Eumenes II to the Ionian League: accepting the honours voted him magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub reading text and apparatus afterW. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae II (Leipzig 1905), no. 763 (the base text; supplements by Wiegand). magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub Beijing 2026 magalia.wiki welles-eumenes-ionians OGIS 763 (Welles, RC 52) 763 52 CC-BY 4.0 — EpiDoc TEI edition for study and reuse. see provenanceOGIS 763 (Welles, RC 52) 763 52 The circular statue base from Miletus, eight courses of white marble, four text-columns; Berlin. Eight marble courses, four text-columns; ll.1-30 and 44-61 best preserved winter 167/6 BCE Miletus Miletus (the circular statue base; Wiegand 1902/3) — Rebuilt 1927 in the Berlin State Museums W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae II (Leipzig 1905), no. 763 (the base text; supplements by Wiegand). C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 52 (text, translation, commentary; the witness). T. Wiegand, Sitzungsberichte der Akademie Berlin 1904, 86; Archäologischer Anzeiger 1904, 9 (the excavation reports). A. Rehm, Milet I 9 (1928), 306; F. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene (1906), 535 (cf. p. XVII). Linked data and external resources Pleiades 599799 magalia.wiki edition

Leiden conventions rendered as EpiDoc: restorations as supplied(reason=lost), gaps as gap, abbreviations as expan(abbr+ex), omitted letters as supplied(reason=omitted), surplus as surplus, corrections as corr. Critical apparatus as listApp. The facing translation is div type=translation; the historical commentary is div type=commentary.

 Ancient Greek English Eumenes II SoterThe writer (Attalid king of Pergamon, 197–159 BCE)Fresh from the Senate's snub at Brundisium, he accepts the League's honours and converts them into a display of self-funded euergetism — the Galatian wars recast as service to all Greeks. Eirenias and ArchelaosThe League's envoysMet the king at Delos and delivered the decree; Eirenias of Miletus is a known intermediary of Eumenes' benefactions to his city. Menekles, the third envoy, failed to find the king. The MilesiansThe hosts of the statueHad voted the king a precinct (temenos); he chooses it for the golden statue — the circular base found in their city carries this letter. The koinon of the IoniansThe addressee (the Ionian League): The ancient thirteen-city league around the Panionion; voted the crown, the golden statue, and the proclamation of honours. the Roman Senate (senatus)issuing body
Eumenes II to the Ionian League: accepting the honours voted him — edition Βασιλεὺς Εὐμένης Ἰώνων τῶι κοινῶι χαίρειν Βασιλεὺς Εὐμένης Ἰώνων τῶι κοινῶι χαίρειν· τῶν παρ’ ὑμῶν πρεσβευτῶν Μενεκλῆς μὲν οὐ συνέμειξέ μοι, Εἰρηνίας δὲ καὶ Ἀρχέλαος ἀπαντήσαντες ἐν Δήλωι ἀπέδωκαν ψήφισμα καλὸν καὶ φιλάνθρωπον, ἐν ὧι καταρξάμενοι διότι τὰς καλλίστας ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἑλόμενος πράξεις καὶ κοινὸν ἀναδείξας ἑμαυτὸν εὐεργέτην τῶν Ἑλλήνων πολλοὺς μὲν καὶ μεγάλους ἀγῶνας ὑπέστην πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους, ἅπασαν σπουδὴν καὶ πρόνοιαν ποιούμενος ὅπως οἱ τὰς Ἑλληνίδας κατοικοῦντες πόλεις διὰ παντὸς ἐν εἰρήνηι καὶ τῆι βελτίστηι καταστάσει ὑπάρχωσιν — — — — — — — διόπερ ἔδοξεν ὑμῖν, ὅπως ἀεὶ φαίνησθε τὰς καταξίας τιμὰς τοῖς εὐεργέταις ἀπονέμοντες, στεφανῶσαι μὲν ἡμᾶς χρυσῶι στεφάνωι ἀριστείωι, στῆσαι δὲ εἰκόνα χρυσῆν ἐν ὧι ἂμ βούλωμαι τόπωι τῆς Ἰωνίας, ἀναγγεῖλαί τε τὰς τιμὰς ἔν τε τοῖς ὑφ’ ὑμῶν συντελουμένοις ἀγῶσιν καὶ κατὰ τὰς πόλεις ἐν τοῖς τιθεμένοις ἐν ἑκάστοις — — — — καὶ κατὰ πόλιν ἑκάστοις τῶν πρὸς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν ἀνηκόντων πειράσομαι καὶ νῦν τῆς τοιαύτης προθέσεως μὴ ἀφίστασθαι. γίνοιτο δὲ τῆι βουλήσει μου καὶ τὰ πράγματα συνεξακολουθεῖν· οὕτω γὰρ ὁμολογουμένην λήψεσθε μᾶλλον δι’ αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἐμῆς προαιρέσεως τὴν ἀπόδειξιν. ὅπως δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸ λοιπὸν ἐν τῆι πανηγύρει τῶν Πανιωνίων ἡμέραν ἐπώνυμον ἄγοντες ἡμῖν ἐπιφανέστερον τὴν ὅλην ἑορτὴν συντελῆτε, προσόδους ὑμῖν τὰς ἱκανὰς ἀνατίθημι, ἀφ’ ὧν ἕξετε τὴν καθήκουσαν ἡμῖν ἀποδιδόναι μνήμην. τὸν δὲ χρυσοῦν ἀνδριάντα ποιήσω μὲν ἐγὼ προαιρούμενος ἀδαπάνως — — — καὶ νῦν καὶ τῶι — — — — — — ἀνατεθῆναι δ’ αὐτὴν βούλομαι ἐν τῶι ἐψηφισμένωι ἡμῖν ὑπὸ Μιλησίων τεμένει· ἐν γὰρ ἐν ταύτηι τῆι πόλει συντελε— —
Eumenes II to the Ionian League: accepting the honours voted him — translation
Eirenias and Archelaos at Delos; the decree recited (ll. 1–10)

