A case of political, religious and juridical parallelism between the metropolis and a colony: Teos and Abdera

Abstract

We start by a commentary on the written and archeological testimonies about the Teos’s foundation of Abdera and about the continual relations between both cities till the Imperial Age. The main line of work, however, is devoted to the detailed analysis of the two inscriptions (Teos 261 McCabe, ca. 475 b.C.) and (Teos 262 McCabe, 480-450 b.C.). They are legal codes in the form of public imprecations. Criminal actions against individuals or against the community are condemned, as so are the actions threatening the economical, social or political stability of the terrritory. We are mainly concerned by the institutional, social, political and juridical aspects affecting both the private and public scopes, looking on the fact that they touch a community whose geographical limits outsized those of the pólis itself and included individuals of several origins.

We notice, in the second inscription, outstanding political, juridical and religious coincidences between Teos and Abdera, two independent and autonomous cities in this moment. It is specially remarkable the joint legislation on criminal law. All this leads us to think on a bilateral sympoliteía between them.