Mithridates VI to Leonippus: the pursuit of Chaeremon of Nysa (Welles RC 73-74 = SIG³ 741) magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub reading text and apparatus afterC. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), nos. 73-74 (text, translation, commentary; the reading text here). magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub magalia.wiki — Epigraphy Matrix Hub Beijing 2026 magalia.wiki welles-mithridates-leonippus Welles RC 73-74 (= SIG³ 741) 741 73 74 73-74 CC-BY 4.0 — EpiDoc TEI edition for study and reuse. see provenanceWelles RC 73-74 (= SIG³ 741) 741 73 74 73-74 One limestone stele (~90 cm) from Nysa ad Maeandrum (Sultanhisar) bearing the Nysaean honorific dossier for Chaeremon; RC 73-74 are the two Mithridates letters within it. One limestone stele (~90 cm); RC 73 and 74 are two of the texts of the Nysaean Chaeremon dossier (SIG³ 741) 88/7 BCE (First Mithridatic War) Nysa Nysa ad Maeandrum / Sultanhisar (the Chaeremon honorific stele) — Well preserved; minor line-end lacunae C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), nos. 73-74 (text, translation, commentary; the reading text here). W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum³ 741 (Leipzig 1917) — the Nysa-Chaeremon dossier; the standard prior edition, collated here. F. Hiller von Gaertringen & Th. Mommsen, Athenische Mitteilungen XVI (1891) 95-106 (the editio princeps); S. Reinach, Mithridate Eupator. Ch. Michel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecques 50; U. von Wilamowitz, Griechisches Lesebuch; F. Schroeter, De Regum Hellenisticorum Epistulis (1932) 62-63. Linked data and external resources Pleiades 599832 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 Mithridates VI EupatorKing of PontusRome's great eastern adversary; writes both letters at the opening of the First Mithridatic War (88/7 BCE) to hunt the pro-Roman Chaeremon. The corpus's first Pontic king. LeonippusMithridates' satrapThe royal official (in the Caria/Ephesus region) addressed by both letters; ordered to proclaim the bounty and to seize Chaeremon. Chaeremon son of PythodorusThe pro-Roman targetA wealthy Nysaean who supplied grain to the Romans and helped fugitive Romans escape to Rhodes; he fled to the Ephesian Artemision. The Nysaeans later honoured him on the stele that preserves these letters. Pythodorus and PythionChaeremon's sonsHidden by their father on Mithridates' approach; named with him in the forty-talent bounty.
Mithridates VI to Leonippus: the pursuit of Chaeremon of Nysa (Welles RC 73-74 = SIG³ 741) — edition Βασιλεὺς Μιθριδάτης Λεονίππωι σατράπηι χαίρειν Βασιλεὺς Μιθριδάτης Λεονίππωι σατράπηι χαίρειν· ἐπεὶ Χαιρήμων Πυθοδώρου ἐχθρότατα καὶ πολεμιώτατα πρὸς τὰ ἡμέτερα πράγματα διακείμε- νος ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τε τοῖς ἐχθίστοις πολεμίοις συνή- ει, νῦν τε τὴν ἐμὴν παρουσίαν ἐπιγνοὺς τούς τε υἱ- οὺς Πυθόδωρον καὶ Πυθίωνα ἐξέθετο καὶ αὐτὸς πέ- φευγεν, κήρυγμα ποιῆσαι ὅπως ἐάν τις ζῶντας ἀ- γάγῃ Χαιρήμονα ἢ Πυθόδωρον ἢ Πυθίωνα, λάβῃ τάλαν- τα τεσσαράκοντα, ἐὰν δέ τις τὴν κεφαλὴν τινος αὐτῶν ἐνένκῃ, λάβῃ τάλαντα εἴκοσι. Βασιλεὺς Μιθριδάτης Λεονίππωι χαίρειν· Χαιρήμων Πυθοδώρου πρότερον μὲν τοὺς διαφυ- γόντας Ῥωμαίων σὺν τοῖς παισὶν εἰς τὴν Ῥοδίων ἐξέ- θετο πόλιν, νῦν τε τὴν ἐμὴν παρουσίαν πυθόμενος εἰς τὸ τῆς Ἐφεσίας Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερὸν καταπέφευγεν ἐντεῦθέν τε γράμματα πρὸς τοὺς κοινοὺς πολε- μίους διαπέμπεται Ῥωμαίους· ἔστιν δὲ ἡ τούτου ἄδεια τῶν γεγενημένων ἀδικημάτων ὁρμη- τήριον τῶν καθ' ἡμῶν πραττομένων. φρόντι- σον ὅπως μάλιστα μὲν ἄγῃς αὐτὸν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ καὶ εἱργμῷ ὑπάρχῃ ἄχρι ἂν ἀπὸ τῶν πολεμίων ἐμὲ γενέσθαι.
Mithridates VI to Leonippus: the pursuit of Chaeremon of Nysa (Welles RC 73-74 = SIG³ 741) — translation
Mithridates orders a forty-talent bounty on Chaeremon and his sons, taken alive (twenty for a head) (ll. 1–11)

