Lysimachus to Priene: praise for the city's fidelity and the grant of favours magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub reading text and apparatus afterW. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae I (Leipzig 1903), no. 11 (the base text followed here). magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub Beijing 2026 magalia.wiki welles-lysimachus-priene OGIS 11 (Welles, RC 6; I.Priene 15) 11 15 6 CC-BY 4.0 — EpiDoc TEI edition for study and reuse. see provenanceOGIS 11 (Welles, RC 6; I.Priene 15) 11 15 6 Marble stele from Priene, surviving in several fragments; British Museum (most) + Berlin. Marble stele, several fragments (A/D/E/F; B,C composite) c. 285 BCE Priene Priene, Ionia — British Museum (most) + Berlin; surface partly eroded W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae I (Leipzig 1903), no. 11 (the base text followed here). C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 6 (text, translation, commentary; British Museum photograph). F. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene (Berlin 1906), no. 15. E. L. Hicks, The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum II (1886), no. 402. Linked data and external resources Pleiades 599905 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 LysimachusThe writer (Diadoch; king of Thrace, Macedon and NW Asia Minor, c.306–281 BCE)Rewards Priene's loyalty with favours; one of Alexander's Successors, master of the region until his death at Corupedium in 281. AntisthenesThe Prienian envoyLeads the embassy that carried Priene's decree to the king and pleaded the city's case. SosthenesThe general (stratēgos)The Lysimachid commander whom Priene obeyed willingly — a measure of the city's loyalty. The MagnesiansThe hostile neighboursThe people of Magnesia-on-the-Maeander, who with allied soldiers ravaged Priene's territory; their raids set off the loyalty Lysimachus rewards.
Lysimachus to Priene: praise for the city's fidelity and the grant of favours — edition Βασιλεὺς Λυσίμαχος Πριηνέων τῆι βουλῆι καὶ τῶι δήμωι χαίρειν Βασιλεὺς Λυσίμαχος Πριηνέων τῆι βουλῆι καὶ τῶι δήμωι χαίρειν· οἱ παρ’ ὑμῶν πεμφθέντες πρεσβευταὶ Ἀντισθένης καὶ οἱ μετ’ αὐτοῦ ἀφικόμενοι τό τε ψήφισμα ἀπέδοσαν ἡμῖν καὶ αὐτοὶ συνησθέντες ἐπὶ τῶι ἐρρῶσθαι ἡμᾶς τε καὶ τοὺς φίλους καὶ τὰς δυνάμεις καὶ τὰ πράγματα κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν διελέγησαν παραπλησίως τοῖς ἐν τῶι ψηφίσματι γεγραμμένοις, ἐμφανίζοντες περὶ τε τῆς εὐνοίας ἧς ἔχει ὁ δῆμος εἰς ἡμᾶς καὶ ὅτι ἐπιστειλάντων ἡμῶν πειθαρχεῖν Σωσθένους τοῦ στρατηγοῦ ὑπήκουσεν προθύμως καὶ οὐδαμῶς ἀφίσταται τῶν ἡμῖν χρησίμων, καίπερ τεμνο- μένης τῆς χώρας ὑπό τε Μαγνήτων αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν στρατιωτῶν τῶν συνεπιπορευομένων. βουλόμενοι οὖν καὶ κοινῆι πάντων καὶ ἰδίαι ἑκάστου ὑμῶν ἐπιμελεῖσθαι, λυσι- τελὲς δὲ ἡμῖν ἡγούμενοι ὑμᾶς ἡμῖν ὥσπερ καὶ πρότερον φίλους εἶναι, συγχωροῦμεν, ὥσπερ ἠξίωσαν οἱ παρ’ ὑμῶν πρεσβευταί, — — — — — — — ἡμῖν — — — — — — τῆι τε θεωρίαι — — — ὑμᾶς ποιουμ— — — εὐχα- ρίστους — — — θυγατρὸς καὶ ὑῶι — — — — — — φιλανθρώπων βασιλέων — — — — — —
Lysimachus to Priene: praise for the city's fidelity and the grant of favours — translation
The embassy of Antisthenes; praise of Priene's loyalty under Sosthenes amid Magnesian raids (ll. 1–12)

King Lysimachus to the council and people of Priene, greeting. The envoys sent by you, Antisthenes and those with him, having arrived, delivered a decree to us and, themselves rejoicing that we and our friends and our forces and our affairs are well throughout the whole land, spoke in keeping with what was written in the decree, declaring concerning the goodwill which the people has toward us —

and that, when we sent orders, it obeyed the general Sosthenes willingly and in no way stands aside from what is useful to us, even though its land was being ravaged both by the Magnesians themselves and by the soldiers campaigning with them.

The grant of favours at the envoys' request (lower lines damaged) (ll. 12–19)

Wishing therefore to take care both of all of you in common and of each of you individually, and considering it advantageous for us that you be friends to us as before, we grant, as your envoys requested … [the specific favours — for the festival (theoria), '… grateful …', '… daughter and son …', '… of beneficent kings …' — are lost in the damaged lower lines].

Lysimachus to Priene: praise for the city's fidelity and the grant of favours — commentary

Lysimachus, Alexander's Successor and now master of NW Asia Minor, answers a Prienian embassy in the courteous idiom of city-king diplomacy. The praise is pointed and concrete: Priene held to his interests, obeyed the general Sosthenes 'willingly', and did not waver even as the Magnesians and allied troops ravaged its land — exactly the demonstrated loyalty (eunoia) that a Hellenistic king rewards. The grant of favours that followed, requested by the envoys, is lost in the damaged lower lines; the surviving scraps mention a festival (theoria) and 'beneficent kings'. The letter belongs to the tense decade before Corupedium (281), when Priene's allegiance was worth securing (Welles 1934, 40–45).

Critical apparatus πρεσβευταὶ Ἀντισθένης — the Prienian embassy, led by Antisthenes. τό τε ψήφισμα [ἀπέδοσαν] — 'delivered the decree'; so OGIS 11 (Dittenberger n.4 rejects Hicks's πρὸς ἡμᾶς supplement). The edition's earlier draft had πρός τε. ἐμφανίζοντες — 'declaring' (the envoys set out the city's goodwill); OGIS 11, re-collated from an earlier ἀναγινώσκοντες. καίπερ τεμνομένης τῆς χώρας ὑπό τε Μαγνήτων αὐτῶν — 'although the land was being ravaged by both the Magnesians themselves and the soldiers campaigning with them' (καίπερ concessive; τε … καί correlative; στρατιωτῶν τῶν συνεπιπορευομένων). ἐπιστειλάντων ἡμῶν πειθαρχεῖν Σω[σθένους τοῦ] στρατηγοῦ ὑπήκουσεν — OGIS 11 restores this damaged passage 'and that, when we sent orders, it obeyed the general Sosthenes (στρατηγοῦ, gen.) willingly'; Welles restored it differently (… διατελεῖ … ἀντεχόμενος … Σωσθένει τῶι στρατηγῶι, dat.). The base reading is followed; the competing supplement is recorded. [— — —] — the grant of favours: the lower lines are badly damaged; surviving scraps name a θεωρία (festival embassy), 'εὐχαρίστους', 'θυγατρὸς καὶ ὑῶι' (of a daughter and a son), and φιλανθρώπων βασιλέων (of beneficent kings).
Editions and commentary W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae I (Leipzig 1903), no. 11 (the base text followed here). C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), no. 6 (text, translation, commentary; British Museum photograph). F. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene (Berlin 1906), no. 15. E. L. Hicks, The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum II (1886), no. 402.