Grèce Antique

One of the cities of Macedonia listed by Claudius Ptolemaeus (Geogr. III, 12, 23) and Pliny the Younger (NH. V, 10, 17) in the imperial age is Lete. Its location is about 12 kilometers NW of Thessaloniki. The city and its cemeteries sprawled over the hills of the Derveni pass and the western part of the fertile plain of Langadas. This strategic position on two main roads - leading from the Aegean into the central Balkans and linking the Thermaikos Gulf with eastern Macedonia - justifies the long, continuous habitation of the site, from the very early Neolithic period until the Roman era.
The two bronze oinochoai derive from the cemetery of Lete, a city of ancient Mygdonia in Macedonia. More specifically, the oinochoe no MTh 17244 (fig. 1-2) accompanied a male burial of the early 3rd century, while the oinochoe no MTh 22710 (fig. 3-4) accompanied a female burial dated to 270-260 B.C. The morphological characteristics of the two vessels allow for their incorporation in the Hellenistic version of type 9 of the bronze oinochoai, dated to late 4th-early 3rd c.B.C. The handle of oinochoe MTh 17244 ends to an ivy leaf, while the attachment of the handle of oinochoe MTh 22710 is decorated with two confronted heads of goats which frame acanthus leaves. This theme comprises a rare decorative motif on the handles of metal vessels, with the earlier example being the bronze trefoil oinochoe from Galaxidi. In early Hellenistic era the same motif is encountered on the attachments of the handles of the two-handled bronze oinochoe B 34 from the Derveni cemetery (fig. 5, 10 a), a bronze sheet with similar function from Region of Didymoteichon (fig. 6) and a bronze oinochoe from Nafpaktos (fig. 7a, b), related to a Macedonian workshop. Other examples, such as the bronze olpe in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the bronze hydria from Palazzolo demonstrate that the depiction is used until the early Roman times. The oinochoe MTh 22710 from Lete belongs to a burial assemblage where it is combined with clay drinking vessels, thus it comprised a symposium vessel. The emblematic depiction on the attachment of its handle refers to Dionysus as a god of wine and symposium, considering that the goat is included among the animals that accompany the god. Αlso, in the same context belongs the ivy leaf on the oinochoe MTh 17244.
The two oinochoai were possibly manufactured in the period between 330-300 B.C., while the MTh 22710 is a little later. They were undoubtedly already used vessels which were deposited as funeral offerings not much later than their production. The estimation that certain metal vessels from the cemetery of Derveni are creations of a metal workshop installed in Lete is further confirmed by the scarcity of the shape of the two bronze oinochoai. The stylistic similarities between the theme of the confronted heads of goats on the oinochoe and the crowning of grave stelae, which depict the same theme and are products of Attic workshops (fig. 9), allow for the verification of the influence of Attic art in their performance. Nevertheless, the influence of Attic workshops has been noted in other facets of local production activity in Lete.

Βασιλείου-Δαμβέργης, Αλέξανδρος-Νεκτάριος, Ιω. «Η σημασία των θαλάσσιων περασμάτων προς τον Β. Ευβοϊκό κόλπο (Δίαυλος Τρικερίου, Δίαυλος Κνημίδας) από τους μυθικούς χρόνους μέχρι τα μέσα του 5ου αι. π.Χ.», στο: Πρακτικά Ε΄ Συνεδρίου Αλμυριώτικων Σπουδών, επιμ. Βίκτωρ Κοντονάτσιος, Χρυσούλα Κοντογεωργάκη, Αλυρός Βόλου 14-16 Οκτωβρίου 2016, Αλμυρός 2019, σ. 179-212.

