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[German version] [1] Greek official The lexical meaning of epískopos equates to ‘supervisor’. In the Greek world, episkopos habitually referred to an official, similar to   epimelētaí and   epistátai , but used less frequently. The Delian League sent epískopoi, who were Athenian officials, into allied cities, e.g. in order to set up a democratic constitution (Erythrae: ML 40; cf. Aristoph. Av. 1021-1034). Rhodian officials also included episkopoi (Syll.3 619), Massilia appointed an episkopos for its colony of Nicaea (ILS 6761), and Mithridates VI sent one to Ephesus …

(πρόβουλος/ próboulos). [German version] [1] Member of a preliminary deliberative body Member of a small body with the function of preliminary deliberation, e.g. in Corcyra (IG IX 1, 682; 686 = [1. 319, 320]). In Athens a board of ten próbouloi was appointed in 413 BC after the military disaster in Sicily in the Peloponnesian War (Thuc. 8,1,3), seems to have taken over some functions of the council ( Boulḗ ) and the prytáneis , and in 411 helped to bring the oligarchy of the 'Four Hundred' ( Tetrakósioi ) to power ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 29,2). Aristotle regarded próbouloi as characteristical…

[German version] (λογισταί/ logistaí, ‘calculators’, tax officials). In 5th cent. BC. Athens, a collegium of 30 logistai is mentioned in the first three tribute lists of the Delian League (IG I3 259-261) and the first financial decree of Callias (ML 58 = IG I3 52, A. 7-9). It is presumably identical with the collegium which appears (without membership numbers) in the list of loans from the Sacred Money (ML 72 = IG I3 369) and in a document from Eleusis (IG I3 32,22-28). In the 4th cent. the authorities had an interim account (Lys. 30,5; [Aristot.] Ath. pol. 48,3) presented t…

[German version] (συγγραφαί; syngraphaí). Documents which form the basis of a contract, for instance for public works (e.g. ML 44 = IG I3 35, Athens; IG VII 3073 = Syll.3 972, Lebadea) or leases (e.g. Syll.3 93 = IG I3 84, Athen; IG XII 7, 62 = Syll.3 963, Arcesine) or loans (e.g. IG XII 7, 67 B = Syll.3 955, Arcesine). [1: 620, 623, 628]; more on this syngraphe. In Athens in the 5th cent. BC, proposals drafted for the assembly (ekklesia) by a specially commissioned board of syngrapheis (e.g. ML 73 = IG I3 78). These boards were discredited by their involvement in setting up the oligarchi…

[German version] (τιμοκρατία/ timokratía). The modern term 'timocracy' denotes a form of constitution in which people's political rights depend on their wealth (cf. τίμημα, tímēma, 'assessment'), similar to 'plutocracy'. In general, a constitution in which this principle was applied to a significant extent would be called oligarchia by the Greeks, but ploutokratia is also found (Xen. Mem. 4,6,12). In Aristot. Eth. Nic. 8,1160a-b timokratia is used to denote the good form of demokratia ), which Aristotle otherwise calls politeia . Among the subdivisions of demokratia and oligarchi…

(Ἐφιάλτης; Ephiáltēs). Mythology  Aloads. [German version] [1] Son of Eurydemus of Malis Son of Eurydemus of Malis, he is supposed to have shown  Xerxes the path over the mountains at  Thermopylae, in the hope of a large reward. This enabled the Persians to circumvent the Greek army under Leonidas and attack it from the rear. E. himself is said to have led the elite corps of Hydarnes along this path, and so contributed to the defeat of the Spartans. Herodotus was already aware of another version, thought by…

(Αὐτοκράτωρ; Autokrátōr). [German version] A. Greek The meaning ‘exercising control over oneself’ expresses the opposite of subjugation to the will of another. The Thebans used this argument to claim that their support of the Persians in 480 was attributable to a ruling   dynasteia , not to the whole city, which acted as its own autocrator (Thuc. 3,62,3-4). Envoys and officials are often described as autokratores when entitled to more power than is usual in these positions. This background is evident, for example, when the Athenians declare the leaders of th…

[German version] (κωλακρέται; kōlakrétai). The etymological meaning of kolaketrai (from κωλᾶς and ἀγρεῖν) might be ‘thigh collector’ (for sacrificial purposes?). In Athens, kolaketrai were a group of ten financial officials. Kolaketrai existed already in Solon's time ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 7,3) and are attested in the 5th cent. BC as officials who issued payments from the central state treasury. Since access to the treasury implied a particularly great danger of corruption, they did not serve for a full year but only for the duration of one prytany (IG I3 73,224; also [3]; Prytane…

[German version] (κατόπται; katóptai, ‘observer’, ‘inspector’). Katoptai was generally used as a title in Boeotia as the name for a committee which supervised the expenses of officials, and indeed in the Boeotian League ( Boeotia with map; cf. the allusion to the katoptikòs nómos, IG VII 3073 = Syll.3 972, 88) as well as in the individual cities (e.g. Acraephia: IG VII 4131; Orchomenus: IG VII 3171-73); according to IG VII 3202, Orchomenus had two katoptai. The katoptai were also responsible for public works (e.g. Oropus: IG VII 303, 22; Acraephia: IG VII 3073). The city…

(συνέδριον/ syn(h)édrion, lit. 'sitting together'). [German version] I. Greek Term used for various kinds of meetings and of bodies capable of holding meetings. Thus in Athens it can be used of the Areopagus and the Council (Boule) of Five Hundred (Aeschin. In Ctes. 19–20), of the archons (Archontes) and their paredroi (Dem. Or. 59,83), or of any official doing business in his place of business (Lys. 9,6; 9,9). There are several particular uses of the term. Many individual states called their council synhedrion (e.g. Corinth 4th cent., Diod. Sic.16,65,6–8; Elate…

