Abstract

On a book-keeping error in the accounts of Dion. This article proposes a solution to an incoherent calculation identified on lines 8 and 9 of the famous Account of Dion relative to the Pythia (CID II, 139/ CID IV, 57), where a list of expenses occasioned by the preparation of the Pythian games of 246 B. C. are recorded. In effect, 270 medimnoi of earth sold at 1 ¾ obols per medimnos do not equal 43 staters and a half-obol, as is inscribed on the stone, but 39 staters and 4 ½ obols, according to the Aeginetan system used by the accountants of the Delphic Amphictyony. We propose a solution that may explain the inscribed amounts without needing to correct the numbers that can be read on the stone ; it is the accountant of the Amphictyony who should be charged with this miscalculation of which Agazalos, the master-mason who provided the earth for the xystos, took advantage.