GREECE PELOPONNESE ARCADIA TEGEA MUSEUM

Above right: Another awesome architectural fragment. - Above left and below: Marble sarcophagus fragment showing Achilles dragging the body of Hektor around the walls of Troy, Episkopi, 138 AD.

Below left: Marble fragment of a decree on higher prices, Tegea, 301 AD. - Below right: With this decree, the polis of Tegea appoints Nikeas, the son of Thersilas (founder of the so-called 'Thersileion' at Megalopolis), a citizen of Orchomenos, as its proxenos. At the same time, Nikeas is bestowed with "asylia" ("inviolability" / security of person and property and access to the court) and "ateleia" (exemption from taxes), even in a period of war. - Proxenia was a privilege and an honour bestowed by a polis on a citizen of another polis. The latter was assigned the task of furthering the interests of the polis in question in his own polis. Particularly he was assigned the task of hosting and helping citizens of the polis that honoured him, when they came as visitors in his own polis.