No. =3= (fig. 1) is a bronze tablet, with a ring at one end for
suspension, recording a treaty made between the cities of Chaleion and
Oeantheia on the Gulf of Corinth. It is in the Lokrian dialect, and
can be dated to about 440 B.C. The main object of the treaty was
to regulate the practice of reprisals between the citizens of the
respective towns, and, in particular, to prevent injury to foreign
merchants visiting either port. There are also provisions for ensuring
a fair trial to aliens. The tablet was found at Oeantheia (Galaxidi),
and was formerly in the Woodhouse collection.
=Colonization.=--This was a feature of peculiar importance in Greek
life. In the course of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. numerous
colonists had left their homes on the mainland of Greece or on the
coast of Asia Minor, and had settled principally in Southern Italy
and Sicily, or round the shores of the Black Sea. The reasons for
such emigration were sometimes political, but more often commercial.
Between the mother-city and the colony relations of an intimate
character were almost invariably maintained. Representatives from
either city attended the more important festivals held in the other
town, and the daughter-city not infrequently sought the advice of the
mother-city in times of difficulty and danger. The inscription on the
bronze tablet No. =4= illustrates the way in which colonists left one
Greek state to settle in another comparatively near at hand, and
also shows the relations existing between the colonists and the
mother-state. At a date probably previous to 455 B.C. colonists from
the Opuntian or Eastern Lokrians (inhabiting a district lying opposite
to the island of Euboea) left their homes to settle in Naupaktos, a
town situated on the narrowest part of the Gulf of Corinth, in the
territory of the Western Lokrians. The question arose as to how far
the colonists were to remain in connection with the mother-country.
The tablet shows that the settlers had the privilege of enjoying full
social and religious rights on revisiting their native city, although
during their absence they were exempt from paying taxes to it.
Under certain conditions they might resume their residence in the
mother-state without fee, and they also had a right to inherit
property left by a near relative in that state. Other provisions deal
with judicial arrangements affecting the new settlers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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