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Royal Correspondence: 51


LETTER OF AN ATTALID KING TO MILITARY CLERUCHS

Greek text:   IvP_1.158
Date:     first half of 2nd century B.C.
Tags:     colonies ,   land_ownership
Format:   see key to translations

This letter, written by an unidentified king, contains regulations for a military colony situated near Pergamon. Regulations for another Attalid settlement can be found in the letters from Eumenes II to Tyriaion ( SEG_47.1745 ).


. . . [to those who] delivered [your petition . . .] the lots [comprising at the most one hundred and twenty five] plethra of cleared land and twelve and a half plethra [of vine-land . . .] those who have not wished . . . to share in . . . [with] the larger lots, and of the others [to those who are housed] in the city one hundred plethra of cleared land and [ten plethra] of vine-land, and to each of those who are not yet housed fifty plethra of cleared land and five of vine-land, on condition that they pay on the latter [a tax of five per cent, and] on the grain and the other crops ten per cent. [As to the vine-land] and the other tracts which Demarchos [our agent] has sold, [and if] any other royal officials shall in the future sell [other tracts], the ownership of these shall be absolute [according to the grant] in each case. To the precinct for [the service of the gods which] I formerly ordered Demarchos to convey . . . and their freedom from taxation I have granted you . . . [and of the properties] which I have given to the cadets for their oil. [I have granted you also that the] right of the childless to dispose of their property by will be clearly [valid, after they have paid what] taxes are due to the royal treasury . . . in others and in these . . . them to you and tax-exemption . . . of the mercenaries of the [guard-post in] . . . eponymous . . . having inscribed this letter on [two] steles [to erect one in the temple of Athena] and the other in Gryneion [in the temple of Apollo. Farewell.]

letter 52


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