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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 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 I…

[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 …

(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; Elatea, SEG III 416), and this usage grew more frequent in the Roman period (e.g. Argos, SEG XXII 266). Synhedrion was also the title given to the councils of various leagues: the Delphic Amphiktyonia (e.g. Aeschin. In Ctes. 116); the allies opposed to Sparta in the Corinthian War (Diod. Sic. 14,82,2; 10,84,5); the (Second) Athenian League (e.g. IG II2 43 = Tod 123, 41–6); the league of allies formed by Thebes in the 360’s (e.g. IG VII 2418 = Tod 160; [3]); the Corinthian League, and the league as revived in 302 (e.g. IG II2 236 = Tod 177, 21; Stv 3,446,60–99). The council of the Aetolian League could be referred to either as synhedrion (e.g. IG IX2 1 169) or as boule (e.g. IG IX2 1 178); the Thessalian koinon organised by the Romans had a synhedrion (IG IX 2 261). Synhedrion was used of the club-houses of the Pythagoreans in Gr…

[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…

[German version] (νομοθέται; nomothétai, ‘lawmakers’). Officials responsible for compiling or enacting legislation. A text from Corcyra seemingly indicates that the …

(οἱ τετρακόσιοι/ hoi tetrakósioi, 'the four hundred'). A group of 400 Athenians,…

(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 Demosthene…

[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; …

(Greek κλῆρος/ klêros , Lat. sors). I. Political [German version] A. Greece The lot was used especially in democracies, but not only in such, as a means to distribute office among those who were equally eligible, rather than appointing the best candidate under the circumstances. For Athens, the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia states that Solon introduced the selection of the archons by lot from a short list of pre-selected candidates ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 8,1; but differing: Aristot. Pol. 2,1273b 35-1274a 3; 1274a 16-17; 3,1281b 25-34). In the…

[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 unknown). (b) Recipients of major honours were given…

[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)

(Δήμαρχος; Dḗmarchos). Holder of office with political and/or religious duties in Greek communities. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) [German version] I. Greece until late antiquity (1) In Athens the demarchos was the highest office-holder in each of the 139 demes ( Demos [2]), into which Cleisthenes had divided the polis ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 54,8). By no later than the 4th cent. BC the demarchos was elected by lot in each   dḗmos for one year; the demarchos for Piraeus on the other hand was appointed by the polis (Ath. Pol. 54,8). He convened and chaired the assembly of the deme. He could be called upon by the polis to maintain registers of confiscated property, to collect the eisphorá (before 387/86 BC) property tax from citizens who …

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(ἐκκλησία; ekklēsía). Assembly of the adult male citizens, which was entitled to the ultimate decision-making authority in the Greek states. At times also called (h)ēliaía (with differences due to dialect) or agorá. The frequency of meetings, the areas of authority, the degree to which independent actions were restricted by the officials' and/or the council's realm of authority, and the number of members of the ekklesia varied depending on the type of the political organisation; thus, oligarchies can exclude the poor from the ekklesia by requiring a minimum of wealth. In the Homeric world, the assemblies met occasionally in order to deal with the duties of the king or the nobleman who called them. Active participation was reserved to leading men and religious experts, the masses expressed agreement through cheering, disapproval through silence. In the Iliad (2,211-277), Thersites, a man from the people,…

[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…

(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] B. Size and administration At the foundation of the Delian League in 478/7 BC, the contributions of members were assessed by Aristides [1] from Athens; they were either to provide sh…

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