Inventory number
Ακρ. 1349
Artist
Attic workshop
Category
Inscription
Period
Classical Period
Date
373/2 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.52 m
Length: 0.41 m
Width: 0.095 m
Relief depth: 0.08 m
Material
Marble
Location
First Floor, North
The stele was discovered during excavations on the Acropolis in 1888. It contains the relief decoration and an honorary decree inscribed in the Ionic alphabet on the relief’s background.
With this decree the Athenians honour Alketas for the help he provided them in their military operation at Kerkyra (Corfu) in 373/2 BC. That year the Eponymous Archon in Athens was Asteios, whose name appears in the inscription’s first line. The relief depicts a horse and part of an olive wreath – probably an allusion to an equestrian victory of the honoree.
Regarding Alketas identity the opinions of scholars differ. Some consider him the son of Leptines who was the brother of Dionysos I, tyrant of the city of Syracuse, a Greek colony in Sicily. They seem to believe that he was named after Alketas I, king of the Molossoi of Epirus who was exiled to Syracuse. Others believe that it is king Alketas himself, who was adopted by Leptines when he was exiled to the tyrant’s court.
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