• Corpus ID: 159193507

The Eparche Documents and the Early Oracle at Oropus

@article{Petropoulou1981TheED,
  title={The Eparche Documents and the Early Oracle at Oropus},
  author={Angeliki Petropoulou},
  journal={Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies},
  year={1981},
  volume={22},
  pages={39-63}
}

• A. Petropoulou
• Published 1 March 1981
• History
• Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies

Two FOURTH-CENTURY B.C. inscriptions from the Amphiar­ eium at Oropus record differing regulations for the payment of fees by persons consulting the oracle. Fresh examination has yielded new readings and contributed to a better understand­ ing of the monuments. I present new editions of the two (here called A and B) along with conclusions drawn from them in the light of other evidence. 1 I shall suggest that the oracle of Amphi­ araus, consultation of which was originally free of charge, was founded between 420 and 414. I further argue that in the early fourth century, when Oropus was under Thebes, the Oropeans enacted a decree (A) that required would-be consultants of the god to pay an entrance fee or eparche; that this decree was later super­ seded by B, the general code of sanctuary regulations into which was incorporated an updated version of A; that in the years 338335 Athens levied the dermatikon tax on the penteteric festival of Amphiaraus; and that an increase in the eparche itself, from one drachma to one drachma and a half, was possibly due to fourth­ century inflation.