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Last Updated on 09 Jul 2019

Author: Maria Paz de Hoz

CAPInv. 417: eriopolai

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Lydia
iii. Site Hypaipa

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) ἐριοπώλαι (I.Eph(esos) VII.2 3803d, l. 1)
ii. Full name (transliterated) eriopolai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 301 AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Professional:wool-sellers
iii. Descriptive terms σύστημα, systema: I.Eph(esos) VII.2 3803d, ll. 10, 12-13, 13-14.
σύνοδος, synodos in I.Eph(esos) VII.2 3803d, l. 16 probably means ‘meeting’ of the associations and not ‘association’.
Note For the meaning "guild" of the word systema cf. Drew-Bear 1980, p. 521: it is attested in this sense also
by literary sources, and it came to be employed in legal language as the technical translation of the Latin
term corpus.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Eph(esos) VII.2 3803d (301 AD)
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Endowment of vineyards and grape-presses to the citizens and to 6 associations by a private citizen. Greek.
i.c. Physical format(s) marble plaque
ii. Source(s) provenance Hypaipa

VII. ORGANIZATION

ii. Leadership Cf. τοῖς [προεστῶσιν] ἐν ταῖς συνόδοις, tois [proestosin] en tais synodois, I.Eph(esos) VII.2 3803d, l. 15-16. Proestotes is a usual name for the president of a guild.
vi. Laws and rules The association has some rules concerning an endowment it has received. Cf. VIII. iv.

VIII. PROPERTY AND POSSESSIONS

ii. Realty The association has a vineyard and a press. Cf. VIII. iv.
iii. Income The association has yearly revenue to be produced by the vineyard received by endowment, cf. VIII. iv.
iv. Endowments The association, the association of linen weavers and four other associations of the city receives by means
of endowment by a private citizen 1500 denarii and one grape-press (the one to the south, being the north one donated to the community of citizens).
The city received a vineyard and the six associations probably another one (the text is damaged).
The reeds that successive epimeletai are to plant in the landed property (also conveyed by the foundation) are to be divided equally between the vineyards.
The press belonging to the six guilds is to be worked by each guild in turn according to an order determinated every year by lot cast in meeting of the guild's chief officers.
No guild has the authority to trample the grapes before the lot is cast; if any of them does, it will pay a fine of 10.000 denarii.
The city and the six guilds are to share equally the jars which are in place (being the jars probably large ceramic containers buried in the earth with only their mouths visible).
The guild must engrave a stele with the dispositions stated by the donor.
Cf. Drew-Bear 1980: 515-523 for a detailed comment on these dispositions and for parallels in literary sources as well as in papyri.

X. ACTIVITIES

i. Assemblies ἐν ταῖς συνόδοις, en tais synodois, (I.Eph(esos) VII.2 3803d, l. 16) probably means the assemblies of the guilds, in this case to decide common questions.

XI. INTERACTION

i. Local interaction Through the endowment made by a private citizen the association has interaction with other five associations (one of them being the guild of line-weavers) and with the city.

XII. NOTES

i. Comments The fact that the mention of the associations in the act of foundation is comparable to the one of official institutions evidences the important political and social sphere of the guilds in Hypaipa.
iii. Bibliography Keil, J., and von Premerstein, A. (1914), Bericht über eine dritte Reise in Lydien ausgeführt 1911, (Denkschriften Akad. Wien Band 57.1). Wien: 67, no. 84.
Drew-Bear, Th. (1980), ‘An Act of Foundation at Hypaipa’, Chiron 10: 509-36.
Dittmann-Schöne, I. (2001), Die Berufsvereine in den Städten des kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasiens. Regensburg, III.6.1.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note It is a trade association