The Rhetoric of Borders

Hellenistic inscriptions, mainly honorific decrees from various Greek poleis and federal states, offer rare glimpses into the contemporary civic discourses and provide evidence for the rhetorical practice that was taking place both in internal and in inter-polis encounters. Among the issues that were often at stake are the borders and boundaries (of land, sacred or not), within a polis or between different poleis.  Also, boundaries were conceptualized differently from the perspective of the local populations and from that of the foreigners, as evidenced in Hellenistic public and private inscriptions.  In the present paper, I shall examine some case studies of inscriptions dating from the Hellenistic period and from various Greek regions, with a view to addressing the following questions: 

a) In what particular contexts were borders rhetorically exploited (e.g. arbitration cases in interstate diplomatic contexts, private funerary inscriptions for foreigners)? 

b) In which ways were boundaries conceptualized in the honorific context of decrees for foreign honorands?  

This paper hopes to contribute to the scholarly discussion about borders and boundaries, whether defining, re-defining, claiming, or crossing them were at stake.