78 MARK wOOLMER
pro- meaning ‘on behalf of ’ or ‘instead of ’ and the word xenos translated as
‘guest-friend’ or sometimes more generally ‘foreigner,’ was awarded to those
men who had provided important services to the state or had displayed contin-
uing goodwill toward the people of Athens. Proxenia, which had its origins in
the xenia relationships of the Archaic period, was essentially an institution-
alized type of guest-friendship. Athens first honored merchants with grants
of proxenia in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War: during the 414–360
BCE period, the title was awarded on five occasions to commend commercial
services, with four of these grants predating 407. In the period from 355/4 to
307/6 BCE, which encompasses the loss of the Second Athenian Confederacy
and the defeat at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338, proxenia was awarded to six
recipients.^46 In comparison, there are only twelve extant decrees granting prox-
enia to reward political or military service during the same period (i.e., 355–335
BCE). Almost without exception, the grantor of a proxeny decree was a city
or other polity, and the recipient was always a foreigner, usually residing else-
where. As in the xenia relationships of the Archaic period, the expectation was
that each party would continue to benefit the other. Honorands who received
the title proxenos were thus expected to further the interests of the grant-
ing community in their native cities. This is a point emphasized by Aeschines
(3.138) who states: ‘Proxenoi are those who in their own fatherlands look after
[the affairs of] other cities’. A proxenos was, therefore, a respected foreigner to
whom a state entrusted the protection of its citizens and various diplomatic
functions within the recipient’s homeland.^47 However, the honorific decrees
are largely silent about the exact tasks of a proxenos resulting in some degree
of scholarly disagreement.^48 Despite the differences of opinion, the following
has generally been accepted: citizens of the state which had bestowed prox-
enia could formally request hospitality, including meals and lodgings, from a
proxenos^49 ; proxenoi were expected to entertain diplomats and emissaries from
their adopted city and formally introduce them to the authorities of their
resident town^50 ; in the case of a legal dispute arising between a citizen and a
visitor who was under the protection of a proxenos, the proxenos was obliged
to represent the visitor; and proxenoi could function as mediators in disputes
between the two cities to which they owed allegiance.^51 However, an issue on
which there is little scholarly consensus is the extent to which proxenoi were
actively involved in interregional commerce. Hasebroek, for instance, believed
that the Greek states tasked proxenoi with monitoring all commercial activities
involving their citizens that were conducted in the home state of the prox-
enos. Ziebarth also accepted that proxenoi were intimately involved in inter-
regional commerce, although he posited that their duties were solely focused
on securing grain supplies.^52 More recently Burke, building on the work of
Rostovtzeff, concluded that during the Classical period proxenoi helped cre-
ate a network of interstate relations that facilitated commerce.^53 In contrast,