Law Regarding the Repair of Walls After the Battle of Chaeronea

This law describing specifications and procedures for the rebuilding of walls in Piraeus after the battle of Chaeronea is evidence of the incredible specificity of the bureaucratic process in some ancient Greek governing bodies. This is not an architect’s individual plan for the rebuilding of walls; rather, this is a piece of legislation. It is incredibly specific, including stipulations that stones used for construction be “uniform and clean…and right-angled.” To a modern audience, it is moderately surprising that some of these instructions were not delegated to the contractors tasked with actually rebuilding the wall; however, due to the internal disunity of Ancient Greece, areas of administrative power were often small in scale and thus administrators more integrated into general society than politicians and bureaucrats of today.  

This law is also notable because of the events that preceded it. The Battle of Chaeronea was incredibly devastating to the losing Athenian alliance, with whom the people of Piraeus sided. It is telling that the bureaucratic structure of the region was left intact enough to implement recovery efforts in the year immediately following the battle. This law is evidence that there was a stability to the administrative system in the region such that, even following a defeat, channels existed to initiate a rebuilding campaign with relatively little delay.