maic hold on the island. Cypriot epigraphy provides ample material for the examina-
tion of the evidence of the royal cult as a sum of religious expressions of attachment
to the ruler and institutionalized cultic practices in his honor. Kings, queens and gods
are covered in detail in the first chapter (121–134), which examines a series of dedi-
cations by officials, citizens, priests and mercenary troops – documents that
demonstrate the relationship of office holders and elite citizens with the Palace. The
second chapter (135–148) is dedicated to the role of Cyprus in the formation of royal
Ptolemaic ideology by focusing on two particular case studies – that of Arsinoe II
Philadelphus, the wife of Ptolemy II, and that of Cleopatra VII – exploring the ways
their cult was carefully bred, in order to establish a public display of Ptolemaic
policies and ideologies.

Michel’s Conclusion (149–152) provides a well-organized summary of the main points of her analysis. It brings to our attention, once again, the particular position of Cyprus within the kingdom, the peculiarities of its diverse society in the middle of transitioning from old to new, as well as the strength of the local traditions. The epigraphic corpus that this society left us presents perfect testimony of the evolution of the Ptolemaic rule during the three centuries of its existence. Furthermore, it is transversed by two major axes of evidence: the first – the fading of the traditional political system and, with it, the local model of monarchic power, substituted by a foin reign, supra-civic authority; and the second – the profound integration into a certain Hellenistic cultural unity. The inscriptions depict an extraordinary image of this aspect of the incorporation of the island of Cyprus into the Ptolemaic kingdom.

The self-defined starting aim of Michel’s research may have been to use the internal corpus of epigraphic documentation in order to explore the society of Hellenistic Cyprus under Ptolemaic rule. However, this book has gone well beyond her initial goals and grown into a thorough study of Cypriot society in Hellenistic times. By means of the thorough scrutiny of epigraphic documentation and an almost flawless application of the evidence to a well-defined frame of reference, what has set out as an epigraphical and historical treatise has become – as far as the sources allow – a skilfully conceived and presented profile of a rather intricate society. It is precisely the presentation and application of the evidence that enables this book to fill a schoolarly gap in a neat and unobtrusive, yet very effective way. There is no doubt that it will do well to serve as an example to be followed in exploring other regions and corpora, as well as to act as a basis for further scholarship on Cyprus and its society.

Vojislav Sarakinski
Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje

YANNIS KALLIONTZIS, *Contribution à l'épigraphie et à l'histoire de la Béotie hellénistique: de la destruction de Thèbes à la bataille de Pydna*. Bibliothèque des Ecoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, 391. Athènes: Ecole française d'Athènes, 2020. ISBN 978-2-86958-318-4.

The main foci of this work are the organization and history of the Boeotian
cities and their *koinon* in the Hellenistic period on one hand, and the epigraphic do-
cuments on the other. Based on literary and epigraphic evidence, Kalliontzis takes
the federal and civic organization, as well as the timeline of the federal archons, as a
basis for a new factual history of Hellenistic Boeotia. He also publishes and redacts
inscriptions from various Boeotian cities based on the synoptic catalogue of inscrip-
tions from the museums of Thebes and Chaeronea, which results in a particularly
sound new synthesis on Hellenistic Boeotia.

Kalliontzis’ work covers the period between the destruction of Thebes in 335 BC and the battle of Pydna, followed by the introduction of the synedrion in the Boeotian cities in 167 BC. This is a period backed by a substantial amount of literary and inscriptional evidence, concerning, *imprimis*, the creation of the new, democratic Boeotian confederation, a very different development from the previous *koinon*, furnished by the hegemony of Thebes. During the decades that follow, Boeotia played a role in every political episode that impacted central Greece – the Celtic invasion, the rise of Aetolian power, the alliance with Macedon; though its role was almost never of any great significance, it did make a crucial contribution to certain developments.

Of course, this is neither the first, nor the last work to deal with Hellenistic Boeotia. Kalliontzis’ work builds on nearly two centuries of previous research, starting from the French excavations in Boeotia during the 19th century, the first efforts of a corpus of Boeotian inscriptions by Dittenberger at the end of the 19th century, the limited scholar activity in the post-war decades, the new undertakings in the 1960s, the period of intense activity (including frequent workshops on the history and archaeology of Boeotia) that followed in the 1970s and the 1980s, up to the recent revival of Boeotian studies, especially epigraphy, made possible by the construction of the new museum; all this is laid out in detail in the Introduction (1–7).

