Athenian Decree for the Foundation of Brea

This Athenian decree, probably issued under Pericles’ rule in 445 BC or soon thereafter (in the thirties of the fifth century BC), testifies to the foundation of the colony (apoikia) in Brea. The decree contains practical provisions for the foundation: the appointment of an oikist and a few apoikistai, ten geonomoi for the distribution of land, an episkopos to inspect that the Athenian money is properly employed. Symbolic and religious connection to the motherland is ensured by the obligation to send tributes for the Great Panathenaia and Dionysia. Thucydides (following Bergk’s emendation), Cratinus (sometimes corrected in Craterus) and Theopompus testify to the existence of Brea and concur to the localisation of this Athenian colony in the Chalkidike peninsula, north of Potidaea, on the east coast of the Thermaic Gulf.