Decree of Themistocles

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system1988
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Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:20 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Decree of Themistocles

Post by system1988 »

I saw "300- Rise of an Empire". No comments.

There is however a nice scene in there which shows the setting Athens on fire that happened just before the naval battle of Salamis- the main story of the movie.

The reality part now- the marble stele found in 1959 at Troizen during ploughing (height 0.61m, width 0.375m, thickness 0.09m)

Here is the link to the stele

http://s1246.photobucket.com/user/IamSy ... t=3&page=1

In this decree Themistokles proposes important measures to deal with the Persian invasion of 481/0 BC: the protection of Athens is assigned to Athena and all the Gods, the city is evacuated- the women and children are sent to Troizen and the old men and moveable property to Salamis- the Acropolis is protected, two hundred ships are crewed and the procedure is completed by the carrying out of sacrifices; a hundred ships are sent to Artemision on Euboea and a hundred are committed to patrols around Salamis and the rest of Attica, and harmony is achieved between the Athenians by the recall of those ostracised and their temporary settlement on Salamis.
...

Views are divided between those who believe the text (or at least part of it) to be the orginal decree of 481/0 BC and those who believe that it is, either wholy or in part, a later fabrication of the 4th or 3rd c. BC. The decree certainly contains anachronisms that mean that it cannot be assigned as a whole to the 5th c. BC. The most important of these are 1) its great length and the numerous detailed regulations- elements unusual in earlier Athenian decrees, 2) the use of the patronymic and demotic after the name of Themistokles (this form of nomeclature is found in much later Athenian decrees ), 3) the dieties enumerated inII. 38-40 and 4 the language, especially the absence of hiatus.
(from the "Athenian democracy speaking through its scriptions" - Athens 2009")

However i believe that the inscription contains genuine bits from the tension of the war- a true remnant of Themistokle's genius.
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