A Boiotian Proxeny Decree and Relief in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Boiotian-Lakonian Relations in the 360s

Resumen

A marble stele in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, carries a decree of the Boiotian koinon bestowing proxeny on a Lakonian. The decree is accompanied by a relief in three tiers, depicting the infant Herakles strangling snakes; Polydeukes, Kastor, and Athana Alea; and a warship. This article provides a first edition of the text, an analysis of the relief, and a discussion of the date of the stele, which hinges on the relationship between text and relief. It is argued that there are two possible historical contexts: 369, in the aftermath of the first Theban invasion of Lakonia, and ca. 365–3, in connection with the Boiotian naval-building program championed by Epameinondas. The stele is the first known instance of a fourth-century Boiotian public document accompanied by a relief, but its provenance is unknown and it may have been commissioned and set up by the honorand in Tegea or Lakonia.