King Eumenes to the league of the Ionians, greeting. Of your envoys Menekles did not meet me, but Eirenias and Archelaos, meeting me at Delos, delivered a fine and generous decree, in which you recited that I — having from the start chosen the noblest deeds and shown myself a common benefactor of the Greeks — have undertaken many great struggles against the barbarians, exercising every zeal and forethought that the inhabitants of the Greek cities might always live in peace and in the best condition …

Golden crown of valour; a golden statue anywhere in Ionia; proclamation at the games (ll. 20–25)

Wherefore — that you might always be seen rendering worthy honours to your benefactors — you resolved to crown us with a golden crown of valour, to set up a golden statue in whatever place in Ionia I wish, and to proclaim the honours both in the games celebrated by you and in those held city by city in each place …

'Without cost to the league' — the king funds his own statue; the Panionia day endowed (ll. 44–56)

… (accepting:) I shall try now too not to depart from such a purpose — and may events keep pace with my will, for so you will receive through deeds themselves the demonstration of my disposition. And so that hereafter, keeping an eponymous day for us at the festival of the Panionia, you may celebrate the whole feast more splendidly, I assign to you sufficient revenues, from which you will be able to render us fitting remembrance. The golden statue I shall have made myself, choosing [that it be] without cost (ἀδαπάνως) … both now and … (the line is fragmentary); and I wish it (the statue) to be set up in the precinct voted us by the Milesians — for in this city … (the letter breaks off).

Eumenes II to the Ionian League: accepting the honours voted him — commentary

The envoys' itinerary itself tells the story: Menekles failed to find the king, but Eirenias (a leading Milesian) and Archelaos reached him at Delos — Eumenes was travelling home from his Roman humiliation. The decree they delivered recites the official Attalid self-image: 'having from the start chosen the noblest deeds and shown himself a common benefactor of the Greeks', the king bore 'many great struggles against the barbarians' — the Galatians — 'that the inhabitants of the Greek cities might always live in peace and in the best condition'. The letter quotes the League's own words back to it, fixing the record in stone (Welles 1934, 209–219; OGIS 763).

The League's package is the full grammar of Greek honours: the golden crown of valour (στέφανος ἀριστεῖος), a golden statue — the most expensive honorific medium — at any place in Ionia of the king's choosing, and proclamation at the League's games and at each city's own. Between this section and the acceptance, the king reviews his benefactions and his father's policy (summary; the stone's middle columns).

The acceptance is a study in calculated magnanimity. The king prays that 'events keep pace with my will, for so you will receive through deeds themselves the demonstration of my disposition'; he endows revenues so the League can keep an eponymous day for him at the Panionia 'more splendidly'; and he accepts the golden statue while paying for it himself — 'choosing that the favour be without cost to the league' (ἀδάπανον τῶι κοινῶι). He sites it in the precinct the Milesians had voted him: the great circular base at Miletus on which this very letter is engraved. Monument and text confirm each other (OGIS 763 ll.44–61, suppl. Wiegand; Welles 1934, 214–219).

Critical apparatus Μενεκλῆς μὲν οὐ συνέμειξέ μοι — 'Menekles did not meet me' — the envoy who missed the travelling king; Eirenias and Archelaos reached him at Delos. κοινὸν … εὐεργέτην τῶν Ἑλλήνων — 'a common benefactor of the Greeks' — the League's (and the king's) framing of the Attalid record. στεφάνωι ἀριστείωι … εἰκόνα χρυσῆν — the crown of valour and the golden statue — the League's highest honours. τὸν δὲ χρυσοῦν ἀνδρι[άντα ποιή]σω μὲν ἐγὼ — the king funds the statue himself; supplement Wiegand (OGIS 763). ἀδά[πανον] τῶι κοινῶι — 'without cost to the league' — supplement Wiegand; the celebrated phrase of calculated magnanimity. (ll.~10-20, 25-44) — the king's review of his own and his father's benefactions — summary-level in this edition; full transcription an optional later increment.
Editions and commentary W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae II (Leipzig 1905), no. 763 (the base text; supplements by Wiegand). C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 52 (text, translation, commentary; the witness). T. Wiegand, Sitzungsberichte der Akademie Berlin 1904, 86; Archäologischer Anzeiger 1904, 9 (the excavation reports). A. Rehm, Milet I 9 (1928), 306; F. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene (1906), 535 (cf. p. XVII).