Manumission inscriptions are a type of bureaucratic record. As a result, an individual manumission inscription is not usually very interesting. What is interesting is gathering up a lot of these inscriptions and seeing what kind of patterns you can find.
Rather than provide a translation for this manumission inscription, I’m instead going to comment on the parts that I find particularly interesting. This inscription is from c. 160 BCE in Delphi. I'm sorry for the horrible formatting, but the Weebly tools are not particularly flexible when it comes to that area of publishing.
ἄρχοντος Ἀνδρονίκου μηνὸς Βυσίου,
ἐπὶ τοῖσδε ἀπέδοτο Νεοπάτρα Ὀρθαίου, συ-
νευδοκεόντων Δαμένεος καὶ Θεογένεος
Δελφῶν, Φιλοδάμου καὶ Ὀρθαίου Ποταναί-
5 ων, τῶι Ἀπόλλωνι τῶι Πυθίωι σῶμα γυναι-
κεῖον ἇι ὄνομα Ἀγαθὼ τὸ γένος Καππα-
δόκισσαν, τιμᾶς ἀργυρίου μνᾶν δύο,
καθὼς ἐπίστευσε Ἀγαθὼ τῶι θεῶι
τὰν ὠνάν, ἐφ’ ὧιτε ἐλευθέραν εἶμεν
10 Ἀγαθὼ καὶ ἀνέφαπτον ἀπὸ πάντων,
ἐπεί κά τι πάθη Νεοπάτρα, ποιέουσαν ὅ κα
θέλη. βεβαιωτὴρ κατὰ τὸν νόμον Ἀριστόμαχος
Ὀλυμπογένεος. μάρτυρες Ταραντῖνος ὁ ἱε-
ρεὺς καὶ τῶν ἀρχόντων Ἄθαμβος Ἁβρομάχου,
15 Εὐάγγελος Πάτρωνος, Ἵππων, Βούλων Πει-
σιστράτου, Μένης.
τιμᾶς ἀργυρίου μνᾶν δύο: “for the price of two mna”. In the inscription that I posted yesterday, the price was three mna. In his work on these inscriptions, Hopkins notes that there is a consistent price different between that of men and women. The men fetch a higher price. The price of men and women are subject to change over time, although to support this idea Hopkins downplays how the number of inscriptions from the different time periods ranges widely.
ἐλευθέραν εἶμεν: “to be free”. This is part of the formula that describes what the slave, in this case a woman named Agatho, can expect after her master manumits her.
ἀνέφαπτον ἀπὸ πάντων: “Not to be enslaved by anyone”. Yes, there is a Greek world for “not to be enslaved”. They did in fact have a word for everything! One of the important aspects of Zelnick-Abramovitz’s scholarship is how she shows that in both the inscriptions and Greek law, there was a consistent anxiety about freed slaves getting re-enslaved. This concern would help explain why the Greeks published manumission inscriptions on stones in the first place.
ποιέουσαν ὅ κα θέλη: “She may do whatever she wishes” Another part of the formula articulates what it meant for a former slave to be free. Some of the another manumission inscriptions at Delphi will include the responsibilities that a former slave owes his or her master. The question is whether or not the inscription of those responsibilities represents a shift in the actual practice of manumission or simply in how manumission was recorded. That is, I could easily see this Agatho not being completely free but still owing her master Neopatra some work, but that these responsibilities were not part of the formula.
Rather than provide a translation for this manumission inscription, I’m instead going to comment on the parts that I find particularly interesting. This inscription is from c. 160 BCE in Delphi. I'm sorry for the horrible formatting, but the Weebly tools are not particularly flexible when it comes to that area of publishing.
ἄρχοντος Ἀνδρονίκου μηνὸς Βυσίου,
ἐπὶ τοῖσδε ἀπέδοτο Νεοπάτρα Ὀρθαίου, συ-
νευδοκεόντων Δαμένεος καὶ Θεογένεος
Δελφῶν, Φιλοδάμου καὶ Ὀρθαίου Ποταναί-
5 ων, τῶι Ἀπόλλωνι τῶι Πυθίωι σῶμα γυναι-
κεῖον ἇι ὄνομα Ἀγαθὼ τὸ γένος Καππα-
δόκισσαν, τιμᾶς ἀργυρίου μνᾶν δύο,
καθὼς ἐπίστευσε Ἀγαθὼ τῶι θεῶι
τὰν ὠνάν, ἐφ’ ὧιτε ἐλευθέραν εἶμεν
10 Ἀγαθὼ καὶ ἀνέφαπτον ἀπὸ πάντων,
ἐπεί κά τι πάθη Νεοπάτρα, ποιέουσαν ὅ κα
θέλη. βεβαιωτὴρ κατὰ τὸν νόμον Ἀριστόμαχος
Ὀλυμπογένεος. μάρτυρες Ταραντῖνος ὁ ἱε-
ρεὺς καὶ τῶν ἀρχόντων Ἄθαμβος Ἁβρομάχου,
15 Εὐάγγελος Πάτρωνος, Ἵππων, Βούλων Πει-
σιστράτου, Μένης.
τιμᾶς ἀργυρίου μνᾶν δύο: “for the price of two mna”. In the inscription that I posted yesterday, the price was three mna. In his work on these inscriptions, Hopkins notes that there is a consistent price different between that of men and women. The men fetch a higher price. The price of men and women are subject to change over time, although to support this idea Hopkins downplays how the number of inscriptions from the different time periods ranges widely.
ἐλευθέραν εἶμεν: “to be free”. This is part of the formula that describes what the slave, in this case a woman named Agatho, can expect after her master manumits her.
ἀνέφαπτον ἀπὸ πάντων: “Not to be enslaved by anyone”. Yes, there is a Greek world for “not to be enslaved”. They did in fact have a word for everything! One of the important aspects of Zelnick-Abramovitz’s scholarship is how she shows that in both the inscriptions and Greek law, there was a consistent anxiety about freed slaves getting re-enslaved. This concern would help explain why the Greeks published manumission inscriptions on stones in the first place.
ποιέουσαν ὅ κα θέλη: “She may do whatever she wishes” Another part of the formula articulates what it meant for a former slave to be free. Some of the another manumission inscriptions at Delphi will include the responsibilities that a former slave owes his or her master. The question is whether or not the inscription of those responsibilities represents a shift in the actual practice of manumission or simply in how manumission was recorded. That is, I could easily see this Agatho not being completely free but still owing her master Neopatra some work, but that these responsibilities were not part of the formula.