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(πόλις, πτόλις/ pólis, ptólis; pl. πόλεις/ póleis; 'city state'). [German version] I. Topographical background and early development Depending on the particular context, p olis may have topographical, personal or legal-political connotations: a) a fortified settlement on a height, Homeric pólis akrḗ or akrotátē (Hom. Il. 6,88; 20,52), synonymous with the Acropolis in Athens until the late 5th cent. (Thuc. 2,15,3-6); b) an urban settlement; c) an urban settlement including environs, 'state territory'; d) municipal community, community of polîtai (see below II.). In the sense …

[German version] (5th cent. BC). The Persian offensive on Greece was repelled in 480-79 BC, but nobody could know at the end of 479 that the Persians would never return. In 478 the Greeks continued the war under the leadership of Sparta, but the Spartan commander  Pausanias soon made himself so unpopular that Athens, either of its own record (Aristot., Ath. Pol. 23,4) or at the urging of its allies, decided to take over leadership (Thuc. 1,94-5). At this point, Athens established a standing allian…

[German version] (καταλογεῖς; katalogeîs) are known as Athenian Commissioners of Enrolment. During the oligarchical overthrow of 411 BC, 100 men no younger than 40 years of age were chosen as katalogeis - ten from each phyle - in order to draw up a register of 5,000 Athenians intended to have full citizenship ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 29,5). The speech by Lysias for Polystratus (Lys. 20) was aimed at defending one of these katalogeis, who was also a member of the Four Hundred. The latter claimed to have served the initiators of the 5,000 only reluctantly, to have propo…

[German version] (Δοκιμασία; Dokimasía). In the Greek world it means the procedure of determining whether certain conditions have been met. In Athens the following dokimasíai are attested: 1. The dokimasía of young men who at the end of their eighteenth year were presented to the father's dḗmos to be recognized as a member of the deme and a citizen. The dḗmos, a college of judges and the council took part in this procedure. 2. The dokimasía of the   bouleutaí (council members) in the council and before a college of judges, that of the archontes likewise …

[German version] (ἐποικία; epoikía). Epoikia was occasionally used instead of apoikía for Greek colonies, e.g. the early 5th-cent. BC Locrian colony near Naupactus (ML 20). The Athenian decree of 325/4 BC regarding the foundation of a colony on the Adriatic coast contains the reconstructed [ apoi] kía as well as époi[ koi]. It has been claimed that strictly speaking epoikia and époikoi did not refer to the original settlement, but to its later reinforcement with additional settlers [1]. This special meaning may occasionally have been intended, but it is u…

[German version] (ὀστρακισμός, 'trial by sherds' from óstrakon , pl. óstraka, 'pottery sherd'). A procedure in Athens that permitted expulsion of a man from the country for ten years without having been convicted of an offence, but without confiscating his property. According to the (Pseudo-) Aristotelian Athēnaíōn Politeía (22,1; 22,3), ostracism was introduced by Cleisthenes [2] (508/7 BC), but not applied until 488/7. A fragment by Androtion (FGrH 324 F 6) reports that ostracism had been established immediately before its first applicatio…

[German version] (ἀποδέκται; apodéktai, ‘receivers’). A ten-man board of officials in Athens, with members chosen by lot from each of the ten phylai. They were charged by the boule with receiving state funds and remitting them to the central treasury in the 5th cent. BC, and apportioning them to various spending authorities ( merizein) in the 4th, following routine procedures. They had their own powers of jurisdiction towards tax farmers in cases of up to 10 drachmae (Arist. Ath. Pol. 47,5-48,2; 52,3). Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham)

[German version] (μαστροί/ mastroí, ‘searchers’, ‘trackers’) is the name given in some Greek towns to official accountants with functions similar to those of the eúthynoi ( eúthynai ) or logistaí (e.g. Delphi: Syll.3 672; Pallene: Aristot. fr. 657 Rose). The accounting process is called …

[German version] (λογογράφος; logográphos). Writer of Greek court speeches. The ten classical Attic rhetors were called logográphoi. The word was, however, also frequently used in a derogatory sense (e.g. Aeschin. 1,94; 3,173). As in principle the parties in the proceedings in Athens had to represent the matter themselves before the court, the ‘orator’, if he was not appearing on his own matter, remained undetected in the background: he was not a representative of a party or an attorney ( syndikos ), but a ‘speech writer’ (which is how logographos should be literally translated). He wrote for his clients final ‘tailor-made’ speeches which they rehearsed and gave. If need be, the logographos stood by his client as a synḗgoros . In this system a logographos did not emphasize the legal aspect but that of rhetoric [2. 217-222]. Among the first orators whose works are extant, Andocides [1] wrote only for his own use, and Antiphon [4] already wrote for clients, just like the other ‘Attic orators’, apart from Aeschines [2]. Isocrates wrote at the beginning of the 4th cent. BC speeches for c…