Priene Honors Sotas, son of Lykos, for valor against the Galatians.
c.278-270- Marble stele, early 3rd century letterin.
from a book, photo of these stel is not to find!
Sotas/Sotan of Priene son of Lykos (Wolf),
who saved his city during the Galatian invasion (ca. 278 BC)
[In the year in which the] stephanephoros was Pos[e]id[on]i[o]s, (1)
month [Artem]ision,(2)
[it was resol / ved by the Boule] and the People.
[Sotas in] both former l [times] the [... l applied] himself to [what was advantageous] to the People; and now [when / first the G]alatians [arrived in the] countryside and many / [of those] in the countryside [who were politically hostile] to the citizens (3)
[.../...]lawlessly wishing to attack [.../...] savagery no one resisted [.../...] and not only in the countryside did they commit [outrages] against their prisoners [...// but they also] committed sacrilege against the divinity by ravaging the sacred precincts and [the/altars] and temples [...] / omittind no disgraceful act toward the divinity. [And] during their withdrawal, [...]/ they set fire to [all] the farm buildings [...whence] it happened that many / of the Greeks inhabiting Asia were killed, [since they were // unable] to resist the barbarians.
But the people / [of the Priene] ans and he drew up in opposition and warded /off the barbarians who were committing sacrilege against the divinity and outrages against the Greeks / by dispatching paid citizen infantry and oth/er cavalry (4) and advancing (?) in full force.
Sotas, moreover, having recr//uited the [best] of the citizens and from the country people those /[who were eager] to [join in the fight] with the citizens against the barbarians, / and having decided to save the citizens in the countryside, them/selves and their children and wives and [property in] the countryside, in order to bri/gn them safely into the city, occupied in the countryside the [most // strategic] places [.../...] with his comrades in danger, and many of the citi/zens [...] being led away captive [by] the Galatians [and] some /[...] he saved, /[having dared (to face)] their savagery. Having decided (?)[...//...] for the citizens, keeping together those who with him were risk/ing their lives [for the sake of] the common salvation of the [People], he remained in the countryside /[fighting against] the barbarians [.../...] with himself many of the citizens, and in general [...]/against the barbarians and coming to the rescue of the countryside.
In addition, he continually [acted so](5) // that [the city] in no way suffered evil and that many of the citizens [sur/vived] and that they and their children and their wives and their land /and possessions were saved and brought into the city.
After these events took place, the Pe/ople applied itself boldly to the Galatians war. (6) (since these things are so), with good fortune,/ it has been resolved by the Boule and the People that Sotas, son of Lykos, be praised // for the [excellence] and bravery he displayed on behalf of the People by nobly fi/ghting against the Galatians, and that he be crowned w,th a wreath / of palm leaves in the theatre during the tragic contest at the next Dionysi/a.
In addition, the agonothetes shall provide for [the proclamation]. In order, therefore, that [the]/attitude [of our] People toward [good and noble m//en who desire] eagerly and unhesitatingly to aid [...]/may be [clear to all] and that the wreath awarded to Sotas may be conpicuous, /[this decree] shall be inscribed on a stone stele and set up in the san/ctuary of [A]then[a].vv As for the expenditure for the stele and the [i/nscription of thsi] decree, it shall be provided from the sacred mo//nies by the neopoios (7), Pammenes.
Translated Documents of Greece & Rome 3
The Hellenistic Age from the Battle of Ipsos to the Death of Kleopatra VII
Stanley M. Burstein, 1985
notes:
(1) Date unkwon, The lettering and content suggest a date shortly after the arrival of the Galatians in Anatolia in 270.
(2) Probably the first month of the Prienean calendar, approximately equivalent to March.
(3) The reference is probably to the Pedieis and suggests that in some areas the Galatians raids were exploited by local subject populations.
(4) Literally "horsebreeders".
(5) The context seems to require a restoration with this sense.
(6) Priene's initiative in conducting her own defense without aid from any kind should be noted.
(7) Originally, as his title, "temple builder", suggests, he was an official responsible for construction in a sanctuary, but in the Hellenistic period the neopoios was in charge of general temple administration.
* NOTES-SB
?!
But on the line 35 we see:
ἐπῃνῆισθαι Σωτᾶν Λύκου [τῆς]
Σωτᾶν = Sotan
Λύκου = Lupus wich is "Wolf"
[τῆς] = [of]
?!
Honorary decree of boule and demos of Priene for Sotas Lykou for leading resistance to Galatai; 278/c. 260 BC; found at Priene: OGIS 765; *IPriene 17; **Graindor, Mus. belge 11, 1907, 126 (l. 5).
link
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