Cet article aborde, à partir des recherches récentes effectuées sur le sujet, les débats et questions relatives aux différents systèmes et droits fonciers aux époques archaïque et classique en Grèce. Les sources permettent d'identifier des usages agricoles de la terre fondés sur un mode d'appropriation individuelle, parfois sur de l'affermage de propriétés publiques ou sacrées. Les usages pastoraux sont bien documentés sur les terres publiques, notamment les eschatiai, mais également dans les décrets de proxénie et les traités entre cités. L'absence de terminologie spécifique relative aux droits fonciers dans les sources et le cadre politique éclaté constitué par les cités rendent complexes l'appréhension de la tenure de la terre et de ses modes d'exploitation. Il en ressort une grande diversité des situations et la probable existence de plusieurs systèmes fonciers déterminés à la fois par les conditions climatiques et écologiques locales mais aussi par l'environnement socio-économique et politique des différentes régions grecques.

The G. Papailiakis Collection is located in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and includes a significant number of antiquities, among which the female protomes presented here. Although they are not numerous, they roughly represent the development of these specific artifacts in central Macedonia.
We may recognize eight iconographic types, which include head protomes and bust protomes. The dating and attribution of the protomes to a specific group of terracotta workshops is based on recently published excavation data from sealed dated contexts. The general diffusion of these iconographic types in Northern Greece is also presented.
The terracotta protome is an autonomous type of representation which survives until the late Hellenistic era. In the meantime, the type is constantly altered and developed, the production techniques change, while colors are used to highlight the facial features, the garments and the jewelry.   
Excavation data appear to support the view that the protomes depict the Goddess who is connected with the life-cycle, birth, marriage, fertility, and death. During the Hellenistic period and in the wider frame of religious blending and syncretism, the Goddess sometimes adopts the visual characteristics of Eastern deities.

Edouard Will et Claude Orrieux ont une formidable expression : « Tous ces phénomènes de contacts, d’échanges, de contaminations, de syncrétismes ont été abondamment étudiés, mais la nature de la documentation est telle que ce que l’on saisit, le plus souvent, ce sont des résultats, mais non les processus qui ont conduit à ces résultats, qu’il serait pourtant essentiel de pouvoir analyser. » Il n’est aucunement question dans les développements qui vont suivre de prétendre réussir là où les plus grands se sont arrêtés. Ce mémoire entend modestement tracer une ligne directrice, et épurée, de la thématique de la légitimité lagide. Il ne s’agit donc ni d’entrer dans les plus sinueux détails des oppositions historiographiques, ni de s’attarder sur des développements qui demandent une vive expertise. À l’aide de l’ensemble des sources évoquées plus haut, et évidemment de travaux plus récents, il est ainsi question de voir sur quels principes reposent la légitimité des premiers rois lagides et aussi d’analyser la manière dont les rois pérennisent leur place de souverains d’Égypte. Quelle est la nature de la monarchie ptolémaïque et par quels biais s’est assise la légitimité de ses premiers représentants ?

Les Lagides ont un double visage, tantôt pharaon, tantôt βασιλεύς. La nature de la monarchie ptolémaïque se trouve dans la coexistence de ces deux modèles que Sôter et ses successeurs utilisent sans jamais ambitionner de les fusionner. Si Ptolémée Ier construit les bases de l’idéologie royale ptolémaïque, ce sont ses successeurs qui lui donnent sa pleine amplitude. Alexandrie brille dans le monde, à l’instar du phare qu’elle abrite : les Ptolémées passent pour les plus grands rois du monde, les plus riches et les plus puissants, jusqu’à la fin du IIIe siècle av. J.-C.

The name "Tanagra figurines" was designated for figurines of the Late Classical and Hellenistic period that depict mainly standing and seated female figurines and young girls in relaxed poses, dressed with rich garments decorated with colors, adorned with wreaths and jewellery. Regardless of their place of production, these iconographical types are collectively known by the same name. These figurines are found in public and private sanctuaries, most of female Greek deities, as votive offerings and in burials as grave goods.
The influence of imported prototypes in the formation of the repertoire of local workshops falls within the general economic and cultural exchanges among the cities of Southern Greece. They were the most popular creations of the local coroplastic workshops in Northern Greece.
The reproduction of Tanagra figurines dates from the early 3rd century onwards in coroplastic workshops of large urban centers and smaller settlements that constitute the periphery of Northern Greece and one of aims of the present study is to distinguish the main creative workshops and to classify the smaller peripheral ones within their sphere of influence. Indicatively as creative workshops we could mention Pydna, Aiani, Veroia, Pella,  Thessaloniki, Lete, Kassandreia, Amphipolis and Thasos.

