Alexander the Great issued an edict, probably in the summer of 334 BC, to the city of Priene.
[1] On the Temple of Athena Polias a section of the edict was inscribed across four marble blocks "near the top of the east face of the north anta of the pronaos.
[6] Peter Thonemann interprets the edict as confirming the freedom and autonomy of the Greeks of Naulochon who were not Prienian citizens.
[8] For Thonemann, the significance of the edict is that it "marks the moment at which ‘being Greek’ in Asia Minor and the Levant ceased to be solely a matter of cultural prestige" and became "a matter of maximizing public finances", since Alexander had granted "wide-ranging fiscal privileges" to Naulochon, "but only for 'as many of them as are Greeks'.
"[9] This policy helps explain the rapid Hellenization of Asia Minor after 334 BC.