Vol. 18 No. 2 (2012)
Articles

A Personal Letter Found in Hermonassa

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  • Natalia Pavlichenko,
  • Sergey Kashaev
Natalia Pavlichenko
St. Petersburg Institute for History, RAS
Sergey Kashaev
Institute for the History of Material Culture, RAS

Published 2014-01-30

Keywords

  • court of diaitetai,
  • Hermonassa,
  • lead letters
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Pavlichenko, N., & Kashaev, S. (2014). A Personal Letter Found in Hermonassa. Hyperboreus, 18(2), 225-242. https://doi.org/10.36950/hyperboreus.OOKU1792

Abstract

A lead tablet, found in 2011 under the waters of the Taman Bay near the ancient townsite of Hermonassa, preserves the text of a private letter that can be dated to 450–440 BC. The text of the letter runs as follows: “Kledikos to Aristokrates. Aristokrates! It is Kledikos who writes to thee. I know that Mandrocharis, as diaitetes, is arbitrating for those evils that are taking place right here. Having arrived to the house of Sokrates [take ? … and] having gathered the remainder in one room, seal up [the door]!” Thus the letter allows us to assume, albeit cautiously, the existence of a court of diaitetai for private suits, in Hermonassa.

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