Chapter The Recipient’s Design: Some Notes on the Layout of Hellenistic Royal Correspondence on Stone

Abstract

This chapter offers some reflections on the layout of Hellenistic rulers’ correspondence on stone, an analysis that has the methodological function of defining the position and power of the recipient of a royal letter, be it a city, an institutionally defined group, an official, or an individual. The epigraphic medium, through which most documents of this type have been preserved, determines some fundamental aspects. It amplifies the distance between those who produce the correspondence and those who receive it and influences all the distinctive features of the materiality of the letter, its layout, and function, granting the recipient of the message, rather than the sender, the power to determine the design of the text and to have designs for the text. By including in the category of royal correspondence not only the kings’ letters and ordinances, but also their officials’ letters, petitions, and civic decrees that are consistently inscribed on the same media, some characteristics of the publication of these documents on stone are highlighted, with particular attention to the appropriation of royal texts by the recipients. The following documents are examined in detail: Bosnakis and Hallof 2020; CIIP IV 3511–3512; Hatzopoulos, Macedonian Institutions II 15, 16, 19; I.Delphinion 139; I.Egypte prose 22, 36; IG IX.2 517; IG XII.4 208–213; IG Cyrenaica² 011100, 010800; IG Iran Asie centr. 66, 68; I.Ilion 33; I.Labraunda 2, 3, 3B, 4, 6, 8B, 137; I.Mylasa 23; I.Priene B - M 2–3; Ma, Antiochos 37, 49; OGIS 5–6; SEG XXVIII 1224; SEG L 1195; SEG LX 586; Welles, RC 45, 47.