A Corpus of the Inscriptions of Chios (IG XII 6.3)
Epigraphy on Chios and the IG Corpus
Although George Forrest in a brilliant sketch ( Epigraphy in
Chios  Cyriac of Ancona to Stephanou , Chios. A Conference
at the Homereion in Chios 1984, ed., J. Boardman, C.E.
Vaphopoulou-Richardson (Oxford, 1986), 133-38) traced
epigraphical enquiries on Chios back to Cyriacus of Ancona s
stay at the Giustiniani Palace in the winter of 1446 (the honorific
for Commodus wife Crispina Augusta which he recorded is
illustrated below), systematic work on a Corpus of Chian
inscriptions only began in the later nineteenth century. Alfred
Rehm received a formal commission from the Berlin Academy
to compile a Corpus of Chian inscriptions for a fascicle of
IG XII 6 in 1906, but in the ensuing century the project has
experienced a series of interruptions and setbacks.
Chios and Psara
The Fate of Chian Inscriptions: archaeology and context
The ancient city of Chios lies largely under the modern town. Much of
the monumental existence of the polis was incorporated in the walls of
L.H. Jeffery, Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (Oxford 1963) 343-4 no. 47
the Byzantine and Genoese Kastro and the houses built within it.
(Chios Archaeological Museum inv. 800): fifth-century funerary monument
for Heropythos the son of Philaios, who traced his family back over 14
Some inscriptions remain in the walls of the Kastro or walls and buildings
generations to Kyprios
within the town, as in the example below, but the majority have been
removed - first to the gymnasium, then to a Museum in the former
mosque, and now to the splendid Archaeological Museum, with its
exemplary epigraphical gallery. Few inscriptions are now, in any obvious
sense, in situ or close by.
Honorific base for Crispina Augusta, wife of Commodus (O. Riemann, BCH 1,
1877, 82-3 no. 5; Chios Archaeological Museum inv. 210): the only survivor of
the inscriptions recorded by Cyriac of Ancona during his visit to Chios in 1446.
George Forrest himself took on the task in 1956 and made
Zolotas, ���ś 1908, 226 no. 32: dedication of an altar to the ��żv ĄŹ����, now built into a
substantial progress, cataloguing 600 texts and preparing
street wall in Chios town.
draft texts of 400, before his work was interrupted at a critical
stage by events in Greece between 1967-74, and thereafter
A New Corpus A.P. Stephanou, �0� ź��ź�� �. źŹ��ż� (1960), 140-43 (SEG XIX 569,
lost impetus in the face of the other responsibilities and
with improved readings by George Forrest; Chios Archaeological Museum
The Corpus will include c. 750 texts, including a significant number of
commitments associated with the Wykeham Professorship
inv. 1047); for George Forrest this inscription, which preserves a decree for
inedita. Recent epigraphical finds have been limited, but texts found
of Ancient History. Forrest s work  in BSA publications, but the Ptolemaic officer and judge Apollophanes the son of Apollodoros, was a
in the 1930s remain unpublished (for example, a decree recorded by J. perfect example of mid-3rd century BC formal Greek lettering.
above all, almost anonymously in successive SEG issues, offered
Vanseveren in 1937, illustrated opposite right). The recent publication
a series of careful re-readings and, often tacit, corrections of
of the Chian Symposium in Memory of George Forrest (Athens, 2006)
previous publications (for example, of the Antiochus IV of
offers some glimpses of this new material.
Commagene inscription illustrated below).
Inscriptions recorded in Chios town and throughout the island have
been revisited and checked wherever possible, but most of the work
has taken place in the Chios Archaeological Museum, where 450 of the
inscriptions are now held.
A comprehensive catalogue of the Museum has been established
by Matthaiou and Malouchou, and will be published separately in
preparation for the Corpus volume. The inscriptions in the Museum
have been re-photographed by Crowther and Derow, and new collations
systematically undertaken. Earlier publications in many cases contain
errors of reading. Even the dossier of Claudia Metrodora (illustrated
IGRR IV 954 (Chios Archaeological Museum inv. 1005): the inscription
below), subject of a characteristically incisive discussion by Louis Robert
records a donation of 15+ talents by Antiochos IV of Commagene to the
in �tudes �pigraphiques et philologiques in 1938, has needed revision in
island, probably during his tenure of the eponymous stephanephorate; an
almost hidden note in SEG XVII 381, p. 107 offers a new reading by George detail.
