Ancient archives: the edict of Alexander to Priene, a reappraisal
1985; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 105; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/631523
ISSN2041-4099
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
Resumo‘The historical value of an object depends not so much on the nature of the object as on its associations, which only scientific excavation can detect.’ The full significance of an inscription may equally rely on knowledge of its archaeological context. In practice, however, users of inscriptions often neglect this aspect. The standard commentaries, new and old, on Alexander's famous ‘edict to Priene’ (hereafter ‘AE’) tend to ignore the physical context of the inscription ( I.Priene I) and to treat the text as an isolated or one-off document. Consequently no-one reading Dittenberger, Tod or now Heisserer would learn that it is one of a series of public inscriptions with a consistent theme belonging to an ‘archive’ of connected texts. The inscription is not discussed as one of a group of documents, its monumental setting is largely ignored and the rich corpus of Prienian inscriptions is not exploited fully as a control and source for the historical background of the AE. It is the purpose of this article to try to show that the AE cannot be properly studied in this archaeological limbo. ‘The associations’ of the AE are vital. They provide a new perspective from which to study the text.
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