Delphic maxims from Ai-Khanoum

Ai-Khanoum (lit. "Lady Moon" in Uzbek) is located in Kunduz Province of Afghanistan. City was founded by Alexander the Great around 328 BC. City may have been Alexandria on the Oxus, or later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia. The site was excavated through archaeological searches by a French DAFA mission under Paul Bernard between 1964 and 1978, and looks just like a Greek city, including temples, a heroön, palace, colonnaded courts, city wall, gymnasium (sport school), houses, Corinthian columns, free-standing statues, and a theater with 5,000 seats.

The inscription with the Delphic precepts, at Ai-Khanoum

In Ai-Khanoum have been found various inscriptions in Classical Greek. Robert Lane Fox, about the Greekness of those inscriptions, said:

"Excavations at Ai Khanoum on the northern border of modern Afghanistan have produced great quantities of Greek inscriptions and even the remnants of a philosophical treatise originally on papyrus. One of the most interesting is the base of a dedication by one Klearchos, perhaps the known student of Aristotle, that records his bringing to this new Greek city, Alexandria on the Oxus..."

On a Herôon (funerary monument), identified in Greek as the tomb of Kineas (the oikistes, founder, of the Greek settlement), it's written:

ἀνδρῶν τοι σοφὰ ταῦτα παλαιοτέρων ἀνάκει[τα]ι
ῥήματα ἀριγνώτων Πυθοὶ ἐν ἠγαθέαι·
ἔνθεν ταῦτ[α] Κλέαρχος ἐπιφραδέως ἀναγράψας
εἵσατο τηλαυγῆ Κινέου ἐν τεμένει.

Bactria — Aï-Khanoum — 3rd c. BC — CRAI 1968.421-430 — Merk.-Staub., Jenseits Euphrat 103A; Fouilles Aï-Khanoum VIII (1992) 389,1a — Merk.-Staub. III 12/01/01

English translation:

"These wise sayings of older men, far-famed, are dedicated in holy Pytho; from where Clearhus assidously copied these things and set them up in the temenos of Cineas to shine out far and wide."

παῖς ὢν κόσμιος γίνου,
ἡβῶν ἐγκρατής,
μέσος δίκαιος ,
πρεσβύτης εὔβουλος,
τελευτῶν ἄλυπος.

Bactria — Aï-Khanoum — 3rd c. BC — CRAI 1968.424-426, 429 — Merk.-Staub. III 12/01/01

English translation:

"As children, learn good manners
as young men, learn to control the passions
in middle age, be just
in old age, give good advice
then die, without regret."

Alexander's dedication to Athena Polias

In 334 BC Alexander crossed the Hellespont, the narrow strait separating Europe and Asia, and went first to Troy. There he dedicated his armour to Athena and laid a wreath at the tomb of Achilles, the legendary hero and champion of the Greeks in the Trojan War. This act prefigured Alexander's role as a new Achilles liberating the Greek cities of Asia Minor from Persian rule.

Alexander the Great made a more imposing dedication to the goddess Athena, an entire temple at Priene in Asia Minor. The first part of his long journey of conquest took him through Asia Minor, where he liberated the Greek cities from Persian rule. The historian Strabo records that Alexander offered to defray the entire cost of rebuilding the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, which had been burnt down in 356 bc, on condition that the gift should be recorded by an inscription on the Temple.

There was a precedent for this since King Croesus had dedicated many of the columns of the previous temple. The Ephesians, however, declined Alexander's offer on the grounds that it was not fitting for one god to dedicate a temple to another. No ancient historian records that Alexander made a similar offer to the people of Priene, but the dedicatory inscription on the temple indicates that the offer was both made and accepted;

Βασιλεύς Αλέξανδρος \ ανέβηκε τον ναόν \ Άθηναίηι Πολιάδι
King Alexander dedicated the temple to Athena Polias

After the temple was excavated in 1869-70 by the architect-archaeologist Richard Pullan leading an expedition on behalf of the Society of Dilettanti, this block and several others from the adjacent wall were removed to London. Immediately below the dedication was inscribed a letter from Alexander granting Priene various privileges including exemption from taxes, while the rest of the wall was used for other records, forming a kind of perma­nent civic archive.

The inscription located in the British Museum and displayed in Room 78.

References
British Museum
B.F. Cook, Greek inscriptions (London, The British Museum Press, 1987)

Source
Ancient and Medieval Macedonian History

Agreement of the Congress of Corinth

The Agreement of the Congress of Corinth in 337 B.C.

ΤΟ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΟ ΤΟΥ ΚΟΙΝΟΥ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ 337 π. Χ.

The agreement of the Congress of Cotinth in 337 B.C., when the leadership of Philip was recognized, and which was the materialization of panhellenic unity. Preserved in a fragmentary inscription from Acropolis.

(From Philip, King of the Macedonians, Ekdotiki Athinon, p. 138).

Click on the image to see in full size!

Source: Macedonia - Nikolaos Martis

Failaka (Kuwait) Inscription

Transcription of the marble stele with inscription in Greek language from the Hellenistic period. It is found in island Failaka, Kuwait.

[Archaeological Investigations in the Island of Failaka 1958-1964, Ministry of Information, Kuwait.]

Pharaonic cartouche from Louvre

Cartouche (Pharaonic name presentation) of Alexander the Great, circa 330 BC. It is found in Egypt, but it is kept in Louvre Museum in Paris. Because the 'bird' (hieroglyphic sign) is facing the right side, text should be read from right to left.



Latin transcript: ALKSINDRS
English transcript: ALEKSINDROS
Greek translation: Αλέξανδρος
Latin form of Greek translation: Alexandros

Conclusion: Alexander's original name in Egyptian stelae, is written in his native Greek language.

