The Use of Sacred Context for Slave Consecrations and Manumissions in Boeotia, Macedonia and Anatolia

Abstract

In this contribution I will focus on some observations on the typology of these categories of epigraphs, with emphasis on regional particularities and chronological landmarks. In the second part of the study, however, I will highlight the situations encountered in Boeotia at Chaironeia, in Asia Minor, particularly in connection with the sanctuary of Helios Apollo Lairbenos, and in Macedonia, at Leukopetra, where the dedications are addressed to the Autochthonous Mother of the Gods. It is therefore necessary to make a few clarifications concerning the typology of these inscriptions, their formal aspect, the terms used to define the act of dedication or consecration, the particularities generated by the types of conditions that had to be satisfied, and the ways of dating the existing epigraphic material.