Dans quel contexte franchissait-on le seuil de l'oikos à l'époque classique, de quelle manière, qui, comment et pourquoi ? Le seuil est un espace alloué aux rites de sociabilités et au changement de statut et c'est la raison pour laquelle la cité grecque s'est efforcée de la codifier afin de faire de cet acte anodin un acte ritualisé.

The Macedonian tomb presented here was unearthed in 1910 in Macedonia, still under the Turkish occupation. This is the so-called “Tomb of Langadas”, named thus when published by the Greek ottoman archaeologist Theodoros Macridy / or “Tomb of Macridy bey”, after the excavator’s name. The documentation and the graphical representation of the tomb were undertaken by the painter Halil Édhem bey (1851-1938). The marble door of the chamber, as well as all the findings that escaped the looting, were transferred in that same year to the Ottoman Imperial Museum (Istanbul Arkeoloji Muzesi), in Istanbul.  Only the marble door is exhibited to this day.
This Macedonian tomb is constructed using brownish blocks of limestone and has two chambers and a façade of the Ionic order. The façade is decorated with wall paintings, like other monuments of the same type found in the greater area of ancient Macedonia. The door leading to the antechamber was wooden, while the one of the chamber was made of marble. According to the relevant descriptions, the bronze elements of the doors, as well as their decorative and functional reliefs, were gilded, and can be compared with relevant finds, indicating thus the dating of the monument at the end of 4th cent. B.C. The main burial took place inside a cist tomb, which had been constructed underneath a complex marble structure.

Cynisca représente l’exemple parfait des nouvelles valeurs, nullement conformes à la pensée de Lycurgue, en vogue dans la Sparte impériale que régissait son frère Agésilas II. Propriétaire d’un patrimoine personnel, Cynisca a investi sa richesse dans l’élevage d’excellents chevaux de course qui lui ont permis de devenir la première femme à vaincre lors des jeux olympiques. L’instrumentalisation de ses deux victoires et les somptueuses offrandes qu’elle a dédiées tant dans le sanctuaire panhellénique comme dans ceux de la propre Sparte révèlent la volonté de Cynisca de marquer de son empreinte une société lacédémonienne qui a fini par l’héroïser et l’ériger en modèle pour les jeunes filles spartiates.

The marble statuette presented in this paper was recovered in 2004 in the area of ancient Lete and was recorded in the inventory of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki with the inv. no. 22885.
The statuette follows the so-called “Aphrodite-Nymphe” type (Typus Nymphe mit hochgestelltem Fuss), according to which the figure is resting her foot on the rock, a type also known from terracotta figurines of the third century and marble statuettes of the Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial era. They originated on a Lyssipian creation, which
was probably produced in Attica and was diffused after the documented migration of Athenian sculptors in northern Greece in the late fourth century BC. The comparative examination of the Aphrodite statuette mainly with terracotta figurines determines its dating possibly in the beginning of the third century, an estimation supported by the fact that the same iconographic type appears, with little chronological divergence, in a terracotta figurine from the area of Thessaloniki. Furthermore, certain technical similarities with an assemblage of statuettes from the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in Derveni, Lete, dated to the late fourth to early third century, allow its association with the local sculpture workshop of the ancient city. Thus, in a city which developed into an important urban centre, especially in Cassander’s era, the existing evidence of the worship of Aphrodite, along with other finds, can be dated from the late fourth century BC until the second century AD.

Compte-rendu de la deuxieme journee d'etudes consacree aux objets de luxe importes de l'ocean Indien dans le monde mediterraneen. Cette etude aborde le cas de deux produits fournis par la mer : les perles naturelles et l'ecaille de tortue.

