‘Year 149 (of the Seleucid era = 163/2 BC), Antiochus (V) king, month V[II, day x]. The Greeks, as they are called, the p[olitai], who in the past at the command of king Antiochus (IV) [had entered] Baby[lon] and who anoint with oil just like the pol[i tai] who are in Seleucia, the royal city, on the Tigris and the King’sCanal, [did] b[attle] with the prefect (šaknu) and the people of the land who are in Babylon. Day 8, at the command of the governor (pāhātu) of Babylon [the ...... and] the women, who among the politai, the people of the land, (and) the b[oul]ē, from Babylon into the region below Babylon because of the battle with the [prefect and his] troop[s, had gone ,] returned into Babylon.’ Of special interest are the ‘boundary marks’ given by the Babylonian scribe to the new group. They are ‘Greeks’, politai, and they ‘anoint with oil, just like the politai, who are in Seleucia, the royal city, on theTigris and the King’s Canal’. The latter expression must refer to the activities of the Greeks in the gymnasium, where they sported nakedly and anointed themselves with olive oil. Admittance to the gymnasium was normally restricted to the citizens of Greek cities and was a hallmark of Greek citizenship. Del Monte discerns three population groups in Babylon, each with their own administrative institutions: firstly, the Babylonian citizens (mārē Bābili, ‘sons of Babylon’) under the shatammu (administrative head of the temple) and kinishtu (council) of the temple; secondly, the Greek citizens (puliţē or puliţānu, a loan word from Greek politai), under the authority of the ‘governor of Babylon’ (pāhāt Bābili = in my view the equivalent of the Greek term epistatēs), and, thirdly, the royal slaves led by ‘the prefect of the king’. The distinction is neatly made in an astronomical diary relating to a census held in 145 BC (king Demetrios II Nikator). The institutions of the Greek community are not easily found, but new evidence sheds some light. In the first place the Greeks distinguished themselves as ‘citizens’ (politai), so they seem to have had their own politeia, ‘constitution’. It must be remembered though, that there is not one Greek exclusive format of a politeia. In the classical period the constitutions of e.g. Athens, Sparta and Corinth were very different. Normally, however, the following elements are recurring albeit under a widely differing terminology: 1. magistrates (archontes, stratēgoi, ephoroi, probouloi ); 2. one or more councils (boulē, synhedrion, gerousia, Areiopagos); 3. an assembly (ekklēsia, apella, dēmos). The constitutions were of a different nature: Athens was democratic, Sparta and Corinth both oligarchic but nonetheless different. Furthermore, it has to be kept in mind that the Seleucid empire was ruled by a Macedonian dynasty and Macedonian institutions, like epistatēs (governor) and Peliganes ([council of] ‘elders’), are attested in many places. Though as yet no word for assembly is attested in the Babylonian sources, it is evident that the politai met in the theatre. That Babylon disposed of a theatre, is known since the earliest excavations of ancient Babylon at the beginning of the 20th century. Its existence was further proven by a 2nd-century AD Greek inscription from the theatre, mentioning its repair. Recently, the Greek theatre was found in the astronomical diaries as well. From these texts, it appears that kings had letters read out loud before the politai being assembled in the theatre. The Greek word theatron was translated into cuneiform as bīt tamarti, ‘house of observation.’The citizens now also appear to have had their own council of elders. This council was referred to with the Macedonian name peliganes, which is derived from the word pelioi meaning ‘oldmen’, gerontes. This term is attested in a Greek inscription from Laodicea on the Sea, dating to November/December 175 BC, the first regnal year of Antiochus IV, containing a decision of the peliganes. The name is also found in the corrupted form Adeiganes in Polybius V 54.10, which describes measures taken by Hermias in Seleucia on the Tigris after the suppression of the revolt of Molon against Antiochus III. The evidence from Babylon is now found in fragments of an unpublished chronicle in the British Museum, joined by Irving Finkel, who kindly called my attention to this document. 'Multi-ethnicity and ethnic segregation in Hellenistic Babylon', by Robartus Johannes Van der Spek, a paper that appeared in: 'Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity, The Role of Power and Tradition', edited by Ton Derks and Nico Roymans, published by Amsterdam University Press, is available here: https://www.academia.edu/807831/Multi-ethnicity_and_ethnic_segregation_in_Hellenistic_Babylon Track: Discopolis Artist: Kris Menace (Christoph Hoeffel) and Lifelike (Laurent Heinrich) Album: Idiosyncracies Label: New State Music Release Date: April 2009

• published: 29 May 2015
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