Letter of Seleucus II to Miletus

Letter of Seleucus II to Miletus — edition Βασιλεὺς Σέλευκος Μιλησίων τῆι βουλῆι καὶ τῶι δήμωι χαί- ρειν· τῶμ προγόνων ἡμῶν καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς πολλὰς καὶ με- γάλας εὐεργεσίας κατατεθειμένων εἰς τὴν ὑμετέραμ πόλιν διά τε τοὺς ἐγδεδομένους χρησμοὺς ἐκ τοῦ παρ' ὑμῖν ἱεροῦ τοῦ Διδυμέως Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ διὰ τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν θεὸν συγγένειαν, ἔτι δὲ καὶ διὰ τὴν τοῦ δήμου εὐχαριστίαν, ὁρῶν- τες καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ τε τῶν ἄλλων τῶν πεπολιτευμένων ὑμῖν διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου πρὸς τὰ ἡμέτερα πράγματα, παραθέντων ἡμῖν τῶμ πατρικῶν φίλων, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἀπολογισμοῦ οὗ ἐποιήσαντο Γλαύκιππος καὶ Διόμανδρος οἱ παρ' ὑμῶν κεκομικότες τὸν ἱερὸν στέφανον τὸν ἐκ τοῦ ἀδύτου ὧι ἐστεφανώ- κει ἡμᾶς ὁ δῆμος, εἰλικρινῆ καὶ βεβαίαμ ποιουμένους ὑμᾶς πρὸς τοὺς φίλους ἀπόδειξιν καὶ μεμνημένους ὧν ἂν εὖ πάθητε, ἀπεδεξάμεθα τὴν αἵρεσιν, καὶ προθυμούμενοι καὶ ἐν τοῖς με- γίστοις ἡγούμενοι καὶ καλλίστοις εἰς ἐπιφανεστέραν διάθεσιν ἀγαγεῖν καὶ τὰ παρ' ἡμῶν φιλάνθρωπα, ἐπὶ δὲ τούτοις . . .

Letter of Seleucus II to Miletus — translation

The benefactions of the ancestors; Didyma and kinship with Apollo (ll. 1–9)

Seleucus to the council and the people of Miletus, greeting. Whereas our ancestors and our father have conferred many and great benefactions upon your city — both through the oracles delivered from the sanctuary of Didymaean Apollo among you, and through our kinship with the god himself, and also through the gratitude of your people — we ourselves seeing, from the other acts of policy you have performed at all times toward our interests, with our father's friends laying (the report) before us,

The sacred crown from the adyton; acceptance of the honours and promise of favour (ll. 10–17)

and from the account which Glaukippos and Diomandros, your envoys — who brought the sacred crown from the adyton with which the people had crowned us — rendered, namely that you keep sincere and firm toward your friends the proof (of your goodwill) and remember the favours you receive: we have accepted your choice; and, being zealous and counting it among the greatest [and finest things] to bring into a more conspicuous condition [the benefactions that proceed] from us, and upon [these things further …]

Letter of Seleucus II to Miletus — commentary

The letter was written by Seleucus II Kallinikos immediately after his accession (246 BCE): neither he nor the envoys can point to any personal relations between the king and the city, and the young king is still surrounded by his father's counsellors (Welles 1934, 107). He was soon to move south to expedite Ptolemy III's evacuation of Syria, leaving Asia Minor to his mother Laodice and his brother Antiochus Hierax (Welles 1934, 107).

The bond the king invokes is twofold: the oracles of Didymaean Apollo and the Seleucids' claimed kinship with Apollo, held to be the divine ancestor of the dynasty. The honour accepted is a sacred crown from the adyton of the Didyma sanctuary, brought by the envoys Glaukippos and Diomandros (Welles 1934, 106–108).

Critical apparatus πατρικῶν — the cutter assimilated the final nasal (as reported by Welles 1934, 106 — a stone-autopsy claim not verifiable from the prints), cutting πατριχῶν before φίλων — Welles 1934, 106. ἱερὸν στέφανον — the sacred crown from the adyton (ἄδυτον) of the Didyma sanctuary, brought by the envoys — Welles 1934, 107. ἀπόδειξιν — the cutter first cut ἀπόδειξιν καί, then corrected to ἀπόδειξιν — Welles 1934, 106. ἡγούμεν[οι καὶ καλλίστοις] — the lacuna restored by Dittenberger (OGIS 227); the lower part of the letter is fragmentary.

Editions and commentary Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (1934), no. 22. Dittenberger, OGIS 227. Haussoullier, Rev. de Phil. 25 (1901); Milet I 3, 114–116.