Artabanus III of Parthia to Susa: validating the city treasurer's election (Welles RC 75)

Artabanus III of Parthia to Susa: validating the city treasurer's election (Welles RC 75) — edition Βασιλεὺς βασιλέων Ἀρσάκης Ἀντιόχωι καὶ Φραάτει … τοῖς ἄρχουσι καὶ τῆι πόλει χαίρειν Βασιλεὺς βασιλέων Ἀρσάκης Ἀντιόχωι καὶ Φραάτει ὄντων ἐν Σούσοις τοῖς ἄρχουσι καὶ τῆι πόλει χαίρειν· ἐπειδὴ Ἑσ- τιαῖος Ἀσίου, τῶν ἡμετέρων πολιτῶν καὶ τῶν πρώτων καὶ προτιμωμένων φίλων καὶ τῶν σωματοφυλάκων, ἄρξας ταμιευτικὴν ἀρχὴν ἐν τῶι κατὰ τοὺς προτέρους ἀριθμοὺς ἐνάτωι εἰκοστῶι τριακοσιοστῶι ἔτει ἀνεστράφη ἐν ταύτηι ἄριστα καὶ δικαιότατα καὶ μετὰ πάσης καθαριότητος, μηδὲν ἀνάλωμα — — — — — — δευτέρωι καὶ τριακοστῶι ? ἔτος καὶ ἐκ πολλῆς δοκιμασίας, αἱρεθέντος ἄρχοντος Πεταίου τοῦ Ἀντιόχου μετὰ Ἀριστομένους τοῦ Φιλίππου, παρελθὼν προηνέγκατο διακελεύσασθαι αὐτὸν ἐκ τῶν διηγορευμένων δὶς ἄρξαι τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρχὴν ἐὰν μὴ διαλείπῃ ἔτη τρία· ἡ δὲ πόλις πρότερον πεπειραμένη τῆς ἀγαθῆς προαιρέσεως καὶ διὰ μνήμης ἔχουσα τὴν διοίκησιν τῆς προδηλουμένης ἀρχῆς ἔκρινεν αὐτὸν αἱρεῖσθαι ἄρ- χοντα, ὅθεν εἱρέθη ἐπὶ τὸ δεύτερον καὶ τριακοσιοστὸν ἔτος Πεταίου τοῦ Ἀντιόχου καὶ Ἀριστομένους τοῦ Φιλίππου· ἐπεὶ οὖν τὸν μὲν Ἑστιαῖον ἐπὶ τοῖς προδηλουμένοις ἐπανηνέγκατε εἰς ἡμᾶς, τὴν αἵρεσιν αὐτοῦ κρείνομεν εἶναι κυρίαν καὶ μὴ παραδιώκεσθαι αὐτὸν τῶι μὴ διαλείποντα ἔτη τρία ἄρξαι τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρχὴν μηδ' ἄλλωι ὁτινιοῦν περὶ τούτων ἐπιτάγματι, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν πάντων παρῃτημένης πάσης ἀπορρήσεώς τε καὶ ἐπιζητήσεως — — — φρασθεῖσαν ἐπ' ὀνόματος λελύσθαι· ηξσ΄, Αὐδναίου ιζ΄.

Artabanus III of Parthia to Susa: validating the city treasurer's election (Welles RC 75) — translation

Artabanus III rules valid the city of Susa's re-election of the exemplary Hestiaeus as treasurer, despite the bar on holding the same office twice within three years, and forbids any prosecution (ll. 1–25)

King of kings Arsaces, to Antiochus and Phraates the magistrates in Susa and to the city, greeting. Since Hestiaeus son of Asius — one of our citizens, and a member of the order of the first and most-honoured Friends and of the Bodyguards — having held the office of treasurer in the year 329 by the former reckoning, conducted himself in it most honourably and justly and with all integrity, sparing no expense of his own when the outlay was for the city's good;

and twice during his term, when the city had need of an envoy, he made the journey himself, counting the care of his own person of small account beside the city's more urgent affairs, and sparing neither money nor trouble; for which he received the appropriate honours, as the decree the city voted in the year 330 testifies;

and since in the year 331, when a good man was again needed for the same office for the year 332, after much scrutiny — Petaeus son of Antiochus having been elected archon together with Aristomenes son of Philippus — he came forward and declared that he was debarred from holding the same office twice unless an interval of three years had elapsed; but the city, having before experienced his good purpose and remembering his administration of the said office, decided to elect him treasurer, and so he was elected for the 332nd year, in the archonship of Petaeus son of Antiochus and Aristomenes son of Philippus —

since, then, you have referred Hestiaeus to us on the grounds stated above, we judge his election to be valid and that he is not to be prosecuted for having held the same office twice without leaving an interval of three years, nor on the basis of any other ordinance dealing with these matters; and, all objection and inquiry being set aside, [we order] that what has been declared in his name be carried out. Year 268, Audnaeus 17.

Artabanus III of Parthia to Susa: validating the city treasurer's election (Welles RC 75) — commentary

The corpus's chronological capstone (A.D. 21) and its only Parthian document. King Artabanus III, under the Arsacid title 'King of kings Arsaces', answers the magistrates and city of Seleucia on the Eulaeus — i.e. Susa, a Greek polis still running on archons, council and people under Parthian rule. The case is a small but revealing one: Hestiaeus son of Asius, a citizen and court 'Friend' and Bodyguard, had been an exemplary treasurer in 329 (by the Seleucid reckoning); re-elected for 332, he himself pointed out that the city's constitution barred holding the same office twice within three years, but the city re-chose him and referred the matter up. The king validates the election (κυρία), bars any prosecution, and overrides any contrary ordinance. The Greek is the famously irregular Parthian-chancery 'barbarian Greek'; the stone survives only in Cumont's 1932 editio princeps (Welles 1934, 299-306).

Critical apparatus Βασιλεὺς βασιλέων Ἀρσάκης — 'King of kings Arsaces' — the Arsacid throne-name borne by Artabanus III; the standard Parthian royal style. τῶν … προτιμωμένων φίλων καὶ τῶν σωματοφυλάκων — Hestiaeus belongs to the court orders of the 'first and most-honoured Friends' (philoi) and of the Bodyguards (sōmatophylakes) — Hellenistic court ranks maintained under Parthian rule. τὴν αἵρεσιν αὐτοῦ κρείνομεν εἶναι κυρίαν — the operative ruling: 'we judge his election to be valid' — note the 'barbarian' spelling κρείνομεν (for κρίνομεν), reproduced not normalized. ηξσ΄, Αὐδναίου ιζ΄ — Arsacid year 268 (= A.D. 21), the Macedonian month Audnaeus, day 17. The body's year-numbers (329-332) are by the older Seleucid reckoning.

Editions and commentary C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 75 (text, translation, commentary; the reading text here). F. Cumont, Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris 1932), 238-259 (the editio princeps, restored with M. Holleaux; the sole edition — not on disk). M. Rostovtzeff, Scientia LIII (1933), 120 f (commentary). cf. for the Parthian-period 'barbarian Greek' alphabet: F. Cumont, Fouilles de Doura-Europos 352 f.