The Epigraphy of Archaic and Classical Macedonia

During my tenure of the CHS Fellowship in Hellenic Studies I worked on a monograph on the epigraphy in Macedonia in the Archaic and Classical periods, revising my PhD dissertation, which was defended in 2020 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. This monograph aims to present the complete record of inscriptions on all mediums that have been found in Macedonia and date before the Hellenistic period, and to provide, besides revised readings, datings, and commentaries, a detailed epigraphic, linguistic, and onomastic study based on the available material. It is intended to shed more light on the history of ‘early’ Macedonia, which thus far has heavily relied on selective and later evidence.

Macedonia can be roughly defined as the geographical area that extends from the Pindos Mts in the west to the mountain range formed by Mts Kroussia, Vertiskos, and Kerdylion in the east and from Mt Olympus to the south to Mt Voras to the north, the Chalkidike peninsula excluded. This area corresponds to the core territory of the Macedonian kingdom at its greater extent (Hatzopoulos 1995b), as established in the mid-fourth century BCE, after Philip II managed to bring a number of autonomous regions into one kingdom, while also capturing and annexing formerly independent coastal city-states. The inclusion of regions and towns that became Macedonian only later acknowledges the cultural uniformity among the ethne occupying these regions, despite the political fragmentation of the area, and the constant interaction with the colonial settlements on the coast, which must have all contributed to some extent to the shaping of the late classical Macedonian kingdom, its population, its dialect, and its epigraphic culture.

The earliest inscriptions in Northern Greece date to the late eighth century BCE. However, down to the sixth century BCE the use of script was apparently limited to coastal sites that functioned as trade ports and there is no evidence of adoption and use of any script at inland sites. This situation changes by the late sixth century BCE, but script still occurs only sporadically, even though it is widespread in the colonies and other towns on the coast. An epigraphic culture can be identified in Macedonia only in the Classical period and fully develops by the late fourth century BCE (Boufalis 2024b), i.e. in the early Hellenistic period. Thus, the lower chronological limit was set at about 300 BCE. This is admittedly equally arbitrary to 323 BCE, i.e. the conventional date for the end of the Classical period; however, given the difficulty in dating the pottery as well as the letterforms of the latter part of the fourth century BCE, it offers some security that no inscription which should be included is left out. Moreover, it made sense to include the inscriptions of the early Hellenistic period, so as to highlight the developments in the epigraphic culture, which may (or may not) reflect political, social, and economic developments in Macedonia during that period.

For the past few decades, the pool of epigraphic evidence grows larger and larger and in the past five years, beside newly published individual inscriptions, a number of regional corpora of inscriptions have been published or updated (EAM Suppl.; EKM I Suppl.; IG X.2.1 Suppl.; IG X.2.2.2; Paschidis et al. 2023), including unpublished old finds as well as new ones from recent excavations. However, an overall treatment of the epigraphic material remains a desideratum. Thus, I aim with this monograph to provide a full account and a reassessment of the evidence, and to provide a clear and steady ground for further research. In other words, I aspire to produce a handbook of Macedonian epigraphy that one shall refer to, to date and contextualize a new epigraphic find or to base a new study on a particular subject, which is hitherto done largely on selective evidence.

During my residency at CHS I prepared the final manuscript. This process included re-editing the inscriptions and revising their commentaries, updating the catalogue with the inclusion of newly published epigraphic material, and rewriting parts of the chapters in the second part, in which particular features pertaining to script, dialectal features, epigraphic practices, and personal names are examined more thoroughly.

The catalogue includes about 500 inscriptions on stone and portable objects (excluding coins), dating to the period from the late eighth century to ca. 300 BCE. Besides a significant number of unpublished inscriptions from Northern Pieria that are edited for the first time, all previously published inscriptions have been re-edited, and thus revised readings, datings, and commentaries on the content and context are provided. The newly published epigraphic material was added, bibliographies were updated, and all texts and commentaries were revisited.

The chapter on script was rewritten taking into account the results of my recently published research on the local scripts in Northern Greece (Boufalis 2024a; forthcoming). Its main part aims to provide an as far as possible reliable dating system, based on a new relative chronology across the entire epigraphic record of Macedonia and, regarding the late fourth century BCE in particular, using well-dated inscriptions from the catalogue as well as outside of Macedonia, yet connected to the Macedonians. This chapter deals moreover with particular archaic Greek local scripts that occur often in the area, non-Greek scripts, numerical systems, stylistic elements, and the emergence of lunate letter forms, which purportedly made an early appearance in Macedonia (Hatzopoulos 1995a).

The chapter on dialectal features was revised extensively. In this process, the remarks and advice of Dr Enrique Nieto Izquierdo, another CHS Fellow and a linguist, were most valuable. It presents a list of all dialectal features attested in the catalogued inscriptions along with short commentaries. Several features can be established as local and most of them seem indeed to be shared with the NW Doric and/or the Thessalian dialect (Méndez Dosuna 2014; Hatzopoulos 2018). However, it seems that on the spatially and chronologically sparse available evidence the classification of the ‘Macedonian’ dialect should probably remain an open question, as there appears to be no uniformity throughout the area. Rather than a monolithic dialect throughout, different local or regional idioms may have had been spoken in this extensive geographical area.

The chapter on epigraphic practices was reorganized in order to better reflect the similarities to and divergences of the Northern Greek and more specifically Macedonian epigraphic culture from that of the rest of the Greek world. Modern political considerations have unfortunately influenced scholarly views on Macedonia in many ways. A common mistake—at least in my view—is to operate under the assumption that the Macedonian kingdom was a state, especially when some scholars object that even the Greek city-state was not a state. There is nothing in the epigraphic record that indicates state functions before the late fourth century BCE. In fact, although epigraphic practices in Northern Greece are not considerably different from contemporary ones in other parts of the Greek world, no public inscription or state document appears to have had been issued by the Macedonian kingdom in the Archaic and Classical periods. The delayed adoption of script, its minimal use, and the lack of public inscriptions characterize most areas where the ethnos, rather than the polis, was the basis of political organization. The earliest public inscriptions emerge after the expansion of the kingdom by Philip II and at first in nominally independent settlements outside of Macedonia, which published royal letters sent to them to resolve border disputes and other matters. The earliest truly public inscriptions in Macedonia only appear in the early Hellenistic period, under another reformer, Kassander, when the urban centers of the kingdom apparently acquired political status. These include collective dedications by citizens, priests, royal companions, or the polis, as well as royal gifts and dedications.

The chapter on anthroponymy was modestly updated. This is comprised by an inventory of personal names along with brief linguistic commentaries and notes on their spatial and chronological distribution, and sections dedicated to the formation of diminutives and the use of the genitive (patronymic) adjective.

To conclude, the aim of this book is to provide an up-to-date and revised edition of the pre-hellenistic epigraphic material from the area of Macedonia. On this basis, it also aims to systematize our knowledge on the scripts, the dialects, and the epigraphic practices attested by the inscriptions, and to provide inventories of letter forms, dialectal features, and personal names, that will facilitate future epigraphic studies and editions of new epigraphic material. To cover all these different facets of the epigraphic record, this research obviously demanded access to a library well-equipped with diverse materials within the discipline of the Classics. Thus, the CHS Fellowship in Hellenic Studies proved to be invaluable towards the preparation of the final manuscript. The access to the library resources of Harvard University and the collegiate environment at the Center for Hellenic Studies, which provides ample academic and intellectual support, contributed tremendously towards the completion of this research and the revision of the monograph.