Reconstruction of Choragic Monument of Nicias

The Choragic Monument of Nikias is a memorial building built in the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in 320–319 BCE to commemorate the

choregos In the theatre of ancient Greece, the ''choregos'' (pl. ''choregoi; el, χορηγός, Greek etymology: χορός "chorus" + ἡγεῖσθαι "to lead") was a wealthy Athenian citizen who assumed the public duty, or ''choregiai'', of financi ...

Nikias, son of Nikodemos. It was situated between the

Theatre of Dionysos The Theatre of Dionysus (or Theatre of Dionysos, el, Θέατρο του Διονύσου) is an Theatre of ancient Greece, ancient Greek theatre in Athens. It is built on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens, Acropolis hill, originally p ...

and the Stoa of Eumenes where its foundations remain along with some fragmentary elements of the structure. It was built in the form of a substantial

hexastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

Doric temple with a square

cella A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Ancient Greek, Greek ναός, "temple") is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek temple, Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extende ...

and might have been surmounted with the prize tripod of the

Dionysia The Dionysia (, , ; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the sec ...

. The monument was dismantled at some point in late antiquity and the masonry reused in the Beulé Gate. Most of the surviving architectural remains of the choragic monument are built into the central portion of the Beulé Gate, which was uncovered and identified by its inscription by

Charles Ernest Beulé Beulé's grave at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris Charles Ernest Beulé (29 June 1826 – 4 April 1874) was a French archaeologist and politician. Biography Born at Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, he was educated at the École Normale, an ...

in 1852. The original site of the monument, however, was not excavated until 1885 by

Wilhelm Dörpfeld Wilhelm Dörpfeld (26 December 1853 – 25 April 1940) was a German architect and archaeologist, a pioneer of stratigraphic excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects. He is famous for his work on Bronze Age site ...

, who four years later discovered the foundations of the building and some other fragmentary members.

William Dinsmoor William Bell Dinsmoor Sr. (July 29, 1886 – July 2, 1973) was an American architectural historian of classical Greece and a Columbia University professor of art and archaeology. Biography He was born on July 29, 1886, in Windham, New Hampshire ...

confirmed Dörpfeld's conclusions in a detailed analysis and associated the foundations with the

epistyle In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

preserved on the Beulé Gate. The exact date of the destruction of the monument is unknown, however, Dinsmoor argued that it might have been at the same time as the demolition of the Stoa of Eumenes either in the late

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

or at the time of the reconstruction of the

by Phaidros in the 3rd or 4th century CE. Two of the major choragic monuments that have survived (Thrasyllos' and Nikias') belong to the period of oligarchic rule under the Macedonian regency, and it is perhaps significant that these are not on the Street of the Tripods, where most choragic prizes and monuments were placed. The conspicuous display of wealth and prestige they represent may have been an attempt to further the political careers of the choregoi and as such prompted the

sumptuary law Sumptuary laws (from Latin ''sūmptuāriae lēgēs'') are laws that try to regulate consumption. '' Black's Law Dictionary'' defines them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expendi ...

Demetrios of Phaleron Demetrius of Phalerum (also Demetrius of Phaleron or Demetrius Phalereus; grc-gre, Δημήτριος ὁ Φαληρεύς; c. 350 – c. 280 BC) was an Athenian orator originally from Phalerum, an ancient port of Athens. A student of Theophrast ...

.Lara O'Sullivan, ''The Regime of Demetrius of Phalerum in Athens 317-307 BCE'', Brill, 2009, p.178. File:Monument chorégique de Nicias 01.JPG, Present remains of the monument of Nikias. File:2496 - Athens - Acropolis - Beulé Gate from outside - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 09 2009.jpg, Epistyle of the choragic monument located on the Beulé Gate. File:Χορηγικό μνημείο Νικία 4936.jpg, Site of the choragic monument of Nikias.

Notes

References

*W. Dinsmoor, The Choragic Monument of Nicias, AJA 14, 1910, pp. 459–484 *W. Dorpfeld, Das choragische Monument des Nikias., Ath. Mitt., X and XTV, 1885 and 1889 *John Travlos, Pictorial dictionary of Ancient Athens, 1980 *B. Perrin, The Choragic Monument of Nicias, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1911), pp. 168-169 *Peter Wilson, Athenian Institution of the Khoregia, 2001 {{Acropolis of Athens, state=collapsed Buildings and structures completed in the 4th century BC Landmarks in Athens Ancient Greek buildings and structures in Athens Monuments and memorials in Greece Late Classical Greece