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Translations of Hellenistic Inscriptions: 104


ERETRIA ARBITRATES BETWEEN PAROS AND NAXOS

Greek text:   IG_11.4.1065
Provenance:     Delos
Date:   194-166 B.C.
Tags:     arbitration
Format:   see key to translations

Nothing is known about the cause of the dispute between Paros and Naxos, but it is a good example of how arbitration was conducted between Greek states: see S.Ager, "Interstate Arbitrations in the Greek World, 337–90 B.C.", no.83 ( Google Books ).   The translation of part B is copied, with minor changes, from the Greek Inscriptions in the UK wiki ( B is now on display at Leeds City Museum ).


[A]   . . . and Kritias brought letters, and coming before the council and the assembly they jointly requested a tribunal. The people voted to choose by lot three hundred and one judges, such as the delegates {epēkooi} from both the cities agreed with each other. The lawsuits were presented, and a settlement was achieved in the tribunal, with the approval of those who were present from each city; therefore, in order that you too may be aware of what has been determined by the judges, we have sent you a copy of it.

[B]   Just as for the judges of the Eretrians, it was resolved also by the delegates dispatched from the Parians and from the Naxians, concerning those things about which the Parians went to law against the Naxians. There shall no longer be any lawsuit for an individual arising out of the charges that arose previously or the wrongs committed against the cities. There shall no longer be any lawsuit against the city of the Naxians brought by the city of the Parians, nor by the city of the Naxians against that of the Parians. There shall be neither any debt nor any charge nor any wrong for any individual against the cities, nor any charge against an individual arising out of the previously existing charges or acts of wrong by him in relation to them. Besides, the tribunal of the Eretrians commands the city of the Parians to sacrifice a cow to the value that is written up on this document, and the Parians are to bring the sacrifice to Dionysos on Naxos, and the perquisite of the cow is . . . whichever of the cities or individuals does something against this verdict, let it pay a fine . . . if a city commits the transgression, let it pay a penalty of twenty talents; if it is an individual, five talents. So that . . . the settlement that has come about from the . . . on the (?) of the month Hippion waning at the time when, as the Eretrians reckon, the generals were those with Archebios; as the Naxians reckon, when Philokritos the son of . . . was priest of Dionysos, during the month of . . .; as the Parians reckon, when Thou... was archon, during the month of Plynterion. The commissioners {probouloi} and the generals of the Eretrians shall both record this settlement among themselves at the public archive and they shall send it to the cities sealed with the public seal. And the delegates of each of the cities shall deliver this settlement.

inscription 105


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