Search

[German version] (ἐπιγραφεῖς; epigrapheîs). In the 390s BC in Athens, the epigrapheis kept registers of people whom they obliged to pay a special wealth tax, the eisphora (Isoc. Or. 17, 41; Lys. fr. 92 Sauppe).  Eisphora Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliogra…

[German version] (ἐπιστάται; epistátai, ‘chairmen’, ‘superiors’). Title for various officials of the Greek world; see also epimelētaí, epískopoi. 1. Epistatai are most frequently found within the administration of both sacred treasures and public works. In Athens, committees of epistatai existed to oversee several of the public building projects of the Periclean era (e.g. ML 59 regarding the Parthenon), to supervise the treasure of the goddesses of Eleusis (IG I3 32; II2 1672), as well as other sacred funds. Epistatai of this nature were also found in other locations, suc…

[German version] (σύνταξις/ sýntaxis, pl. syntáxeis; from táttein 'to arrange' and syn- 'together'). Term devised by Callistratus [I 2] in the 4th cent. BC for financial contributions to the (Second) Athenian League (Theopomp. FGrH 115 f 98) purposely concealing the compulsion behind it, after the Athenians had promised not to collect …

[German version] (κάτοικος; kátoikos). Katoikos (pl.: kátoikoi) denotes usually the ‘inhabitant(s)’ (e.g. [Aristot.] Oec. 2, 1352a 33; Welles 47). In the Hellenistic period katoikos developed into a technical term for citizens who were earlier called klerouchoi , to whom plots of land were allocated in settlements so that they then became eligible for military service. The expression is first found in the phrase kátoikoi híppeis in Egypt in the year 257 BC. (PMich. 1, 9, 6-7). Katoikíai (settlements of katoikoi) are particularly attested in Egypt (e.g. PTeb(t). 30,7; Corpu…

[German version] (ἀποστολεῖς; apostoleîs). Athenian government office responsible for sending out naval expeditions and apparently formed ad hoc when special occasions arose. In 357/6 BC they were responsible together with the   epimeletai of the docks for bringing disputes among the trierarchs to court (De. Or. 47,26). In 325/4 10 apostoleis were elected, whose activities were supposed to be under the council's supervision (IG II/III2 II 1, 1629 = Tod, 200, 251-58). Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography P. J. Rhodes, The Athenian Boule, 1972, 119-120.

[German version] (τριττύες/ trittýes, sing. τριττύς/ trittýs, 'a third'). At Athens, name for the subdivisions both of the four ancient phylaí (Phyle [1]) and of the ten new phylaí of Cleisthenes [2]. Little is known of the twelve old trittyes. An ancient identification with the phatríai (Phratria; [Aristot.] Ath. pol. Fr. 3 Kenyon = Fr. 2 Chambers) seems to be incorrect. The trittýes may have comprised four naukraríai (Naukraria, naukraros) each, but this is not attested. One of the trittýes was called Leukotaínioi ('white-ribboned'). In the territorial organization of Attic…

[German version] (ἀστυνόμοι, ‘municipal administration’). This office is mostly found in Ionian communities. In his survey of officials required by a town, Aristotle mentioned the astynomoi immediately with market supervisors, the agoranómoi (Pol. 6,1321b 18-27), as responsible for the proper state of public and private buildings, the repair and maintenance of b…

[German version] (οἱ τριάκοντα/ hoi triákonta, 'the Thirty'). In Athens, the oligarchic body of thirty men who ruled in 404/3 BC after the Peloponnesian War (Oligarchia). They were appointed at the urging of the Spartan Lysander [1], with a double commission, to make proposals for constitutional reform, and to rule the state until the reform was accomplished. They began a process of legal revision, aiming to purge the excesses of the demokratia ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 35,2-3), but before long they obtained the support of a garrison from Sparta and…

[German version] (γραμματεῖς; grammateîs). In the Greek world, grammateis were protocolists, secretaries with a wide range of tasks. Generally, they are distinguished from the árchontes (‘officials’), but like them, they were appointed by the citizenry for a set period of time, either by election or by lot. In Athens, the chief sec…