The grave monument presented here derives from illicit trade of antiquities. It is probably made of Thasian marble and it is proved that it was used in three different periods. Initially, it had the form of a tall stele embellished with rosettes carved in relief and crowned by a floral anthemion, dating to the first half of the 2nd century B.C. Probably during the end of the 2nd century B.C. it was transformed into a stele crowned by a floral anthemion and a shallow relief frieze depicting a funerary banquet (Bildfeldstele). The partial transformation of the gravestone allowed the carving of a new representation of a funerary banquet on its rear side. A reclining man is depicted, surrounded by members of his family and his slaves. The dating of the representation towards the end of the 2nd century B.C. is mainly documented through the comparative examination of the hairstyles of the depicted figures. The relief is a finely crafted work with classicistic elements. The depiction of the seated woman is identical to similar representation of banquets on reliefs from Thasos belonging to the same period. Thus its association with the artistic activity of a workshop in Thasos can be argued, which was active beyond the narrow geographical limits of the island. Most probably the relief was integrated in a façade of a heroon.

One of the cities of Macedonia listed by Claudius Ptolemaeus (Geogr. III, 12, 23) and Pliny the Younger (NH. V, 10, 17) in the imperial age is Lete. Its location is about 12 kilometers NW of Thessaloniki.The city and its cemeteries sprawled over the hills of the Derveni pass and the western part of the fertile plain of Langadas. This strategic position on two main roads - leading from the Aegean into the central Balkans and linking the Thermaikos Gulf with eastern Macedonia - justifies the long, continuous habitation of the site, from the very early Neolithic period until the Roman era.
The five marble statuettes presented here depict the goddess Artemis. They derive from illicit trade of antiquities from the archeological site of Lete and are kept in the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Dated from the Middle to the Late Hellenistic period, they are preserved in fragmentary condition.The find also includes some fragments of statuettes (inv.nos 20038 α, 20039). According to the statement of the illicit dealers, the statuettes came from the demolition of walls at the top of a hill near the sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Demeter and Kore, in Lete. The pottery finds and the terracotta figurines which were found in the same place determine the sanctuary’s lifespan from the late Archaic to the late Roman times.
The first one (inv.no. 20036, figs 1-2) depicts the goddess as huntress in the iconographic type of ”Ephesos-Athen” or “Louvre-Ephesos”. The second statuette (inv.no. 20035, figs 3-4) also depicts the goddess as the virgin huntress. The statuette (inv.no. 20037, figs 5-7) represents the iconographic type of the Thracian goddess Bendis or Artemis Hegemone, as leader of hunting ant the final series of them (inv.nos 20033, 20034, figs 8-11) involves one more type depicting Artemis with fawn skin. The torso of the statuettes 20037 and 20034 is carved from two pieces, while the arms and legs were also made separately.
From the same sanctuary came to light some more marble statuettes of Artemis dated to the early Hellenistic era, an ascertainment that leads us to the hypothesis that the new findings are votive offerings that come also from the same temple.
All the statuettes mentioned above are probably creations of the same sculptor’s workshop and as we have mentioned in another relevant research, the local sculpture was influenced from Athens. Finally, we can conclude that their great number proves indeed the large-scale acceptance of the worship of Artemis in the wider area.

« République de demi-dieux », « prodigieux haras » pour sang noble, patrie virile du courage et de l’énergie,  Sparte fascine, Sparte inquiète, mais Sparte ne finit pas de briller comme un soleil d’acier dans nos ténèbres ploutocratiques.

One of the cities of Macedonia listed by Claudius Ptolemaeus (Geogr. III, 12, 23) and Pliny the Younger (NH. V, 10, 17) in the imperial age is Lete. Its location is about 12 kilometers NW of Thessaloniki. The city and its cemeteries sprawled over the hills of the Derveni pass and the western part of the fertile plain of Langadas. This strategic position on two main roads - leading from the Aegean into the central Balkans and linking the Thermaikos Gulf with eastern Macedonia - justifies the long, continuous habitation of the site, from the very early Neolithic period until the Roman era.The key factor in the city’s economic development in the Roman age was its position on the Via Egnatia, the great Roman road running from the Adriatic Sea through northern Greece to the Bosporus.Throughout its history Lete controlled an extensive agricultural territorium, from which it derived much of its wealth. As research has repeatedly shown, cities cannot flourish without a substantial agricultural surplus to supply their markets.  Roman citizens and freedmen, seem to have begun settling in and around the city before the end of the republic era, and, adopting Greek as their language, to have set up banks and commercial activities and acquired land.

