The Cleroterium

Extract

The examination of the cleroterium by Sterling Dow left few questions connected with it untouched. His publications on this ingenious device are as follows: ‘Allotment Machines', Prytaneis: A Study of the Inscriptions Honoring the Athenian Councillors, Hesperia, Suppl. i (1937) 198–215, with photographs (hereafter referred to as P); ‘Aristotle, the Kleroteria, and the Courts’, HSCP 1 (1939) 1–34 (hereafter referred to as H); ‘Kleroterion’, in PW, Suppl. vii (1940), col. 322–328 (hereafter referred to as PW). G. Klaffenbach summarised Dow's analysis in ‘Antike Losungsapparate’, Die Antike xiv (1938) 353–355. Prior to Dow, notice of one fragment of a cleroterium was published by B. Tamaro, ‘Pianta Epigrafica dell’ Acropoli', ASAA iv/v (1921–22) 63 nr. 124. P has clear photographs of all remains then known. There are drawings in PW based on the drawing of I and photographs of I, II, III, X, and XI in P—Dow labelled the remains with roman numerals; I follow his labelling. Drawings in P are found opposite the photographs of I and of VI; in H, as frontispiece. Since Dow's publications appeared, there has been no reconsideration of his work nor any re-examination of his reconstruction. This is proof of the quality of his work.

In 1960 when I first studied Dow's reconstruction, I relied on the excellent and revealing photographs in P. My own mechanical aptitude made me feel uneasy over certain small details in the reconstruction.