Forrest of the damaged lines 5-6.
George Forrest s work on the Corpus was immeasurably Transcription from Jeanne Vanseveren s 1937 epigraphical notebook (carnet
89 in Le Fonds Louis Robert), showing a still unpublished decree, now in
aided by the scholarly activity of local historians on Chios
Chios Archaeological Museum) concerning relations between Chios and the
who recorded and published  often in local journals such
Aetolians; the text is to be published by Georgia Malouchou
as żąą�x� �ą�� and ńp ��ą �żć ł�ż��Ź�ż�  epigraphical
finds as they occurred. Forrest acknowledged explicitly the
patronage and friendship of Antonios Stephanou, but George
Acknowledgments
Zolotas earlier role in establishing the island s epigraphical
collection, the core of the modern Museum s holdings, was
Work on the Corpus has been aided by access, through the
fundamental.
kindness of Glen Bowersock and Denis Rousset, to the resources
of Le Fonds Louis Robert, including the squeezes of Haussoullier
A New Team
and the notebooks of Jeanne Robert (Vanseveren), a page from
Responsibility for the Corpus was handed on by George
whose 1937 epigraphical carnet is illustrated above. At the same
Forrest to Angelos Matthaiou, who, in turn, formed a team
time Jean-Louis Ferrary s work on preparing for publication
of Greek and Oxford epigraphists in 2002 to complete the
the lists of delegates to the oracular shrine of Apollo at Claros
task. The team was made up of Angelos Matthaiou and
has enriched the prosopography of Chios.
Georgia Malouchou from the Greek Epigraphical Society,
The family of Antonios Stephanou has made available material
Charles Crowther, Peter Derow and Robert Parker from
from his Nachlass. Work on the Corpus has been partially
Oxford, and Klaus Hallof representing Inscriptiones Graecae
supported by a generous contribution from the Moschos
in Berlin.
family.
Responsibility for the inscriptions of the Classical and
Hellenistic periods belongs to Matthaiou and Malouchou, and
L. Robert, �tudes �pigraphiques et philologiques, 128-35, A 17-23 and B (IGRR IV 946); the
Charles Crowther
to Crowther and Derow for the Roman period. Klaus Hallof
different letter heights of the two fragments indicate that fr. B belongs with a different text,
Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
has taken on a group of texts from the second century BC and
Robert, �tudes 130-33 (IGRR IV 938).
Stelios Ioannou School for Research in Classical and Byzantine Studies
the tituli sacri, of which an example is illustrated below, have
66 St. Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, Oxford, UK
been entrusted to Robert Parker. Although the new team was Inscriptions in Chios Archaeological Museum [e-mail]
robbed of its soul and inspiration by the untimely death of
The photographs below and at the head of the right column opposite
Peter Derow on 9 December 2006, work on the Corpus has
illustrate examples of inscriptions in Chios Archaeological Museum
now reached an advanced stage.
spanning the range of material in the Corpus, from Classical through
Hellenistic to Roman, from formal public to funerary, from prose to
poetry.
J. Robert, REG 80, 1967, 282-91 (Chios Archaeological Museum inv. 1038): funerary
Peter Derow, who died on 9 December 2006, at Emporio during the 2002
S.N. Koumanoudes, A.P. Matthaiou, źĄźŁ 3, 1985, 105-11 (SEG XXXV epigram for a Chian farmer (name lost) who died aged 77: Ą ź� ��ź��ą �Ź��ąż�
Chios Symposium in memory of George Forrest.
923): late fifth/early fourth century lex sacra for the priesthood of Eleithyia. ���[�� | źŹ���]� Ć������� ��Ć�ż�ż� ł��Ą�Ż��
C
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