IG II² 2325 and the History
of the Comic Competitions in Athens

S. Douglas Olson (University of Minnesota)

The modern study of Athenian comedy and tragedy takes for granted a number of key chronological facts: that comic competitions began, for example, at the City Dionysia in 487/6 and at the Lenaia sometime in the 440s; that Aristophanes took the prize as a very young man at the City Dionysia in 427/6 with Babylonians; and that Eupolis was first victorious at the same festival shortly thereafter. The source for almost all such information is IG II² 2325 (also known as the “Victors’ Lists”). But the inscription is badly damaged, and does not provide fixed dates but only relative ones. Even more important, the text printed by Kirchner in IG II² is confused and indeed demonstrably wrong on key points (including whether Aristophanes’ name should be included in the victors’ list for either festival), while Capps’ fundamental work on the subject is scattered across a number of publications and so technical as to be nearly inaccessible. As a result, how IG II² 2325 can be made to yield the information it is thought to contain is not widely understood even among specialists in Athenian drama.

This paper will consist of an attempt to offer a careful—and hopefully clear and straightforward—explanation of how the Victors’ Lists are organized and have been restored, and of what we can (and cannot) learn from them about the 5th-century comic poets in particular. A fresh text of the relevant portions of the inscription will be distributed.