An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods from Alexander the Great down to the Reign of Constantine

The Historical Context of the Reply to the Satraps Inscription (IG IV 556)

“…If the inscription did indeed originate in Athens in the aftermath of Mantinea, the absence of Argos from the Athenian alliance with four Peloponnesian states in 362/1 is all the more glaring (mentioned above in n. 27). Moreover, McLean (2002), 40 41 points out that Attic Ionic increasingly became the favored script for inscriptions with an international audience in fourth century Greece, and so it should be no surprise that it was the dialect of choice for a Macedonian letter circulated to a Greek audience. 41 The Common Peace of 338, its renewal under Alexander in 335, and an honorary decree of the Macedonian controlled Delphic Amphictyony in 337 were also written in Attic Ionic.…”