The first part of the book (7–144) offers a synthesis of the chronology, organization and institutions of the Hellenistic Boeotian *koinon*, as well as an overview of its foreign relations, concluding with an overview of the factual history of Boeotia.

The first chapter (7–50) deals with the chronology of the federal archons of Hellenistic Boeotia, a greatly debated topic in the history and epigraphy of the area. The challenge of the issue lies in the documentary character of the military catalogues: namely, most of the catalogues come from small cities that list their own ephebes, providing prosopographical links to other cities only on the odd occasion. Consequently, it is difficult to verify the dating of these documents by relating them to other, more precisely dated inscriptions. Prosopographical links with precisely dated series of documents, such as those from Delphi or Athens, are rare, if not completely absent; when analyzing these catalogues, it is relatively easy to make prosopographical errors by casting a grandfather as a grandson with the same name and vice versa. Taking all this into consideration, however, Boeotia still offers a set of prosopographical data that is unparalleled in central Greece. Through the military catalogues, we are able to follow a part of the population of Hellenistic Boeotia over several generations, a rare phenomenon in the Greek world. The mention of the same federal archon allows us to group together a number of these military catalogues and to better date them. In addition, other inscriptions are better connected with the rest of the Greek world, and, therefore, easier to date.

Based on five well-known anchors of Boeotian chronology, Kalliontzis reexamines several fundamental points from the established chronology of Hellenistic Boeotia: the use of patronymic adjectives, the prosopography, the presence of several inscriptions on a single slab, the dialect and paleography of the documents, as well as the new dating of the military reform after 240 BC, which presses us to lower the date of several federal Boeotian archons and group a large number of them between 230 and 171 BC (10–13). This leads us to the second part of the chapter, which deals precisely with the chronology of the federal archons between ca. 290 and 171 BC (13–40). On the basis of the chronology proposed by Etienne and Knoepfler, Kalliontzis provides some clarifications on their chronology between the early 2nd century BC and the dissolution of the Boeotian *koinon* (of course, it goes without saying that the dating of the archons from the early 3rd century BC remains very uncertain). After analyzing several cases and putting forward entirely new or improved chronological
observations, Kalliontzis offers a table with the new chronology of federal archons from 250 to 171 BC (41–42), as well as an alphabetical catalogue of federal archons and their source records (42–50) – a handy recap of his argument.

The second chapter deals with the political organization of the *koinon* and the Boeotian cities during the Hellenistic period (51–100): not an easy task, even though Boeotia is one of the Greek states with the longest federal tradition and possibly the home of the best known Greek federal state. The structure of this state is pretty well explored, although historians usually face a paradoxical situation: they possess a major source for the Classical period, the *Hellenica of Oxyrhynchus*, but very few inscriptions; while being unable to use any major work for the Hellenistic period, but having an ocean of disparate inscriptions. In any case, it is very important to establish a solid reconstruction of the events, as the federal character of the *koinon* influenced not only its entire structure in the political, military and economic sense, but also the relations between the *koinon* and the outside world, as well as the relations among the cities themselves. This brings the author to a detailed examination of the sources; the federal political structure: the federal capital; the territorial organization; the federal citizenship; the assemblies and magistracies; and, finally, the financial organization of the *koinon* and taxes (53–65). This is followed by a summary of the political organization of the cities, with parts dedicated to the local assemblies and civic magistracies, including political, financial, judicial and religious offices (65–71). The part dealing with the military structure includes detailed overviews of military catalogues; military reform; federal military organization, including training and magistracy; and, finally, military organization of the infantry and cavalry in each particular city (71–96). Several points become evident during this process: that the basis for the organization of the Boeotian army was the division into *tele*, with each *telos* providing the same number of men for the federal army; that the army thus assembled was, in fact, a national army throughout the Hellenistic period, a characteristic present in other Hellenistic states, such as Macedonia and Thessaly, which have several points in common with Boeotia; and, finally, that this union of civic contingents forming a federal national army was not a point of weakness and division, nor did it prevent them from playing an important role in the military history of central Greece. The weakness should rather be sought in the federal structure itself, as well as the autonomy of the Boeotian cities within the *koinon*. The chapter concludes with an overview of the foreign relations of the *koinon* and the Boeotian cities. (96–101).

