marked by inaccuracies and inconsistencies. According to him, the Roman senate, to whom the Oropians had appealed for satisfaction, entrusted the matter to the Sicionians for arbitration. The latter sanctioned the Athenian aggressors with a fine of 500 talents, but the Athenians, unable to pay, succeeded in having the fine reduced to 100 talents and obtained by an agreement with the Oropians to impose a garrison in the territory of Oropos. However, the men of the garrison abused their position and mistreated the Oropians, who in response asked the Achaeans for help. Pausanias states that the Achaeans ‘decided not to grant aid to the Oropians out of friendship and respect for the Athenians’, but later, having suborned the strategists, they intervened in favour of Oropos. Our inscription alludes to the intervention, most likely of a military nature, of the Achaean league, propitiated by Hieron and preceded by two assemblies in which negotiations were held. The first of the two assemblies, called synodos, took place in Corinth and was attended by the magistrates of the Oropians in exile (ll. 4-12); the second, called synkletos, was convened by the Achaeans in Argos (ll. 12-22).
Yet, to which institutions do synodos and synkletos allude? This is a question that has given rise to a heated debate among scholars, in which two theories stand out: 1) synodos is to be understood as a popular assembly open to all citizens in their own right, but is? in fact the expression of a restricted group of wealthy and politically active Achaeans; synkletos, on the other hand, indicates an extraordinary assembly of all citizens convened to deliberate on matters of war or alliances (Aymard); 2) on the basis of the fact that Polybius sometimes (4. 26.7-8; 22.7.3) uses synodos in connection with boule, it is believed that synodos, originally a federal assembly, became a broad council in which magistrates also took part, following an institutional reform that occurred around 217 BC (Larsen). The 2008 discovery of an inscription from Messene (SEG 58.370, 182 BC) has shed new light on the matter, leading to the conclusion that the synodos was a large council that brought together the delegates of the confederated cities according to a criterion of proportional representation similar to that operating in the Lycian koinon (archairesiake ekklesia, Strab. 14.3.3*).
1 Ὀλύμπιχος Ἑρμοδώρου εἶπεν· ἐπειδὴ Ἱέρων
Τηλεκλέους Αἰγειράτης εὔνους ὢν διατελε[ῖ]
τῶι δήμωι τῶι Ὠρωπίων ἐμ παντὶ καιρῶι καὶ λέγων
καὶ πράττων τὰ συμφέροντα, γενομένων τε συμ-
5 πτωμάτων καὶ παρασπονδημάτων τῶμ μεγίστων
περὶ Ὠρωπίους καὶ τῶν ἀρχόντων καὶ ἡμῶν πα-
ραγενομένων εἰς τὴν ἐν Κορίνθωι σύνοδον ἠρά-
νισέν τε ἡμῖν καὶ συμβουλεύσας παρεστήσατο
τοὺς Ἀχαιοὺς τὴν πᾶσαν πρόνοιαν ποιήσασθαι ὑ-
10 πέρ τε τῆς πόλεως ἡμῶν καὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τοῦ Ἀμφια-
ράου, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν τεῖ Ῥωμαίων φιλίαι καὶ πίστει διατε-
λοῦμεν ὑπάρχοντες· δόξαντος δὲ τοῖς Ἀχαιοῖς
συναγαγεῖν σύνκλητον ἐν Ἄργει περὶ τούτων,
Ἱέρων ἐμ παντὶ καιρῶι βουλόμενος ἐκφανῆ π[οι]-
15 εῖν τὴν αὑτοῦ εὔνοιαν καὶ καλοκἀγαθίαν ὑπ[ε]-
δέξατο πάντας τοὺς παραγενομένους Ὠρω-
πίων ἐπὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ἑστίαν, ἔθυσέν τε τῶι Δ[ιὶ]
τῶι Σωτῆρι ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, πρός τε Ἀθηναίους κα[ὶ]
