Finds from Miletus XXV. Hellenistic Citizenship and Proxeny Lists from the Delphinion and Their Whereabouts in the Byzantine Period

Abstract

Four new inscription finds, wall ashlars from the Delphinion reused as spolia, contain registers of new citizens and proxenoi of the 3rd century B.C.: the oldest yet dated list from 274/273, which attests for the first time new citizens from the area of Thessaly, a list of naturalised metics, among them the later celebrated Eudemos, founder of a school, as well as the section of a register whose unusually great length suggests the complete incorporation of a polis community. This list probably documents the sympolity with neighbouring Myus. Two inscription finds from the old Miletus excavation of 1918 are registers from the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.; they include the naming of a proxenos from Berytos in Phoenicia. A fairly large number of ashlars from the Delphinion were reused in the construction of a cemetery church in the post-Justinian period.This suggests that the Delphinion survived as an intact building or as a ruin into the 6th century A.D.

Keywords: Miletus • Delphinion • inscriptions • citizenship • proxeny • sympolity • Byzantium