[German version] (προβολή/ probolḗ). Generally a 'putting forward', e.g. of candidates for an office (Plat. Leg. 6,765 b1). In Athens, name of a procedure by which the assembly ( Ekklēsía ) could be asked to vote on certain kinds of accusation before a lawsuit was brought; Demosthenes' [2] attack on Meidias [2] (Dem.. Or. 21) began with a probolḗ. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography A. R. H. Harrison, The La…

[German version] (ναυτοδίκαι/ nautodíkai, ‘Overseers of trials involving seafarers’). Officials in Athens responsible for court cases between seafarers, whether traders or klēroûchoi . N autodíkai were document…

[German version] (κύρβεις; kýrbeis). In Athens, name of the medium on which the Laws of Dracon [2] and Solon were written. The word áxōnes , was also used. The origin of the word is unknown. Contrary to the opinion that kyrbeis should be differentiated from the áxōnes, they are more probably only different descriptions of the same objects [1] (ML 86 = IG I3 84; [Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 7,1; Plut. Solon 25,1f.). The assumption that a kýrbis was a stele, pyramid-shaped and/or equipped with a cover, and the appropriate designation for a stele from Ch…

[German version] (ἰσοτέλεια; isotéleia (equality of duties), i.e. of civic duties) was a privilege that a Greek state could bestow on non-citizens, if it wanted to raise them above the normal status of metics (  métoikoi ), but did not wish to grant them full citizenship. Since the isoteleia normally freed one from taxes and other burdens to which non-citizens were subject, the same status could be called either isoteleia or   atéleia (freedom from duties) (for example in Athens: IG II2 53: atéleia…

…

…

[German version] (δημόσιοι; dēmósioi, amplified with ὑπηρέται; hypērétai, ‘servants’). Public slaves who were used by Greek states for a variety of lowly administrative tasks. In Athens they looked after the official records (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 47,5; 48,1), helping the astynómoi in keeping the city clean (Ath. Pol. 50,2) and the hodopoioí in road maintenance (Ath. Pol. 54,1), as well as working in the courts (Ath. Pol. 63-65; 69,1). In the 4th cent. they were used to check coins in silver mints (Hesperia 43, 1974, 157-88); in the 2nd cent., and…

(πρόεδρος/ pró(h)edros, pl. πρόεδροι/ pró(h)edroi) denotes that person who (in a leading position) 'sits in front' ('chairman' or 'president'). [German version] I. Greece in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods In early 4th cent. BC Athens, the duty of the chairman of the council ( boulḗ ) and the people's assembly ( ekklēsía ) was passed from the prytaneis to a newly created collegium of nine pró(h)edr…

[German version] Modern term for a group of allied states led by Sparta, which existed from the 6th cent. until 365 BC. The alliance never encompassed the whole of the Peloponnese (Argos [II 1] always refused to acknowledge Sparta's leadership), but did at times include states outside the Peloponnese (e.g. Boeotia in 421 BC: Thuc. 5,17,2). It began to form in the middle of the 6th cent., when Sparta gave up its policy of expansion through conquest and direct annexation and made neighbouring Tegea …

[German version] [1] See Scythae See Scythae. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) [German version] [2] Group of slaves in Athens, c. 400 BC In late 5th and early 4th cent. BC Athens used a body of Scythian archers as public slaves (Demosioi) who were to keep order at the meetings of the Council and Assembly (e.g. Aristoph. Ach. 54; Equ. 665). They were also called Speusínioi after their alleged founder Speusinus (Suda, s.v. τoξóται; Poll. 8,132). A force of 300 was bought in the mid 5th cent. (And. Or. 3,5 = Aeschin. Leg. 173). According to the lexica they lived on th…

[German version] (οἱ ἕνδεκα; hoi héndeka). The ‘Eleven’, an office of eleven men, were in charge of the prison in Athens and of the execution of prisoners who had been sentenced to death. They executed ordinary criminals ( kakoûrgoi) or exiles who were apprehended in Athens and turned over to them by means of the   apagōgḗ , without a trial if the prisoner confessed, or they presided over the trial if the prisoner denied his guilt. They also presided over trials that were instituted by means of   éndeixis and over cases that were meant to force the confiscation of…