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[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 treas…

[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…

[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 …

(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) …

[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 contri…

[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 …

[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…

[German version] (σίτησις/ sítēsis). Provision of food at public expense, on a particular occasion or regularly. There were three categories of recipients [5.308f.]: (a) Officials had the right of sitesis during their term of office; in Athens the prytáneis ate in the tholos (Ath. Pol. 43,3), and secretaries ( grammateîs ) and other officials ate with them [1.7-20] (these officials are called aeísitoi , 'regular eaters'; [1.86,84]). The archons (árchontes) ate in the thesmotheteîon (Schol. Plat. Phd. 235d; location unkno…

[German version] (διοικητής; dioikētḗs). In Ptolemaic Egypt as well as in other parts of the Greek world, the word dioíkēsis was used to designate the administration in general and the financial administration in particular. The title of dioiketes was held by the official in charge of the king's financial administration (see, for instance, OGIS 59; Cic. Rab. Post. 28). Local financial officials may also have held this title (Pol. 27,13,2 with Walbank, Commentary on Polybius, ad. loc.).  Dioikesis Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham)

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[German version] (προεδρία/ pro(h)edría). The right to occupy a place in the front row in institutions of various kinds; it was conferred by the state on prominent fellow citizens and visitors and is recorded for many poleis. In the 6th cent. BC pro(h)edría was bestowed by Delphi on Croesus of Lydia (Hdt. 1,54,2), and Olympia gave it to a Spartan próxenos (SEG 11, 1180a). In At…

(φόρος/ phóros, plural phóroi, 'tribute', 'contribution', from phérein, 'carry', 'take', 'bring'). [German version] A. Definition Phóroi were payments by states to a superior power or to an organization to which they belonged. In particular phoros was the term for the financial contributions made by the members of the Delian League. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) [German version] …

[German version] (γυναικονόμοι; gynaikonómoi). The officials who were responsible in various Greek towns for compliance with laws regarding the behaviour of women, especially at festivals and at funerals, were called gynaikonomoi (‘Women's overseers’). Aristotle regarded this office as neither democratic nor oligarchical but as aristocratic (Pol. 4, 1300a4-8; 6, 1323a3-6). Actually gynaikonomoi are however found in states in varying ways, for instance in Thasos ([2. no. 141, 154-155]; 4th-3rd cents. BC), Gambrea (Syll.3 1219; 3rd cent. BC) or Sparta (IG V 1, 170; 3rd cent. AD), and even in Egypt where they apparently play a part in the registration of male citizens (PHibeh II 196; 3rd cent. BC). Philochorus mentions gynaikonomoi…

[German version] (ἄγραφοι νόμοι; ágraphoi nómoi, ‘unwritten laws’). The earliest laws of the Greek states were unwritten and lived on in the memory of the leading families. Already in archaic times, people began to write them down as in the laws of  Dracon and  Solon in Athens (…

[German version] (συμμαχία; symmachía). An alliance, literally an agreement between two or more states to fight (Gr. máchesthai) together ( syn-). Such alliances might be made either for a limited period or for all time. T…

[German version] (προστάτης/ prostátēs, pl. προστάται/ prostátai), a person 'standing at the fore', either as leader (e.g. Aesch. Supp. 963 f.) or protector (e.g. Aesch. Sept. 408). Both aspects converged when Cyrus [2] became the prostates who freed the Persians from the yoke of the Medes (Hdt. 1,127,1), or Megabazus [1] what Myrcinus may do with Histiaeus [1] as prostates (Hdt. 5,23,2). When the Spartans were regarded as the prostatai of Greece at the time of Croesus (mid-6th cent. BC) (Hdt. 1,69,2), this was no expression of a leading position; when they were t…

[German version] (ἀτέλεια; atéleia). Freedom from obligations, especially from taxes and other financial obligations, was regarded as a privilege, which the state could bestow in order to honour someone. This term and the adjective atelḗs were used in Athens in connection with the freedom from liturgies (Dem. Or. 20,1, etc.), from contributions in the Delian League (ML 65) and from …

[German version] (διωβελία; diōbelía). A payment of two   oboloí in Athens. According to the author of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (28,3), the diobelia was introduced by Cleophon whereupon a certain Callicrates promised to increase the sum but in fact abolished the diobelia. The diobelia is attested from 410 to 406/5 BC from inscriptions (in 406 temporarily reduced to an obolos) and in 405/4 wa…

[German version] (ἐπιγαμία; epigamía). In the Greek world, epigamia refers to the right of entering into a legal marriage with a person from a different state. It also granted legitimacy and citizenship to the children of such a marriage. It was possible to be granted this right in cases when such a marriage would not have been recognized according to the prevailing laws of the respective states. Examples can be found in international treaties (for instance between Aetolia and Acarnania: SIG3 421; Messenia and Phigalia: SIG3 472). Epigamia could also be one of the special rights …

[German version] (ἄξωνες; áxōnes; axes). In Athens the laws of  Dracon and  Solon were recorded on numbered axones. The term   kýrbeis , the origin of which is unknown, was another name for axones (ML 86; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 7,1; Plut. Solon 25). Probably they were three- or four-sided wooden pillars that were mounted ver…