King Mithridates to the satrap Leonippus, greeting. Whereas Chaeremon the son of Pythodorus, a man most hateful and most hostile to our state, has always consorted with our most hated enemies, and now, learning of my proximity, has removed to a place of safety his sons Pythodorus and Pythion and has himself fled, proclaim that if anyone apprehends Chaeremon or Pythodorus or Pythion living, he will receive forty talents, and if anyone brings in the head of any of these, he will receive twenty talents.

Chaeremon flees to the Ephesian Artemision; Leonippus is to seize or hold him until the king is free of the enemy (ll. 1–12)

King Mithridates to Leonippus, greeting. Chaeremon the son of Pythodorus has previously effected the escape of the fugitive Romans with his sons to Rhodes, and now, learning of my proximity, he has taken refuge in the temple of the Ephesian Artemis. From there he continues to communicate with the Romans, the common enemy of mankind. His confidence in face of the offenses he has committed is the starting point of the movement against us. Consider how you may by all means bring him to us, or how he may be kept in arrest and imprisonment until I am free of the enemy.

Mithridates VI to Leonippus: the pursuit of Chaeremon of Nysa (Welles RC 73-74 = SIG³ 741) — commentary

Mithridates writes to his satrap Leonippus at the very start of the war. Chaeremon of Nysa — 'most hateful and most hostile to our state' — has long sided with Rome and, sensing the king's approach, has hidden his sons Pythodorus and Pythion and fled. The king orders a public proclamation (kērygma): forty talents for any of the three taken alive, twenty for a severed head. The graded bounty, alive over dead, shows the king wants Chaeremon as a captive, not merely eliminated.

The second letter tracks Chaeremon further. He had earlier helped fugitive Romans escape with his sons to Rhodes; now, on the king's approach, he has fled to the asylum of the Ephesian Artemision, from which he still corresponds with 'the Romans, the common enemy of mankind.' Mithridates frames Chaeremon's very confidence as the spring of the resistance against him, and tells Leonippus to bring him in by any means — or hold him in custody 'until I am free of the enemy.' The pair captures the royal chancery overriding even temple-asylum in wartime.

Critical apparatus Βασιλ[εὺς Μιθριδ]άτης — Welles restores the king's name with the iota, [Μιθριδ]άτης, expressly 'not [Μιθραδ]άτης' (cf. 74.1); the prior editors and SIG³ 741 print Μιθραδάτης. Μιθριδάτη[ς] — Welles RC 74.1 prints Μιθριδάτης; his apparatus notes 'Μιθραδάτης, editors' (so SIG³ 741, Dittenberger, confirmed on disk). Ῥωμαίους — the stone cuts Ῥωμαίων (gen.); Welles prints the accusative Ῥωμαίους — 'sends letters to the common enemies, the Romans' (Welles RC 74, app.: '7. Ῥωμαίων, stone').
Editions and commentary C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (New Haven 1934), nos. 73-74 (text, translation, commentary; the reading text here). W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum³ 741 (Leipzig 1917) — the Nysa-Chaeremon dossier; the standard prior edition, collated here. F. Hiller von Gaertringen & Th. Mommsen, Athenische Mitteilungen XVI (1891) 95-106 (the editio princeps); S. Reinach, Mithridate Eupator. Ch. Michel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecques 50; U. von Wilamowitz, Griechisches Lesebuch; F. Schroeter, De Regum Hellenisticorum Epistulis (1932) 62-63.