Symbola from the Athenian Empire to the Hegemony of Rome

Abstract This chapter continues and concludes the survey of the history of symbola agreements, discussing most of the known symbola agreements from the fifth to second centuries. Because much of the surviving evidence concerns symbola agreements to which the Athenians were a party, it discusses hegemonic aspects of the Athenian empire of the fifth century and the nonhegemonic role of symbola within it. It argues that symbola never ceased to be a way for Greeks in separate, juridically bounded communities to break down those boundaries in their search for legal justice. It offers a discussion and complete English translation of a recently published inscription implicating a symbola between the cities of Amphissa and Orchomenos. And it argues that symbola agreements were an important influence on the developing use of foreign judges and on the unification of Greek law.