The third chapter (101–145) offers a historical overview of Hellenistic Boeotia, reasonably divided into several smaller sections: from the destruction of Thebes to the arrival of Demetrius Poliorcetes; the rebuilding of Thebes by Cassander; the period of the Boeotian revolts; the reintegration of Thebes into the Boeotian *koinon*; the adherence of the Boeotian *koinon* to the “Hellenic alliance” of Antigonus Doson; and several others, up to the dissolution of the Boeotian *koinon*. This paints a picture of a Boeotia that presents itself as a secondary region within the Hellenistic world; in contrast to the great Hellenistic kingdoms and cities, the Boeotian Confederation did not reside at the center of the political scene – though it did occupy a notable place among the states of the so-called “third Greece”. In contrast to the earlier Boeotian *koina*, the Hellenistic *koinon* distinguished itself by mutual respect among all cities regardless of their size; in particular, it was able to reintegrate into the system the once-dominant city of Thebes, which had previously abused its authority over several Boeotian cities. The democratic aspect of the *koinon* becomes evident through the equal participation of all Boeotian citizens in civic and federal political life. Moreover, thanks to the Hellenistic *koinon*, the Boeotian cities were finally able to live in harmony for the first time, as their past had been marred by internal wars and permanent conflicts. Kalliontzis obviously rejects the idea of a Hellenistic Boeotia in decline; quite the contrary, he goes on to observe that even the alliance with Macedon in the second half of the 2nd century BC had a solid foundation, with Ma-
cedon being rather positive and benevolent toward Boeotia up to the dissolution of the Boeotian *koinon*. The obvious Boeotian decline came with the arrival of the Romans, who divided the *koinon* and eventually brought about its demise. The Romans replaced a lively and original political organism with a much less elaborate system of control; of course, no Greek *koinon* was able to maintain an independent policy against Roman power.

The most important contribution of the Hellenistic *koinon* was the stability enjoyed by the Boeotian cities, large and small, which allowed them to live in peace and enjoy certain economic progress. Due to the democratic federal and civic organization, we have in our possession quite a few epigraphic documents; this leads us into the second part of this book (147–253), where the author edits and redacts particular inscriptions that bring new elements to regional history. The inscriptions are presented according to the chronological and historical synthesis proposed in the first part of this book, with sections dedicated to Megara (3 inscriptions), Aegosthena (4), Oropus (1), Thespiae (2), Corseae (7), Thebes (2), Acraephia (11), Coronea (2), Orchomenus (14), and Chaeronea (6). The author presents the material city by city, following the geographical order of the corpus of inscriptions from Boeotia published in *Inscriptiones Graecae* (IG VII). This method enables the reader to find the document they are looking for with ease; it also has the advantage of highlighting the material aspect of the texts, which has long been overlooked due to the poor conditions in which the inscriptions were kept. The unpublished inscriptions find their natural position among the published ones that come from the same city and to which they are sometimes linked. Each section is preceded by a brief introduction to the epigraphy of the city, which also presents the essential bibliography. Translations are generally provided, with the exception of the formulaic documents, where translation is not so necessary.

Hellenistic Boeotia does not always attract the interest of researchers, as it rarely took part in the prevailing phenomena of the Hellenistic world, such as international networks or religious syncretism; a rather unfortunate fact, as the federal organization of Boeotia and its evolution over the span of several centuries – its most interesting and current aspect – offer an exceptional example even for the political entities of today. It is true that the evolution of research over the last decades has abandoned the habit of producing extensive synthetic works, partly due to practicality, and partly due to the fact that these syntheses often happen to be overly general, superficial, or prone to influences by different theoretical approaches. This book, however, is a very different synthetic work, being dedicated to a regional history and based on a very particular and well-defined corpus of source material. *Contribution à l'épigraphie...* combines theoretical models, *Quellenforschung* and factual analysis with the aim of providing a comprehensive picture of Hellenistic Boeotia. This, of course, is a very broad topic, and no book can resolve all the issues posed by the history of the region. However, Kalliontzis offers a solid, well thought-out contribution to Boeotian history and epigraphy – a welcome study that manages to overcome the grim nature of the epigraphic evidence in order to contribute to a better understanding of an insufficiently studied (and not-quite-fashionable) Greek region.

Vojislav Sarakinski

Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje