Senza frode e senza inganno: formule ‘precauzionali’ e rapporti interstatali nel mondo greco

The essays is devoted to the analysis of some particular “anti-deceit” clauses which sometimes occur in Greek interstate treaties and agreements, as preserved by literary and epigraphical sources. This kind of clauses, by which every partner swears to abide to the pact without recurring to circumvention or fraud, is in fact often – but not always – present in Greek treaties, either as part of the oath, either as part of the agreement itself, but no general or clear rule can be easily traced out about the reason or the circumstances of its inclusion. Starting from a prevoius (1984) article by E. Wheeler, who anyway took into account only part of the epigraphical dossier, and did not examine the literary evidence about these peculiar formulas, this essay studies instead every occurrence, and tries to draw some inferences about the kind of pacts which included “anti-deceit” clauses: the analysis makes sufficently clear that they were inserted in different occasions, i.e. when the agreement was imposed by a hegemonial power over subject partners (e.g. the Athenian treaties during the Empire) – a real foedus iniquum – or when the pact ended a period of war or bad relationships between the partners, or when (as in the case of Hellenistic treaties between Cretan poleis) finding a clever way to circumvent of the oath was considered almost legal, or – and especially – when the pact was concluded between Greek poleis and alien powers, such as Lydia, Persia and Rome, thus revealing a deep mistrust, stemming from which side is hard to tell, in the ability to keep faith in an agreement signed by ethnically different peoples.