Phoenicians Among Others by Denise Demetriou;

Author:Denise Demetriou;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2023-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Monetized Awards

The extremely formulaic language and standardized awards recorded on the thousands of honorific inscriptions from Greek communities throughout the Mediterranean region during the many centuries in which this system was employed to honor foreigners may make it seem rather pro forma. But closer attention demonstrates that it was sophisticated, nuanced, and institutionalized within state procedures and processes. It also allowed input from foreigners themselves. That both those giving and those receiving these awards were aware of their monetary worth is clear from language such as “and it should be possible for him to obtain from the demos whatever benefit he can” that appears in the honorific decree recording the awards given to Herakleides and a later, third-century bce (285–270 bce) Attic decree honoring several men, including a Sidonian, with gold wreaths because of the goodwill (eunoia) they held toward the Athenian people and their ambition (philotimia).18 Such language, although highly abbreviated, suggests that these recipients could seek to receive further benefits from the Athenian council and assembly, depending on what these governmental organs deemed the honorands’ actions were worth or what the honorands thought they could get. A variation of this awareness can be seen in numerous inscriptions detailing the various awards granted to individuals who had been named a proxenos and benefactor and adding that they were also eligible for all other awards customarily given to such individuals.19 Together, such references indicate a level of flexibility within this award-giving system that appeared to allow some input or negotiation from foreign honorands, much like that conducted by the trade associations discussed in earlier chapters.

As the repeated awarding of gold wreaths to Herakleides for his continued benefactions toward the Athenians demonstrates, host states thought of such monetized awards, which were both the simplest and the most expensive awards given to foreigners and immigrants, not as commercial transactions but rather as efforts toward building long-term relationships with the honorands and promoting migration. Indeed, awarding a monetized gift to a foreigner did not signal the end of the relationship between the honorand and the host state, as it would in the case of a sale, but quite the opposite: by reciprocating an act of service to the state, the state initiated a potentially permanent relationship with the honorand, who was encouraged to continue to serve the interests of that state. Nor was Herakleides an exception, as other foreign individuals in Athens also received multiple awards over the years.20 Despite the monetized nature of these awards, they entangled the grantor and the recipient in what was potentially a long-term and even permanent reciprocal relationship.

Two inscriptions from Delos, which, with Delphi, was one of the most famous and frequented Greek religious centers throughout antiquity by both Greeks and non-Greeks, provide a further example of repeated awards given to individuals and the long-term relationships that polities sought to create through giving these and other forms of awards. Early in the second century bce, a few years after Delos awarded an Ashkelonite named Aphrodisios, the son

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