Two inscribed documents of the Athenian Empire: the Chalkis decree and the tribute reassessment decree

This paper discusses two important inscriptions for the history of the Athenian Empire, the Chalkis decree of 446/5 (or 424/3?) BC (IG I3 40) and the tribute reassessment decree (“Thoudippos’ decree”) of 425/4 BC (IG I3 71). Based on English translations of the most up-to-date and authoritative Greek texts, the paper sets out to explain the inscriptions in historical context, without assuming prior knowledge of ancient Greek or of the history of Athens and the Athenian Empire. To help the reader new to the study of Athenian inscriptions, the Paper includes an introduction to inscribed Athenian decrees of the fifth century BC. This paper will be useful for researchers, teachers and learners of Greek History at University level, but is also designed to help 6th-form teachers and students in the UK with the study of these two inscriptions, which are set as source material for the “Relations between Greek states and between Greek and non-Greek states, 492-404 BC” period study under the OCR specification for A-level Ancient History (H407, for first assessment in 2019; LACTOR4 1.78 and 138). Note: minor corrections were incorporated on 28 June 2017