People to confer upon him such or such privileges. These are, in most cases, (i) the right of acquiring land and house-property in the island,—γῆς καὶ οἰκίας ἔγκτησις: (ii) exemption from taxes,—ἀτέλεια: (iii) precedence in the law-courts,—δίκαι πρόδικοι: (iv) the right of bringing private business before the Senate or People immediately after the affairs of religion,—πρόσοδος πρὸς τὴν βουλὴν καὶ τὸν δῆμον πρώτοις μετὰ τὰ ἱερά. A rarer distinction is a place of honour at festivals—προεδρία. Rarer still is the distinction of being publicly eulogized and crowned at the Apollonia (a festival distinct from the Delia, as another inscription shows[1])—when the sacred herald (ἱεροκῆρυξ) proclaimed the name of the person thus honoured. The decree usually adds that the recipient is to possess πάντα ὅσα δέδοται τοῖς προξένοις καὶ εὐεργέταις, all the privileges assigned to the public friends and benefactors of Delos[2].
Among the persons thus distinguished we find Pnytagoras[3], king of Salamis in Cyprus, and Philocles, king of Sidon, who had established a
- ↑ Bulletin de Corr. hellén. vol. iii. p. 379: a dedication by parents in honour of their daughter, κανηφορήσασαν Δήλια καὶ Ἀπολλώνια.
- ↑ About fifty decrees of προξενία have been found, of which some thirty are complete: see M. Homolle, Monuments grecs, No. 7, p. 38; Bulletin de Corr. hellén. vol. i. p. 279, where some specimens are given in full.
- ↑ A temple-inventory mentions an offering on which the decree in his favour was engraved—ἔχον προξενίαν Πνυταγόρᾳ Βασιλεῖ Σαλαμινίῳ: Mon. grecs, l. c. p. 49.
