which dates to the mid-4th cent. BC14, as well as by Strabo (XIV, 3, 7). The administration of “incorporated” Rhodian Peraia did not differ from that of Rhodes15. It constituted an integral part of the Rhodian state and participated in the demos system. Megisti, as well as the area of Daidala, remote conquests of the Rhodian state, were not independent demoi but probably belonged to some unidentified demos of Rhodes. This is confirmed by the fact that on the inscriptions of Megisti, the names of Rhodian officials are sometimes accompanied by their demotic, but never with the national Ῥόδιος (Rhodian), a practice encountered in the territories of “incorporated” Peraia. The demotic Megisteus appears only as an epithet of Apollo and possibly Zeus16. Coins from the 4th cent. BC, which bear on the obverse the head of Helios and on the reverse the Rhodian rose with the letters “ΜΕ” are attributed to Megisti (cat. nos. 11-12); this interpretation, however, is a subject of disagreement among experts and is disputed17. Military authority in the incorporated and subjugated Rhodian Peraia was exercised by one of ten stratagoi (commanders), the στραταγός ἐπὶ τό πέραν, (commander in the Peraia) with at least three subordinate hagemones (captains) – there is specific reference to the captains of Karia, of Lycia, and of Kaunos. Subordinate to the hagemones were the epistatai, the Rhodian military heads of the mercenary guards, who served for one-year terms at various locations strategically important to the Rhodian state. Megisti was one of those locations, as confirmed by epigraphic evidence: four votive inscriptions by epistatai were found in the Paleokastro acropolis and one is carved on the rock under Kastro, the port’s ancient tower18. They date to the 2nd cent. BC19. Megisti’s crucial importance to the Rhodian state during the 2nd cent. BC is demonstrated on the inscribed base of a votive statue found at Kedreai, Karia that refers to Teisias son of Theudamos, … καὶ ἁγεμόνα γενόμενον ἐμ Mεγίστᾳ κατὰ πόλεμον…20. The base is signed by the sculptor Pythokritos, who worked on Rhodes around 170 BC. It appears that in this specific case, this particular official was an emergency appointment to the rank of hagemon of Megisti, dictated by the gravity of the events of the Third Syrian War (190 BC) when Megisti played a key role21 in the operations against Antiochos III. The most detailed surviving reference to Megisti in the ancient texts deals with the events of that war: Livy (Ab Urbe Condita, 37.22.5, 37.24.12, 37.45.2) mentioned Megisti three times in his narrative of the 190 BC military operations. The text underlines the strategic location of Megisti, as well as how
14. And at least before 330 BC; see Bresson 104, n. 51 15. On the administration of the Rhodian state, see Fraser – Bean 1954, 79-94; Berthold 1984, 38 ff.; van Gelder 1900. 16. SGDI 4331 and 4333. 17. See Head 1897, xcviii-xcix. H. A. Cahn (1942, 92-94) pointed out that the coins are heavier than those of the established Rhodian system and it was unlikely that they were a short-term Rhodian issue. He argued that they were issued by an individual Rhodian demos. Fraser and Bean (1954, 97 n. 4, 98) think that if it were a Rhodian issue, it could be interpreted as indicating the island’s autonomy or its incorporation into the Rhodian state; They pointed out that the letters “ΜΕ” may not represent a toponym, but rather the names of officials. R. H. J. Ashton (1990, 1-3) suggested they were issued by commander Memnon, who was of Rhodian descent and who fought against Alexander, hence not coins of Megisti at all. For a summary, see Stefanaki 2010, 417-419. 18. Additional detailed information regarding the Kastro and the Paleokastro acropolis follows. 19. Fraser – Bean 1954, 87. 20. SEG IV, 178; Fraser – Bean 1954, 85. 21. Regarding the events of the Syrian war, see Berthold 1984.
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