Greek Envoys and Diplomacy

in the Hellenistic and Roman World

GED 05.01.109

Aderitos son of Thersandros

Ἀδήριτος Θερσάνδρου

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  • ID
    GED 05.01.109
  • Name
    Aderitos
  • Patronymic
    son of Thersandros
  • Ethnic/Demotic
    Samian (Σάμιος)
  • Chronology
    About200-100 BC
  • Place of Origin
    Eastern Mediterranean islandsAegean islandsSamos
  • Greek designation/s
    • theoros
  • Authors
    • Leon Battista Borsano

Aderitos son of Thersandros, together with Demetrios son of Artemon and Thales son of Herakleides, is a man mentioned in a list of theoroi (I.Samothrace Theoroi 6, 22) who paid an official visit to the shrine of the Great Gods in Samothrace, during the same unknown year. The eponymous basileus of this year in Samothrace is [—]x son of Athana[—], not attested elsewhere.

The origin of this group of three theoroi was correctly restored as Samos by L. Robert (Robert 1935, 487-488). The other delegations of theoroi came from Cos and Teos. All these men were rewarded with proxeny.

To date I.Samothrace Theoroi 6 one has to rely mainly on palaeography: the shape especially of deltas, ni, omicron, and pi suggests that the text was inscribed in the mid-to-late Hellenistic period.

As noted by Robert, Aderitos is a very ‘Samian’ name, since all the Aderitos known so far (five cases) come from Samos. Nonetheless, Aderitos son of Thersandros is not mentioned anywhere else.

  • Robert, L. (1935), ‘Inscriptions de Lesbos et Samos’, BCH 59, 471-488 (= OMS II, 740-757).

Samos to Samothrace, 2nd c. BC