Direct Taxation in Roman Macedonia: A New Votive Inscription of a δεκαπρωτος in an Unknown City of Western Pieria

Abstract

First edition of a votive inscription dated to 73/74 AD and found at the site Palekklissi in Western Pieria (Macedonia) which is located in the area bounded by the villages of Elatohori, Ritini, Lagorahi and Moschopotamos. According to the restored text an otherwise unkown prominent citizen called Teimoxenos son of Teimoxenos built a naos to Asklepios and Hygieia on the occasion of his election as dekaprotos. It is about the first and only attestation of the institution in a city of the province of Macedonia and the second earliest from the Greek East, the eldest being a pair of inscriptions from Gerasa (province of Arabia) of the year 66 AD. Teimoxenos was citizen of an unkown city, perhaps Phylakai, which lay in the area holding a controlling position on the main road between Pieria and Bottiaia over the Pieria Massif.