[German version] I. General The term bureaucracy has no roots in the political terminology of antiquity, but is a modern French-Greek hybrid formation (Old Fr. ‘bure’, ‘burrel’ from Lat. burra). Bureaucracy refers -- also in a critical sense -- to specific organizational structures of modern states [1]. As an ‘ideal type’ in Max Weber's definition, bureaucracy in general terms refers to a special form of legal rulership: its rulers employ officials in their administration, who -- in full-time salaried positions with a clear…

[German version] (νομοθέται; nomothétai, ‘lawmakers’). Officials responsible for compiling or enacting legislation. A text from Corcyra seemingly indicates that the nomothétai there compiled and recorded the final version of a decision taken in principle by the popular assembly (IMagn 44). In Cyme [3], a decision by the popular assembly had to be submitted by the law's proponent ( eisagōgeús ) to a ‘tribunal of nomothetai ’( nomothetikòn dikastḗrion (IK 5,12). If it is assumed that Thucydides (8,97,2) used the term correctly, then nomothétai were appointed in Athens in the p…

(οἱ τετρακόσιοι/ hoi tetrakósioi, 'the four hundred'). A group of 400 Athenians, assigned to political tasks as a council (see 1), or usurping those same tasks (see 2). [German version] [1] Under Solon A 'probouleutic' council in Athens consisting of 100 members from each of the four (Ionian) tribes (Phyle[1]), created by Solon in 594/3 BC to advise the ekklesia (Ath. Pol. 8,4, Plut. Sol. 19,1 f.). Its existence has been doubted, but probably mistakenly [5. 92-96]. It was replaced after 508/7 BC by Cleisthenes' council of five hundred [1; 2. 153-156]. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) …

(κοινόν; koinón). [German version] I. General In the Greek world, koinon may refer to any type of ‘community’. As a political term, koinon is used, on the one hand, for small units (such as the interior divisions of a polis or of a community dependent on a polis) (e.g. Mycenae, referred to as a kṓmē of Argus, SEG 3,312; in Rhodes, demes or parts of demes may be called koiná, e.g. IK RhodPer [IK, inscription of the Rhodian Peraea] 201; IG XII 3,1270), and on the other hand, for extensive political units in non-urban regions as well as urban areas with poleis (e.g.…

[German version] (συντέλεια/ syntéleia), 'joint contribution', in particular to the costs of liturgies in Athens; after 357, used of groups of men contributing to the costs of a trireme (in a strict sense, of the men who contributed to the costs but were not trierarchs, but used sometimes of all contributors including trierarchs) [1], and recommended by Demosthenes for festival liturgies (Demosth. 20. Lept. 23). The word is used also for membership of federal bodies such as the Boeotian federation (e.g. Diod. Sic 15,38,4; cf. télein ind Hdt. 6,108,5) and the Achaean League (e.g.…

[German version] (συμπολιτεία/ sympoliteía, 'joint citizenship'). The verb sympoliteúein is used from the late fifth cent. onwards to denote the merging of separate communities in a single state, similar to synoikismos; e.g. Thuc. 6,4,1; Xen. Hell. 5,2, where the states threatened with incorporation in the Chalcidian koinon contrast sympoliteúein (5,2,12) with autopolítai eînai, ‘being autonomous’ (5,2,14). In inscriptions the verb and the noun are used of the merging of two or more communities in one, esp. when a greater state politically absorbs bu…

[German version] (δημοκρατία; dēmokratía, ‘people-power’) the standard Greek term for a form of government in which power resides with the many rather than with the few ( oligarchía) or with a single man ( monarchía). That threefold classification is first found in Pindar's Pythia (2,86-88), perhaps of 468 BC; it is used by Herodotus, in his debate about constitutions, set at the 6th-cent. Persian court (3,80-84) and is a commonplace thereafter. Aeschylus mentions the dḗmou kratoûsa cheîr, ‘powerful hand of the people’, (Suppl. 604; perhaps of 463 BC) and the power of t…

(κοσμητής; kosmētḗs, ‘steward’). [German version] [1] Athenian official responsible for the training of the ephebes In Athens, the official responsible for the training of the ephebes after the reorganization of the ephēbeía around 335/334 BC. The kosmētes was chosen by the people, presumably from those citizens over 40 years of age ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 42,2). During the two-year training period, a kosmētes was probably responsible for a contingent of ephebes for both years. He is named in many lists of ephebes from the 4th cent. BC to the 3rd cent. AD; …

[German version] (ἀντίδοσις; antídosis, exchange). In Athens someone designated to discharge a leitourgia ( Liturgy) could take measures to avoid it by naming somebody richer who was not exempt from it, but who had escaped it. He could ask him to assume the leitourgia or, if the other man denied, insist on an exchange of their respective fortunes. Such an exchange was in practice fully possible [1; 3], although this is contested [2]. If the person so named wanted neither the leitourgia nor an exchange, then the plaintiff was forced to assume the leitourgia or seek a   diadikasia …

[German version] (ζευγῖται, literally 'yoke-men', from ζεῦγος/ zeûgos = 'yoke', 'team'), the third of Solon's [1] four property-classes in Athens ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 7,3 f.). The name indicates either that they were the men rich enough to serve in the army as hoplîtai , 'yoked together' in a phálanx [2. 135-140; 5], or, less probably, the men rich enough to own a yoke of oxen [1. 822 f.]. According to Ath. Pol. (loc.cit.), they were the men whose land yielded between 200 and 300 médimnoi ('bushels'), best interpreted as barley or the equivalent value in other crops [3. 14…