FORGING LINKS BETwEEN REGIONS 77
states (e.g., the agreement made between Oianthea and Chaleion, Tod, GHI
I, no. 34) – were exempt from acts of ‘legitimate reprisal’. A number of asylia
proclamations also record the penalties for anyone not respecting the rights
of a protected foreigner: these included both civil punishment and crimi-
nal prosecution.^42 The Athenians can be identified bestowing this privilege
to merchant honorands on five occasions during the late fifth and fourth
centuries BCE (however, many of the extant honorific inscriptions are
too badly preserved to ascertain whether they included grants of asylia).^43
Among the grants of asylia to individuals is one bestowed to Pythophanes
in recognition of his commercial services: although the magnitude of these
services is unknown, the decree was renewed in 399/8 BCE, which suggests
that they were considerable.^44 The inscription records that Pythophanes, his
family, and possessions (including his ship) were inviolate both in Athens
and in any place the Athenians ruled. Evidence that this was no idle prom-
ise can be identified in the closing lines of the inscription, which explicitly
dictate that it was the responsibility of the council and serving generals
to ensure that this promise was kept. IG II^2 360 and IG I^3 174, although
not explicitly granting, both demonstrate a concern with ensuring that the
recipient was able to travel and conduct his business unhindered. IG I^3 174
grants the honorand – Lycon of Achaea – the right to carry his goods any-
where under Athenian control (aside from the Gulf of Corinth), while IG
II^2 360 records the Athenians’ decision to dispatch an envoy to the tyrant
of Heraclea, Dionysius, to request that he return the sails confiscated from
the emporos Heracleides and to obtain a promise that the Heracleotes would
desist from preventing merchants from sailing to Athens.^45 This inscription,
although not making an explicit grant of asylia, provides an insight into
what such a privilege might mean for the recipient. Professional traders
who were awarded grants of asylia in recognition of their commercial ser-
vice gained a number of practical benefits: most significantly, they lowered
the tangible and intangible transaction costs associated with maritime trad-
ing. For example, asylia greatly diminished the risk of losing one’s cargo and
ship to acts of syla while simultaneously providing legal recourse if a seizure
did occur: this reduced risk might also have enabled recipients of asylia to
negotiate lower interest rates on maritime loans. By using grants of asylia
to institutionalize the relationship between state and commercial agent, the
Athenians were able to lower both types of transaction costs, thus greatly
increasing the attractiveness of Athens as a place to conduct business.
Proxenia
Another institution the Athenians used to foster closer links with the mercan-
tile community was proxenia. The title proxenos, which derived from the prefix