Fragment of a Marble Inscription in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2010

Fragment of an inscription, Classical, ca. 425–424 b.c.
Greek, Attic
Marble
Overall 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 in. (13 x 17.1 cm)
Fletcher Fund, 1926 (26.60.5)

Following the Greek victory over the Persians in 479 B.C., Athens formed a naval confederacy with other Greek cities around the Aegean Sea. Gradually, however, it became an empire exacting annual tribute for the benefit of Athens alone. This inscription is part of a tribute list recording payments to Athens by members of the confederacy. It lists the assessments of Paros, Naxos, Andros, Melos, Siphnos, Eretria, and Thera. The date is 425/424 B.C., and the amounts are high because Athens was combatting Sparta in the Peloponnesian War.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/26.60.5