The burial groups of the two cist-graves presented here belong to the Southeastern cemetery of the city of ancient Veroia, which was in use from the second half of the 4th century BC to the Byzantine period.
The two cist graves T 76 and T 77 had a common shaft and each one was built and covered with poros slabs.
The shapes and the decoration of the grave offerings, such as black-glazed skyphos, kantharoi, oinochoai, unguentaria, bowls, a red-glazed pyxis, a bronze phiale, a mirror and a coin of Antigonos Gonatas date the burials from the early to the middle 3rd century BC.

Evocation, à travers un moulage de stèle et deux fragments de céramique qui représentent des artisan·e·s, du statut social de cette classe de travailleurs et travailleuses dans la cité d’Athènes.
Exposition dans le cadre du Festival Histoire et Cité de l'Université de Genève, édition 2'022 "Invisibles": https://2022.histoire-cite.ch/
Conception et réalisation: Lorenz E. Baumer et Patrizia Birchler Emery

The entries for the catalogue concern findings from the cemetery of ancient Lete, one of the most important cities of the Macedonian kingdom. Lete is located about 12 kilometers NW of Thessaloniki. The city and its cemeteries sprawled over the hills of the Derveni pass and the western part of the fertile plain of Langadas. This strategic position on two main roads - leading from the Aegean into the central Balkans and linking the Thermaikos Gulf with eastern Macedonia - justifies the long, continuous habitation of the site, from the Early Neolithic period until the Roman era.
The majority of the published burial context here comes from the cemetery of the city. Regarding the jewellery, the archaeological evidence proves that the development of regional production was related to the desire for luxurious living-standards and for the production of grave offerings that reflect the symbolic fulfillment of the deceased’s needs in afterlife.
They were presented at the exhibition gold and silver findings from cist tombs of the Early Hellenistic Period, as gold lion's head hoop earrings, a golden olive wreath, a gold diadem wiht Heracles knot, a silver spoon, a silver coin of Alexander the Great, etc.

Αριστοτέλους Αθηναίων Πολιτεία από τις απαρχές μέχρι το Σόλωνα: διαθεματική διδακτική προσέγγιση στο πανεπιστήμιο. Ο φιλόσοφος Ηράκλειτος η εποχή του: ο πολιτικός άνδρας, η πόλις και ο πόλεμος. Ιστορική προσέγγιση και διδακτική πρόταση στο πανεπιστήμιο.

Veroia was built on a terrace in the foothills of the Mt Vermion. The Hellenistic and Roman period constituted its apogee in all aspects of culture.
Two main local workshops were active in Veroia during the late Hellenistic era. The first one is a very dynamic sculpture workshop.
The tombstones and the relief monuments presented here come from the city and a larger region around it. All these monuments -around two hundred- are kept in the Archaeological Museum of Veroia and date from the Late Hellenistic period up to the middle 3rd century AD. In this paper we examine the typology and the iconography of the monuments and we try to point out the main characteristics of this dynamic local workshop, as well as the influences from the prominent workshops in Asia Minor, Rome and Athens. Finally we tried to suggest that apart the well known family workshop of Evandros, son of Evandros, there were some other groups of unknown Veroean sculptors who created very important funerary monuments.
The artistic output of the figurine workshop of Veroia was confined to the period between the last third of the 3rd and the middle of the 1st century BC. Study of the total 70 iconographic types has shown that they can be assigned to two large groups. The first comprise female figurines, dolls and figures of men and children and the second includes subjects connected with cult and religion, such as dancing women, kourotrophoi, icononographic types of Aphrodite, Isis, Psyche and Eros, and the group of Adonis and Aphrodite. The distinctive character of the local workshop is the result of its specific thematic and artistic choices.
The existence of a local workshop is attested by the clay used for the figurines and by their technical features. The practice of signing the moulds is also attested on the rear of two types. As for the interpretation of the standing female figurines, one could be claimed that they depict the dead woman herself. The frequent presence of Aphrodite guarantees of the immortality of the soul and its protection after death.

