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[German version] (φυλοβασιλεῖς/ phylobasileîs, pl.). The phylobasileis ('kings of the phylaí'; v. Phyle [1]), who were nominated from the Eupatridai, were the chiefs of the four Old Attic/Ionic 'tribes' ( phylaí) of Athens. They constituted one of the most important official councils of the archaic polis, which, thanks to its documented cultic and judicial competences (recorded, for instance, in the state sacrificial calendar), even survived the constitutional reforms of Cleisthenes [2] (508/7 BC). The phylobasileis, alongside the árchōn basileús (Archontes [1]), conducted ep…

[German version] [1] Unit within a polis (φυλή/ phyl ḗ, plural phylaí). Smarczyk, Bernhard (Cologne) [German version] I. Definition The Greeks described as phylaí groups or categories of extremely various sizes of people (or animals), and therefore also the peoples and tribes into which they divided themselves and the 'ethnic groups' ( éthnē) of barbarians. Clearly predominant, however, is the technical use of the term for the largest subunit of a pólis state. As in the case of the terms for other subdivisions of the pólis, with the term phyle the idiom of the kinship was transferre…