indicted felon, and informers were encouraged to provide information in
return for a reward of half the penalty.^50
SAMOTHRACE
Compared with its larger neighbour Thasos, Samothrace was more
remote from mainland connections, and from some of the principal
commercial contacts that typified the western end of the north Aegean
coastline. A fragment from Antiphon’s speech,On the Samothracian
tribute(F50, Thalheim),contains claims about the island’s alleged pov-
erty.^51 Like Thasos, however, the island’s multi-ethnic origins have been
illuminated by recent research. Early Iron Age pottery at Vrychos, an
upland defended site south of the sanctuary of the Great Gods, nearer the
centre of the island, indicates close connections between Samothrace,
Thasos (Kastri IIB2), and the north Aegean coastline, including sites like
Kastanas, while the presence of megalithic tombs at Vrychos and at other
island locations (Gialomandra, Sellada, Vigla) suggests cultural links
with the mainland opposite. The native population seems to have been
progressively Hellenized, in linguistic terms at least, with the advent of
Samian settlers. The preponderance of non-Hellenic graffiti in the Sanc-
tuary of the Great Gods between the seventh andfifth centuriesbcwas
gradually replaced by Greek ones thereafter, even though the overall
profile of the population remained relatively stable.^52 The cult of the
Great Gods provides evidence, on this modest island, of a bold socio-
cultural initiative in what appear to be rather unpromising circum-
stances, while the elaboration of the sanctuary by external patrons,
most notably by Macedonian and Ptolemaic rulers, shows how well
connected the cult’s administration actually was. The earliest identifiable
marble-decorated structure, now called the Hall of the Choral Dancers
(^50) IGXII, Suppl. 347, 2; Salviat 1986, 181–7; Grandjean and Salviat 2000, 185 (French
translation), 183–4 for the other two decrees (figs. 123–4); the earliest fragmentc. 480 – 70 bc,
imposes confiscation of wine and vinegar in the event of an illegal product (=ÉtThas.III,7);
the second,c. 425 – 410 bc, forbids the purchase of wine or mast before thefirst day of the
month Plynterion (IGXII, Suppl. 347, 1).
(^51) Constantakopoulou 2007, 102, 133, 237–9;Inventory, no. 515.
(^52) Matsas 2009, 230 andfig. 7 (table comparing indigenous to Greek graffiti, sixth to
fourth centuriesbc); Matsas 2010, 32–4 andfig. 3.2a–d, for clay sealings with‘Linear A’
pictograms, demonstrating a wide network of connections in the Middle Bronze Age;
Matsas 2010, 35–8, summarizing the revised chronology of sanctuary structures to the
Kabeiroi.
268 The lure of the northern Aegean