The cist tomb presented here was discovered in the area of the ancient necropolis of Derveni. This type of funerary monument, built with blocks of poros belongs to a series of cist tombs, whose internal walls are decorated with painted representations. They are usually found in the area of Northern Greece, dating from the second half of the 4th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. These graves, with or without decorated walls, were, in most cases, tombs of women and especially of young girls prematurely deceased (άωρη νεκρή).
The objects depicted on the inner walls of the cist tomb I, as the hydria and the thymiaterion, the fan, the stephane and the mirror, the papyrus, the footwear, the pyxis, the pigeon etc, are relevant to everyday life activities as well as to the rituals of marriage and death. Furthermore, the presence of painted wreaths of myrtle and bakchoi, objects related to the cult of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, allows us to assume that the young woman who was buried inside the tomb was probably a priestess of their cult focused on the afterlife.

Veroia, one of the most important cities of the Macedonian kingdom, is first mentioned by Thucydides in 432 BC. The city reached the peak of its glory and prosperity in the Hellenistic era, during the reign of the Antigonid dynasty, the ruling house of ancient Macedonia from 306 to 168 BC. At this time, the city became the seat of the Koinon of Macedonians.
The silver medallion was among the burial offerings in a grave, probably of woman's, of the mid-century BC. In the centre is depicted the bust of a young man with bull's horns sprouding from his temples. A spread eagle covers the top and rear of his skull. The flat area around the central figure  is decorated with a wave motif.
Τhe above characteristics lead to the identification of the depicted figure with a river god. River gods are depicted as horned youths on coins of Greek cities of the 5th century BC. The fact that the same subject is depicted on the relief medallion on the lid of a clay pyxis from Veroia suggests that it is an original creation of a local workshop.
A second gilded silver medallion with the representation of Aphrodite Epitragia was found in Veroia in another grave of the 2nd c.BC. (See. K. Tzanavari, Entries for the Catalogue of the Exhibition Eros Grec, no. 9).

Compte-rendu de la deuxieme journee d'etudes consacree aux objets de luxe importes de l'ocean Indien dans le monde mediterraneen. Cette etude aborde le cas de deux produits fournis par la mer : les perles naturelles et l'ecaille de tortue.

One of the cities of Macedonia listed by Claudius Ptolemaeus (Geogr. III, 12, 23) and Pliny the Younger (NH. V, 10, 17) in the imperial age is Lete. Its location is about 12 kilometers NW of Thessaloniki. The city and its cemeteries sprawled over the hills of the Derveni pass and the western part of the fertile plain of Langadas. This strategic position on two main roads - leading from the Aegean into the central Balkans and linking the Thermaikos Gulf with eastern Macedonia - justifies the long, continuous habitation of the site, from the very early Neolithic period until the Roman era.
Derveni, Turkish place-name meaning a narrow pass, is located approximately 12 km. along the road from Thessaloniki to Kavala. On the area in which, in 1962, the famous unrobbed cist tombs were found a new Macedonian tomb was discovered. It is a twin-chamber tomb, that has been robbed in antiquity. A built cist tomb was discoverd inside the dromos leading into the interior of the Macedonian tomb, ornamented with wall paintigs. The objects depicted are releted with female elegance as well as the rituals of marriage and death. Both these monuments dating from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC.

