<p rend="Plain Text">The Rhodians and Eumenes</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">This excerpt from de sent. forms part of res Graeciae of Ol. 154, 4 = 161/0; unless, indeed, it should be classified under res Asiae. On the ambiguity of Rhodian affairs in this respect see 4. 1–5. 5 n. P. draws a distinction between the subsidy now accepted from Eumenes and the gifts received (with due dignity) after the earthquake of c. 227 (v. 88–90 n.).</p>
Specifics
31.31.1 - 31.31.1
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">σῴζοντες τὴν . . . προστασίαν</w>:</emph>
cf. v. 88. 4, <w lang="el-GR">σεμνῶς καὶ προστατικῶς</w>; 90. 5, <w lang="el-GR">τῆς Ῥοδίων περὶ κοινὰ προστασί?ας</w>.
<milestone unit="page" n="514">[514]</milestone>
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">σίτου μυριάδας ὀκτὼ καὶ εἴκοσι</w>:</emph>
280,000 medimni. This corn was to be sold, the proceeds invested, and the interest used for the purposes mentioned. Grain prices fluctuated according to place and conditions of sale, and it is impossible to determine how much this amount would have raised (cf. Rostovtzeff, SEHHW, i. 259). For a similar offer to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Achaea&groupId=272&placeId=533">Achaea</a> (which was rejected) see xxii. 7. 3, 8. 1–13; this contrasting Achaean decision may have influenced P. in his condemnation of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a>. On Eumenes' benefactions see xxxii. 8. 5 n.; and on Rhodian skill in attracting royal benefactions see Diod. xxxi. 36, which mentions that on his death (in 159/8; cf. xxxii. 8) Eumenes still owed 30,000 medimni; Diodorus also records the gift of 200,000 medimni of wheat and 100,000 medimni of barley from Demetrius I of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syria&groupId=995&placeId=502">Syria</a>.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">παιδευταῖς καὶ διδασκάλοις</w>:</emph>
such provision through benefactions is characteristic of city life in the Hellenistic period. At Teos in the early second century Polythrus gave 34,000 drachmae, which at 11% provided nearly 4,000 drachmae annually to pay the salaries of teachers of freeborn boys and girls, organized in three classes (Syll. 578). In 200/199 Eudemus of Miletus left 60,000 drachmae, yielding 6,000 drachmae annually at 10%; of this, 3,360 drachmae was to be for teachers' salaries (Syll. 577). In 160/59, in response to an appeal, the future Attalus II gave <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delphi&groupId=534&placeId=363">Delphi</a> 18,000 drachmae i.e. 3 talents, <w lang="el-GR">ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν παίδων διδασκαλίας</w> (Syll. 672 1. 4), to pay the masters <w lang="el-GR">(παιδευταί)</w>. This last example is almost contemporaneous with the benefaction to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> mentioned here, and it is not clear why P. should single out <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> for condemnation concerning what was so regular a practice (but see the previous note). In the Hellenistic world primary and secondary education remained on a private and voluntary basis; only at the ephebic stage did the state (in varying degrees in different cities) provide public facilities and make training compulsory. At <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> no public provision of any kind yet existed; cf. Cic. de re pub. iv. 3. 3, 'principio disciplinam puerilem ingenuis, de qua Graeci multum frustra laborarunt, et in qua una Polybius noster hospes nostrorum institutorum neglegentiam accusat, nullam certam aut destinatam legibus aut publice expositam aut unam omnium esse uoluerunt.' See further Ziebarth, RE, 'Schulen', col. 761–2; H. I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity (London, 1956), 103 n. 4, 112–13.
</p>
31.31.2 - 31.31.2
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τὸν διδόμενον τοῖς διδασκάλοις μισθὸν ἐρανίζεσθαι</w>:</emph>
'to go abegging for money to pay teachers' (Paton). The literal meaning is 'to raise an <w lang="el-GR">ἔρανος</w>-loan to pay teachers'; on this kind of loan see xxxviii. 11. 10 n.
</p>
31.31.3 - 31.31.3
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τὴν εὐκαιρίαν τὴν ἐν τοῖς κοινοῖς</w>:</emph>
'the flourishing condition of their finances' (cf. v. 90. 5 n.).
<milestone unit="page" n="515">[515]</milestone>
</p>
Walbank Commentary