• Teos to Abdera, 167-160 BC (ho synantilepsomenos, gr. ὁ συναντιληψόμενος, en. a person who renders assistance)

This anonymous man from Miletus was probably an important lawyer of his time. Teos requested his intervention to support his own representative in the dispute between Abdera and Maroneia before the court of Erythrae (Adak, Thonemann 2022, 1 ll. 43-8). The date of this arbitration must be shortly after the end of the Third Macedonian War. In their long decree regarding the merits of the Teians, the Abderites in fact describe an initial situation of devastation, which fits in well with the sacking of the city by L. Hortensius in the summer of 170 BC, as described by Liv. 43 4, 8-13 and Diod. Sic. 30, 6 (cfr. Adak, Thonemann 2022, pp. 1-3).

The inscription call this man ὁ συναντιληψόμενος, literally someone who can provide assistance; this function seems to mirror that typically associated with the συνήγορος. The Teians obtained his assistance through both a private favour and payment of a fee. The fee is simple to explain. The Teians were willing to pay whatever he demanded, a sign of their determination to get a particularly successful lawyer. Private favour, i.e. χάρις ἰδία, is more difficult to explain. Adak, Thonemann 2022, p. 50 understand this private favour as a favour requested by the Teians from the city of Miletus, in exchange perhaps for an alleged previous favour between the two cities. This does not really explain the private nature of the favour.

Instead, it is possible to think that the Teians approached the lawyer in their private capacity, i.e. without going through the decision-making process of the Milesian assembly. This procedure on the one hand ensured speed of execution, and on the other hand allowed them to choose a lawyer directly. This procedure, however, implied that the lawyer would accepted the appointment based entirely on his own personal goodwill and the money the Teians were willing to spend, hence the reference in the inscription to the χάρις ἰδία and the μισθός.

• Adak, M., Thonemann, P. (2022), Teos and Abdera. Two cities in peace and war, Oxford.