posted by Hannah Cornwell
Christof Schuler: Deme Decrees from Hellenistic Lycia.
Christof Schuler (Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Insituts) presented a number of decrees which offer an insight into the rural sub-centres of poleis in central Lycia. Schuler emphasised that the epigraphic evidence from Demes such as Trysa and Tyberissos illustrate the institutional vocabulary used to express the different communities within the world of the Greek poleis, on a regional level.
Inscriptions from Tyrsa (in the territory of Kyaneai) demonstrate a distinction between the different institutional levels of communities that interacted with each other. An honorary decree published by Schuler and Walser (2006, 173ff Nr. 4) marks a distinction between ἡμέτερος δῆμος and ἥ πολις.The community was further marked out as having a Demarch and no Boulē (Schuler-Walser, 2006 183f Nr. 5). Schuler also illustrated how the community of Tyberissos presented itself within the larger framework of the polis of Myra: a dedication to Augustus refers to the δῆμος ὁ σθμπολιτευὁμενος μετὰ Μυρέων (Schuler, Chiron 37, 2007, 383ff), possibly indicating the Tyberissos had at one point been a polis in the early Hellenistic period, and that they were here stressing their special status in relation to Myra.
Schuler also pointed out an interesting onomastic detail that illustrates the importance of Hellenistic institutional structures to these Lycian communities. Women appear to keep traditional Lycian names (e.g. Eriodabe and Ermapias) whilst the men have Greek names (e.g.Hippolochos and Timotheos) suggesting the importance of acting with the public, political sphere.