Katerina Tzanavari, The types of the Tanagra figurines in Nothern Greece.
The name "Tanagra figurines" was designated for figurines of the Hellenistic era that depict mainly standing and seated female figurines and young girls. Regardless of their place of production, these iconographical types are collectively known by the same name.
They were the most popular creations of the local coroplastic workshops in Northern Greece. These figurines are found in public and private sanctuaries, most of female Greek deities, as votive offerings and in burials as grave goods.
The influence of imported prototypes in the formation of the repertoire of local workshops falls within the general economic and cultural exchanges among the cities of Southern Greece.
The reproduction of Tanagra types dates from the early 3rd century onwards in coroplastic workshops of large urban centers and smaller settlements that constitute the periphery of Northern Greece: indicatively we could mention Pydna, Petres, Aiani, Veroia, Pella, Thessaloniki, Lete, Kassandreia, Amphipolis and Thasos.

Les liens d'hospitalité (ξενία) dans le monde grec sont traditionnellement noués entre deux individus, généralement des personnages en vue dans leurs cités, et se transmettent de génération en génération, créant ainsi des réseaux familiaux puissants. Avec l'avènement de la cité isonomique à Athènes l'hospitalité devient ambiguë : établie entre des grandes familles de différentes cités, ou avec des barbares, elle donne aux hôtes (ξένοι) une influence qui va à l'encontre de l'égalité de pouvoir entre les citoyens, que ce soit à Athènes ou dans d'autres cités comme Sparte. L'oeuvre de Xénophon écrite au début du IVe siècle met particulièrement bien en lumière ce rôle ambivalent de l'hospitalité et les différentes stratégies individuelles employées pour la justifier. En effet, la ξενία n'est pas supprimée même après les coups de force oligarchiques et la restauration démocratique mais utilisée comme outil diplomatique par la cité. Un subtil équilibre s'établit donc entre liens communautaires et individuels mais il est sans cesse menacé par les conflits incessants que connaissent les Grecs et les peuples qui les entourent dans la première moitié du IVe siècle. On s'interrogera particulièrement dans cette communication sur la nature des relations d'hospitalité entre Grecs et Perses qui posent un certain nombre de problèmes aux cités des protagonistes grecs de ces relations puisqu'elles donnent à ces Grecs un pouvoir politique très supérieur à leurs concitoyens. En même temps, les cités ne peuvent pas se passer de ces individus capables de nouer des relations avec l'élite perse. Ainsi étant donné la tension observée dans l'oeuvre de Xénophon entre la xenia aristocratique et la répartition égale des pouvoirs entre citoyens, nous allons donner quelques pistes pour essayer de mettre en lumière le fonctionnement de ces relations entre Grecs et Perses, en montrant qu'elles sortent du cadre mis progressivement en place par la cité. Nous verrons ensuite les difficultés de la cité pour réguler ces relations, en analysant les moyens de contrôle qu'a la cité sur ces elles, avant de voir jusqu'à quel point les cités s'accommodent de ces relations avec les Perses qui leur sont nécessaires.

Au début des années 1870, la nécropole de Tanagra est découverte fortuitement dans la région de la Béotie, en Grèce. Les tombes révèlent de très nombreuses figurines en terre cuite richement polychromées. Vendues d’abord à Athènes, ces terres cuites connaissent un important succès avant d’être diffusées en Europe occidentale où elles deviennent un véritable phénomène. Face à ce triomphe auprès des collectionneurs et des musées, les faussaires commencent une production intense de fausses terres cuites vendues à des prix très élevés. Jusqu’au début du XXe siècle, vraies et fausses terres cuites se côtoient dans les ventes aux enchères et sont achetées en masse par les musées.
Ce mémoire propose de retracer l’histoire de la production, de la diffusion et de la réception des fausses terres cuites grecques. L’historiographie de ce phénomène met en évidence les difficultés d’identification des faux, les grands débats qui ont eu lieu sur l’authenticité et l’évolution de la perception de ces objets par les musées au fil du temps. Ce travail est centré sur l’étude de la collection de fausses terres cuites grecques du musée du Louvre, particulièrement représentative de leur production, de leur histoire et de la perception des musées à leur égard. Les analyses iconographique, technique et historique de deux figurines de la collection montrent également leur intérêt. Ce travail propose alors une évolution de la vision des fausses terres cuites comme de véritables objets historiques.