Search

[German version] (παράβυστον/ parábyston, literally 'pushed aside') referred to an Athenian law court held in an enclosed space, apparently on the Agora (perhaps next to the route of the Panathenaea procession; s. Athens with map). This court dealt with matters that fell within the jurisdiction of the Eleven ( héndeka ) (Paus. 1,28,8; Harpocration, s.v.). Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography A.L. Boegehold, The Lawcourts at Athens (Agora 28), 1995, 6-8; 11-15; 111-113; 178f.

[German version] (πορισταί/ poristaí, 'providers', from πορίζειν/ porízein, 'provide, supply'), officials in Athens in the last years of the  Peloponnesian War, whose duty was presumably to find sources of money for the city. They are mentioned for the first time in 419 BC, before Athens was in serious financial difficulty (Antiph. Or. 6, 49), and for the last time in 405 (Aristoph. Ran. 1505). Poristai are not attested in inscriptions. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham)

[German version] ( dikastaì katà dḗmous) are itinerant judges who in Athens visited the demes to resolve minor matters of litigation. Appointed first by Peisistratus ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 16,5) to counteract the power of the nobles in their places of residence, they were probably abolished after the fall of the tyrants. They were revived in 453/2 BC (Ath. Pol. 26,3) to relieve the increasingly overburdened jury courts of minor cases. Their number then totalled 30, perhaps one judge per trittys. In the last years of the Peloponnesian War they were probably unable to visit a…

[German version] (ἀριστοκρατία; aristokratía, ‘power in the hands of the best’). In the Greek states there was no institution to ennoble families but in the archaic period the families that were most successful after the  Dark Ages and stood out by wealth and status considered themselves the best ( aristoi). The place of a governing king was taken by a government of members of these leading families: some early testimonials explicitly mention that appointments were made aristíndēn, from the ranks of the best (for example, in Ozolian Locris: ML, 13; Tod, 34). In modern r…

[German version] (Ἄρειος πάγος; Áreios págos). The ‘Ares Hill’ in Athens north-west of the Acropolis. It gave the old council, which met there, its name (‘Areopagus’). There are no noteworthy remains on the hill, the place of the sessions was probably located on its north-east side. Probably, the council was initially simply called the boule and only named after the hill when  Solon had created another council. In Solon's time the council consisted of all former   archontes , who joined at the end of their office term (not so in [1]). It probably had about 150 members. Presumably, the counci…

(πολιτεία/ politeía) can denote either the rights of citizenship exercised by one or more citizens (Hdt. 9,34,1; Thuc. 6,104,2) or a state's way of life, and esp. its formal constitution (Thuc. 2,37,2). [German version] I. Citizenship Citizenship of a Greek state was the privilege of only free, adult males of citizen parentage: commonly, a father with politeía was required; the law of Pericles [1] (451 BC) required a father and mother with politeía (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 26,4). Men not of citizen descent could be rewarded politeía for proven benefaction, but could not acquire citize…

[German version] [I] Office (ἄρχοντες, ἄρχων; árchontes, árchōn). In general, the term applied to all holders of   archai . However, the term was frequently used as the title of a particular office, originally, at least, the highest office of the state. Archontes in this sense of the term are found in most states of central Greece, including Athens, and states dependent on or influenced by Athens. According to Aristot. Ath. Pol. 3, the kings were initially replaced by archons who were initially elected for life, later for a period of ten years, and finally for …

[German version] (αὐτονομία; autonomía). In the sense of ‘having (one's) own laws’, and not, therefore, being required to obey the laws of others, autonomia can be used as a synonym for eleuthería ( Freedom). This referred in particular to the freedom in the internal matters of an alliance, the structure of which was hegemonic and whose members hoped that the aforementioned freedom would be maintained whilst they assigned decisions regarding matters external to the alliance. The word autonomia was perhaps therefore supposed to have been coined as the expression of this …

[German version] (ἐκκλησιαστήριον; ekklēsiastḗrion). Meeting-place of a Greek public assembly. Among the cities where the word ekklesiasterion is used are Olbia (SIG3 218) and Delos during the period of the Athenian klerouchoi in the 2nd cent. BC (SIG3 662). In Athens, the regular meeting-place was the Pnyx in the south-west part of the city, where three different building stages from the 5th and the 4th cent. were identified. From the late 4th cent., the theatre of Dionysus came to be used more and more as a meeting place. As oppo…

