Tuesday, September 23, 2025
No Littering
Inscriptiones Graecae XII,5,1 107 (Paros, 5th century BC; tr. Marinos Yeroulanos):
Ludwig Ziehen, ed., Leges Graecorum Sacrae e Titulis Collectae, Pars II, Fasc. I: Leges Graeciae et Insularum (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1896), p. 284, # 104:
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Whosoever throws refuse into the street shall pay a fine of fifty-one drachmas.Yeroulanos didn't print or translate the last three words of the inscription (τῷ θέλοντι πρῆχσαι, i.e. τῷ θέλοντι πρῆξαι). Cf. the translation by Ilias Arnaoutoglou in his Ancient Greek Laws: A Sourcebook, no. 86:
ὃς ἂν βάλλῃ τὰ ἐκκαθάρματα ἄνωθεν τῆς ὀδοῦ μίαν καὶ πεντήκοντα δραχμὰς ὠφέλετο τῷ θέλοντι πρ[ῆ]χ[σαι.
Anyone who throws the dirty waters after the sacrifice from the top of the street shall owe fifty-one drachmas to the person who will prosecute him.See also Edward Harris and Jan-Mathieu Carbon, "The Documents in Sokolowski's Lois sacrées des cités grecques (LSCG)," Kernos 28 (2015) 1-51 (at 30):
This appears to be a sign. There is a rule about throwing rubbish above a road with a penalty of fifty-one drachmas (lines 1-10), but it allows volunteers to impose the fine (lines 10-12).Image of the inscription in Inscriptiones Graecae XII,5,1 (click to enlarge):