Author: M.P.

Inscriptions on Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was founded in 1400 BCE. For centuries Thebes was once known as the capital of the known world. Known in the Egyptian language as ipet resyt, or "the southern sanctuary." In Luxor there are six great temples, the four on the left bank are known to travellers and readers of travels as Goornah, Deir-el-Bahri, the Ramesseum, and Medinet Habu; and the two temples on the right bank are known as the Karnak and Luxor.

The original part of the Temple of Luxor consisted of a large peristyle court and a complex of halls and chambers beyond. In one hall is a granite shrine of Alexander the Great.

Shrine of Alexander the Great, Luxor Temple - photo by Cameron Grant.

At the temple are inscribed some Egyptian hieroglyphs, dedicated to Alexander the Great:



Latinized written form: [Prenomen] stp.n-ra mri-imn [Nomen] alksndrs
Transcription into Latinized form: [Prenomen] Setepenre Meryamun [Nomen] Alexandros
Translation into English: Chosen of Ra, Beloved of Amun, Alexander

The most interesting thing is that Egyptian pronunciation of Alexander's name is same as Greek pronunciation. If in Egyptian his name is written as alksndrs, and read as Alexandros, then in Greeks is written as Αλέξανδρος, and read as Aleksandros. While, in Slavomacedonian is written as Александар, and read as Aleksandar, and it isn't same pronunciation.

Photos with inscriptions of Alexander's barque chapels at the temple in Luxor:

Detail of Alexander the Great's Cartouche, in Luxor Temple, Egypt.

Carvings depicting Alexander the Great (on the right hand side), Luxor Temple, Egypt.

Alexander represented as Pharaon - Luxor Temple.

Author: M.P.

Edicts of Ashoka

An irrefutable evidence of the Greek ethnicity of ancient Macedonians comes from the famous “Edicts of Ashoka” (c. 250 BCE) where the Buddhist emperor Ashoka refers to the Greek populations under his rule.

The Rock Edicts V and XIII mention the Yonas (or the Greeks) along with the Kambojas and Gandharas as a subject people forming a frontier region of his empire and attest that he sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean, faultlessly naming them one by one.

Bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) by king Ashoka, from Kandahar (Shar-i-kuna). Kabul Museum.

Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King
Piodasses (one of the titles of Ashoka: Piyadassi or Priyadarsi,
"He who is the beloved of the Gods and who regards
everyone amiably") made known (the doctrine of)
Piety (Greek:εὐσέβεια, Eusebeia) to men; and from this moment he has made
men more pious, and everything thrives throughout
the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing)
living beings, and other men and those who (are)
huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted
from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they
have ceased from their intemperance as was in their
power; and obedient to their father and mother and to
the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future,
by so acting on every occasion, they will live better
and more happily.

(Trans. by G. P. Carratelli)

In the Gandhari original of Rock XIII, the Greek kings to the West are associated unambiguously with the term “Yona“:

More precicely we have the following: “Now it is conquest by Dhamma that Beloved-of-the-Gods considers to be the best conquest. And it (conquest by Dhamma) has been won here, on the borders, even six hundred yojanas away, where the Greek king Antiochos rules, beyond there where the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas, the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni.” Rock Edict Nb13 (S. Dhammika)

The distance of 600 yojanas (a yojanas being about 7 miles), corresponds to the distance between the center of India and Greece (roughly 4,000 miles).

1.Antiochos refers to Antiochus II Theos of Syria (261-246 BCE), who controlled the Seleucid Empire from Syria to Bactria, in the east from 305 BCE to 250 BCE, and was therefore a direct neighbor of Ashoka.

2.Ptolemy refers to Ptolemy II Philadelphos of Egypt (285-247 BCE), king of the dynasty founded by Ptolemy I, a former general of Alexander the Great, in Egypt.

3.Antigonos refers to Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedon (278-239 BCE).

4.Magas refers to Magas of Cyrene (300-258 BCE).

5.Alexander refers to Alexander II of Epirus (272-258 BCE).

In the Gandhari original Antiochos is refered as “Amtiyoko nama Yona-raja” (lit. “The Greek king by the name of Antiokos“), beyond whom live the four other kings: “param ca tena Atiyokena cature 4 rajani Turamaye nama Amtikini nama Maka nama Alikasudaro nama” (lit. “And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander”)

It is evident then, from the testimony of the epigraphic records, that Asoka ruled the whole of India except the extreme south, which was in the hands of the Cholas and Pāndyas. The inscriptions refer also to the nations on the borders of the empire. There were in the south, as already mentioned, the Cholas and Pāndyas, whose lands stretched as far as Tamraparni, i.e. Ceylon; while one edict adds two smaller border chiefs, the Keralaputra, i.e. the king of Kerāla or Malabar, and the Satiyaputra, not yet satisfactorily identified, but probably connected with the āndhras. Mentioned along with these independent kingdoms of the south are the Yavana king, Antiyaka, that is the Seleucid Antiochos Theos, whose lands marched with the Maurya empire on the north-west, and the other Greek kings who were his neighbours. On the outer fringe of the empire, but within the king’s territory, were the Yonas, the Greeks in the lands ceded by Seleucus to Chandragupta; other Yavanas are named, along with the Gandhāras, apparently as independent; they were probably the rulers of southern Afghanistan and the land west of the upper Indus. The Kambojas, mentioned with them and located north-west of Gandhāra in the Hindu Kush, spoke a semi-Iranian language and were regarded by Hindus as only half-civilised. Another group of frontier peoples living within the king’s territory but probably retaining some vestiges of autonomy, belonged to the south.

From the book “The Cambridge Shorter History of India” of Cambridge Un. Press – 1934

Sources: History-of-Macedonia