τοὺς ἄλλους τοὺς ἀντιπρεσβεύοντας ὑπέ[σ]-
20 τη καὶ παρεστήσατο τοὺς Ἀχαιοὺς μὴ περιιδε[ῖν]
πόλιν Ἑλληνίδα ἐξανδραποδισθεῖσαν, οὖσάν
γε ἐν τεῖ Ῥωμαίων φιλίαι καὶ πίστει, καὶ διὰ τὴν
τούτου πρόνοιαν καὶ καλοκἀγαθίαν συμβέβηκε
κεκομίσθαι ἡμᾶς τὴν πατρίδα καὶ κατεληλ[υ]-
25 θέναι μετὰ τέκνων καὶ γυναικῶν· ὅπως οὖν κ[αὶ]
Ὠρώπιοι φαίνωνται μνημονεύοντες ὧν ἂν εὐε[ρ]-
γετηθῶσιν ὑπό τινος, γίνωνται δὲ καὶ ἄλλοι ζ[η]-
[λ]ωταὶ τῆς αὐτῆς αἱρέσεως εἰδότες ὅτι τιμηθ[ή]-
σονται ἀξίως ὧν ἂν εὐεργετήσωσιν, ἀγαθε[ῖ]
30 τύχει, δεδόχθαι τῶι δήμωι Ὠρωπίων· στεφαν[ῶ]-
σαι Ἱέρω[ν]α Τηλεκλέους Αἰγειράτην εἰκόν[ι]
χαλκεῖ ἀρετῆς ἕνεκεν καὶ καλοκἀγαθίας ἣν̣
ἔχων διατελεῖ εἰς τὸν δῆμον τὸ̣ν Ὠρωπίων, ἀν[α]-
γορεῦσαι δὲ τὴν τῆς εἰκ[ό]νος στάσιν Ἀμφιαρά[ων]
35 τῶμ μεγάλων τῶι γυμνικῶι ἀγῶνι.
Olympichos son of Hermodoros made the proposal. For Hieron, son of Telekles, of Aigeira continued to be well disposed towards the people of Oropos on every occasion, in word and deed, when the greatest misfortunes and breaches of pacts had befallen the Oropians, and our archons were present at the assembly in Corinth, and he collected money for us, and giving advice he advised the Achaeans to have total foresight in favour of both our city and the temple of Amphiaraus, since we remain in the friendship and loyalty of the Romans. When the Achaeans decided to hold an assembly in Argos on these matters, Hieron, wishing to make his benevolence and noble conduct evident at every opportunity, hosted all those present among the Oropians in his hearth and sacrificed to Zeus Soter for our benefit; he addressed the Athenians and the other ambassadors who were speaking against us and called upon the Achaeans not to stand by and watch a Greek city being enslaved, a city that was a Romans’ ally; thanks to his foresight and noble conduct, he ensured that we recovered our homeland and returned there with our children and women. In order that, therefore, the Oropians too may clearly remember the deeds of their benefactors and that others too may emulate the same choice, knowing that they will be honoured in a worthy manner for the good deeds they have performed, therefore, for good luck, the people of the Oropians have resolved to honour Hieron son of Telekles of Aigeira with a bronze statue for the valour and noble conduct he continues to display towards the people of the Oropians; to publicly proclaim the erection of the statue on the occasion of the gymnastic agon of the Great Amphiaraia.
- I.N. Arnaoutoglou, Dispute Settlement between Poleis-members of the Achaean League: A New Source, Dike 12/13, 2009/2010, 181-202
- A. Aymard, Les assemblée de la confédération achaienne. Étude critique d’institutions et d’histoire, Bordeaux, Paris 1938
- B. Gray, Historical Consciousness and Political Agency among Ancient Greek Refugees, Pallas 112, 2020, 231-245
- E.S. Gruen, The Origins of the Achaean War, JHS 96, 1976, 46-69
- J.A.O. Larsen, Representative Government in Greek and Roman History, Berkeley, Los Angeles 1955
- E. Mackil, Creating a Common Polity: Religion, Economy, and Politics in the Making of the Greek Koinon, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 2013
- K.S. Sizov, On the Composition of the Achaian Synodos in Polybios’ Time, AAntHung 57.4, 2017, 381-414
- A. Wilding, Reiventing the Amphiareion at Oropos, Leiden, Boston 2022