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Gkikaki, Mairi (2022) Assembly and Symbola. In: Symbola : Athenian Tokens from Classical to Roman Times. Liverpool University Press.
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Abstract
In the numerous and thorough studies on the Athenian Assembly, Mogens Hermann Hansen has commented on tokens with the following words: ‘The citizens passed through the entrances to the Assembly-place under the eye of the thirty syllogeis tou demou (Conveners of the People) who handed to each a token (symbolon), which had to be handed back when pay was distributed after the meeting’. With the above statement symbola have been enshrined in the History of the Athenian Assembly. Hansen based his conclusion on three textual sources which attest the use of tokens in the Athenian Assembly. What these symbola looked like and the procedures related to them remained completely unknown until Stamatoula Makrypodi had published a lot of clay lettered tokens which had once been found in the immediate neighbourhood of the Pnyx. John H. Kroll in a careful analysis of the find ascertained that the clay lettered tokens presupposed seating for a fixed number of men, like the lettered tokens for seating of Athenian jurors .
In this contribution, I will first present the literary sources on tokens used in the Assembly. Then, after an overview of the earlier theories on the use of symbola in the Assembly, I will focus on the contribution of the newly discovered lot of clay lettered tokens in augmenting our knowledge in regards to the practices of the Assembly. Next I will take up questions regarding the meaning of the imagery. I will finally turn to why I think tokens were an indispensable part of Athenian public finance by fixing in advance the number of participants and controlling public expenditure.
| Item Type: | Book Item | ||||||
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| Subjects: | C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CJ Numismatics D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World D History General and Old World > DF Greece |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > Classics and Ancient History | ||||||
| Publisher: | Liverpool University Press | ||||||
| Book Title: | Symbola : Athenian Tokens from Classical to Roman Times | ||||||
| Official Date: | 2022 | ||||||
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| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Forthcoming | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | The author, Liverpool University Press | ||||||
| Description: | Chapter by Mairi Gkikaki in the monograph by Mairi Gkikaki. |
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| Date of first compliant deposit: | 29 November 2021 | ||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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