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  • Chapter 5 - The Politics of Endowments

  • from Part III - Hellenistic Benefactors
  • Edited by Marc Domingo Gygax, Princeton University, New Jersey, Arjan Zuiderhoek, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book:
    Benefactors and the Polis
    Published online:
    21 January 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021, pp 115-136

  • Summary

    This chapter argues that euergetism in Hellenistic poleis was not just a form of benefaction securing kings and wealthy members of the polis symbolic capital, legitimacy and a superior place in the social hierarchy of poleis, but also a means of community building and social peace. The well-known habit of Hellenistic political communities to publish endowment decrees and the regulations concerning their legal execution on stone not only ensured that the assets dedicated to a particular purpose were not poorly managed, embezzled or transferred to another purpose. They were also public monuments of the democratic control over private wealth and its public display. Demonstrating that the people held ultimate power over the smooth running of public endowments, these decrees guaranteed and made visible the democratic commitment to their ‘eternal’ existence, and at the same time propagated the effectiveness of democratic institutions among the whole citizen body as well as vis-à-vis individual wealthy benefactors.