An Unpublished Inscription From Kythera*

¹ Castellan, A.L., Lettres sur la Morée, l'Hellespont et Constantinople² (1820), 19ff., Plate 2. Castellan gives an interesting description of the church, but makes no mention of the inscribed slab.

² Inscriptions from Kythera that were already known from earlier publications are included by G. Kolbe in his publication of Inscriptiones Graecae in 1913. See IG V.l. 380, 935–947. More recent published inscriptions: SEG XI 895, XXII, 300; Forrest, W.G., ‘A Metrical Inscription’ in Coldstream, J.N. and Huxley, G.L., Kythera, Excavations and Studies (1972) 314.

³ The way the inscribed slab is built into the altar makes it impossible to give more information about the back of it or to measure its thickness with accuracy.

⁴ Above right and in the blank area below the inscription Latin numerals are visible, incised at some later period, which cannot be read.

⁵ Cf. the sentence in Thucydides (VII 57, 6): ῾᾿Πόδιοι δὲ ϰαὶ Κυϑὴριοι Δωριη̄ς ἀμφότεροι’. For the dialect see E. Bourquet, Le dialecte Laconien (1927).

⁶ See inscriptions from different localities in Lakonia: e.g. IG V.I. 1168 (district of Gytheion), 1237–1240 (district of Tainaron); SEG XXIX. 383 (Voiai).

⁷ For the surnames and honorary titles of the emperor Trajan cf. the honorary decree from Kythera: IG V.l. 380= SEG XXX.413.

⁸ Cf. the inscription IG V.l. 405.

⁹ Cf. e.g. IG V.l. p.354 s.v.

¹⁰ For Hadrian's nomothetic activity in other provincial Greek cities see, e.g., Cass.Dio lxix.16.1–3; S. Follet, Athènes au Ile et au IIIe siècle (1976) 117 (Athens); IG VII.70–82.3491 (Megara); SEG XVII.80; Reynolds, J., ‘Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the Cyrenaican cities’ JRS 68, 1978, sep. 118 (Cyrene). For Hadrian's euergetic activity at Sparta see provisionally Spawforth, A. and Walker, S., ‘The World of the Panhellenion. II. Three Dorian Cities’ JRS 76, 1986, 96; fuller treatment in P. Cartledge and A. Spawforth, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta (forthcoming).

¹¹ See provisional discussion: Spawforth, A., BSA 73, 1978, 251–2. For Hadrianic Κυϑηροδίϰης: SEG XI.492 with Spawforth, A., BSA 75, 1980, 207.

¹² For the antiquities of Palaiopolis and the indications of occupation in the locality during the Roman period in general, see Petrocheilos, I.E., Τά Κύϑηϱα ἀπό τήν πϱοϊστοϱιχή ἐποχή ὥς τήν Πωμαιοχϱατία, Dodone, suppl. 21 (1984) 77ff.

^* I wish to express my warmest thanks to the Ephor of Antiquities in Attica, Mr V. Petrakos, for permission to publish this inscription. I am also grateful to Dr A. Spawforth for reading this manuscript and making helpful suggestions.