(Κλεώνυμος; Kleṓnymos). [German version] [1] Athenian politician, put two important proposals forward in 426/5 BC Athenian politician; in the year 426/5 BC he put forward two important proposals: one concerned  Methone in Thrace, the other the collection of tributes from the  Delian League (IG I3 61,32-56; 68). C. was probably a member of the council in that year. In 415 he was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of an investigation into the religious scandals ( Herms, mutilation of the; And. 1.27). Aristophanes derided him as a glutt…

(νομογράφος/ nomográphos, ‘law-writer’) [German version] I. Greece In some Greek cities individual, specially qualified men were entrusted during the archaic period with the task of writing laws for the pólis. This could include writing down the existing legal practice as well as creating new laws. Known nomográphoi are, for example, Zaleucus in Locri Epizephyrii, Charondas in Catane, Draco [2] and later Solon in Athens. At times, but not always, this commission was associated with a regular office of state. Thus, Solon was at the same time an árchōn (Archontes [1]) in Athens but D…

[German version] (διαψηφισμός, διαψήφισις; diapsēphismós, diapsḗphisis). Literally, a ballot using pebbles to select alternatives. Both terms were occasionally used to designate votes in legal proceedtings (e.g. Xen. Hell. 1,7,14; cf. the verb diapsēphízesthai e.g. in Antiph. 5,8). In Athens, however, they refer specifically to ballots with the purpose of confirming or refuting the citizenship of people who at a certain time laid claim to that right. That happened in 510 BC, when the tyranny of the Peisistratids ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 13,5: diapsēphismós) was overthrown, agai…

[German version] The idea of Panhellenism is based on the tendency to place greater significance on the similarities that connect all Greeks as Greeks than on the perceptions of differences. 'Panhellenism' is not a term used in Antiquity, although in the Iliad (2, 530) and elsewhere in early Greek verse panhéllēnes is used to describe the Greeks (Hes. Op. 528; Archil. fr. 102 West). The Trojan War (see Troy) was presented as an untertaking in which the Greeks united in order to regain Helen [1] from the Trojans - although the latter are not described in Homer as being un-Greek. In the Archaic …

[German version] (καταχειροτονία; katacheirotonía) denotes the delivery of a verdict of guilty in a Greek court by means of raising the hand ( cheir). Sentencing by ballot ( psḗphos) is called katapsḗphisis. In Athens the word katacheirotonia was used for the people's verdict of guilty in cases of eisangelía (e.g. Lys. 29, 2; Dem. Or. 51,8), and also for negative votes of the public assembly after a probolḗ (complaint against a person; e.g. Dem. Or. 21,2), or after an apóphasis (recommendation) of the Areios pagos (e.g. Din. 2,20; it is probably referred to by [Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 59,2). Rho…

[German version] (Ὑπέρβολος; Hypérbolos). Athenian statesman (411 BC) from the deme Perithoedae. Contrary to the accusations levelled against him he was Athenian by birth. He seems to have acquired his wealth from the fabrication or sale of lamps (cf. Aristoph. Equ. 1315). Both Aristophanes (e.g. Equ. 1304) and Thucydides (8,73,3) describe him as ‘common’ ( mochthērós). As a  demagogue in the style of Cleon he strove for a leading position after Cleon's death in 422 BC and was a member of the council in 421/420 (Plato Comicus 166f. CAF = 182 PCG; cf. IG I3 82). According to Plutarch, in …

[German version] [1] Poet of epigrams of unknown dating Epigram poet of an unknown period (with a peculiar, otherwise undocumented name), author of an insignificant distich on Hesiod (Anth. Pal. 7,52). Degani, Enzo (Bologna) Bibliography FGE 38. [German version] [2] Union of craftsmen and officials Dēmiourgoí (δημιουργοί, ‘public workers’) were occupied with public matters at various levels, depending on time and place. 1. In the Linear B tablets from Pylos dḗmos is found but not demiourgoi; it has been suggested [2] but not universally accepted that in the Mycenaean world demiourgoi…

[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…