1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Parian Chronicle

PARIAN CHRONICLE (Chronicon or Marmor Parium), a marble tablet found in the island of Paros in 1627, now among the Arundel Marbles at Oxford. It originally embraced an outline of Greek history from the reign of Cecrops, legendary king of Athens, down to the archonship of Diognetus at Athens (264 B.C.). The Chronicle seems to have been set up by a private person, but, as the opening of the inscription has perished, we do not know the occasion or motives which prompted the step. The author of the Chronicle has given much attention to the festivals, and to poetry and music; thus he has recorded the dates of the establishment of festivals, of the introduction of various kinds of poetry, the births and deaths of the poets, and their victories in contests of poetical skill. On the other hand, important political and military events are often entirely omitted; thus the return of the Heraclidae, Lycurgus, the wars of Messene, Draco, Solon, Cleisthenes, Pericles, the Peloponnesian War and the Thirty Tyrants are not even mentioned. The years are reckoned backwards from the archonship of Diognetus, and the dates are further specified by the kings and archons of Athens. The reckoning by Olympiads is not employed. The Chronicle consists of 93 lines, written chiefly in the Attic dialect.

The Parian Chronicle (first published by Selden in 1628) is printed by A. Böckh in the Corpus inscriptionum graecarum, vol. ii., No. 2374, and by C. W. Müller in the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, vol. i.; there are separate editions by J. Flach (1883) and F. Jacoby (1904). A New fragment was discovered in 1897, bringing the Chronicle down to the year 299 (ed. Crispi and Wilhelm in Mittheilungen des archaeologischen Instituts, athenische Abtheilung, vol. xxii., 1897). See also “Notes on the Text of the Parian Marble” and review of Jacoby’s edition by J. A. R. Munro in Classical Review (March and October 1901 and June 1905).