Athenian Spoils ‘from the Peloponnesians’ in Dodona (IG I3 1462)

Abstract

One of the most important epigraphical findings from Dodona is a slightly damaged bronze plaque with an Athenian dedication of spoils from the naval victory over the Peloponnesians. Author recapitulates old arguments for relating this inscrip- tion to the double victory of Phormio near Rhium/Naupactus in 429 BCE and adds new ones. He rejects the traditional view that the choice of distant Dodona as the place of advertisement of the Athenian victory was dictated by the inaccessibility of Olympia and/or Delphi due to the Peloponnesian War. Instead, he argues that it was a deliberate act of propaganda aimed at the cities and tribes of the northwestern Greece, conceived and carried out by Phormio.