Les Delphiens au miroir de leurs offrandes monumentales : élite sociale et notabilité politique dans une petite cité de Grèce centrale (IVe-Ier s. av. J.-C.)

Abstract

The Delphians in the Mirror of their Monumental Offerings : Social Elite and Political Notability in a Small City-State of Central Greece (4th-1st century BC) The study of about thirty monuments dedicated by Delphians allows to outline a social and political reading and to conclude that Delphic society experienced two successive regimes of monumental offering. During a first period (4th-3rd century BC), there appears to be no strong correlation between monumental offerings and exercise of political power in the city. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, even as the democratic nature of the institutions is no longer contested, the top of the Delphian political notability decides to project itself through monuments celebrating the unity of the family and the excellence of its members. The concentration of political power in a narrow group during the second half of the 1st century BC could rely on practices of social distinctions already common for over a century.