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[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 documented for the first time around 445 BC (IG I3 41, 90-91) when they brought cases to court within a specific month. For the year AD 397, a complaint can be found in Lysias [1] (17,5) that the nautodíkai had failed to complete a court case about businessmen ( émporoi ) in a specific month, but it was not a matter concerning trade. The nautodíkai were also responsible …

[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/o…

[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…

[German version] (πωληταί/ pōlētaí), 'sellers'. In Athens, the officials responsible for selling public contracts (e.g. for collecting taxes, and for working sacred land and the silver mines) and confiscated property. The contracts were made in the presence of the council ( boulḗ ), which kept a r…

[German version] (Ἀγύῤῥιος; Agýrrhios). Athenian politician from the deme Collytus, active from c. 405-373 BC. He introduced between the end of the Peloponnesian War and c. 392 the payment of an obol for visiting the assembly and later raised the sum from two to three oboles (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 41,3). Therefore probably in error, the introduction of the   theorikon was ascribed to him (Harpocr. s. v. θεωρικά; theōriká). In 389 he succeeded  Thrasyboulus as commander of the Athenian fleet in the Aegean (Xen. Hell. 4,8,31). He spent several years in prison as debtor to the state (Dem. Or. 24,135), but then took up his political career once again and proposed a grain law in 374/3. His nephew was  Callistratus. PA 179. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography Davies, 277-280 LPGN 2, s. v. Ἀγύρριος 1 Rhodes, 492.

[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 undoubtedly even earlier, they are said to have been supervisors of official weights and measures (IG II2 1013). The Scy…

(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)edroi. The pró(h)edroi were summo…

[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).…

[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…

[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)

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[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…

[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] 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 one year only. A later list of archons recorded the onset of the one-year archontate around 683/682 BC. But this evolution is probably not based on authentic tradition, but represents a later reconstruction. It can, however, be assumed that the powers of the king came to be …

[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 …

(νομογράφος/ nomográphos, ‘law-writer’) [German version] …

[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 …

[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).…

[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’ ( …

[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 were the workers of dḗmos-land as opposed to other kinds of land. 2. In Homer demiourgoi are independent craftsmen such as metal workers, potters and masons; also seers, doctors, bards and heralds (cf…

[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] …

[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…

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[German version] (τιμοκρατία/ timokratía). The modern term 'timocracy' denotes a form of constitution in which people's political rights depend on their wealth (cf. τίμημα, tímēma, 'assessment'), similar to 'plutocracy'. In general, a constitution in which this principle was applied to a significant extent would be called oligarchia by the Greeks, but ploutokratia is also found (Xen. Mem. 4,6,12). In Aristot. Eth. Nic. 8,1160a-b timokratia is used to denote the good form of demokratia ), which Aristotle otherwise calls politeia . Among the subdivisions of demokratia and oligarchi…

(Ἐφιάλτης; Ephiáltēs). Mythology  Aloads. [German version] [1] Son of Eurydemus of Malis Son of Eurydemus of Malis, he is supposed to have shown  Xerxes the path over the mountains at  Thermopylae, in the hope of a large reward. This enabled the Persians to circumvent the Greek army under Leonidas and attack it from the rear. E. himself is said to have led the elite corps of Hydarnes along this path, and so contributed to the defeat of the Spartans. Herodotus was already aware of another version, thought by…

(Αὐτοκράτωρ; Autokrátōr). [German version] A. Greek The meaning ‘exercising control over oneself’ expresses the opposite of subjug…

(κώμη; kṓmē, plural κῶμαι; kômai). [German version] A. Greece in the 5th and 4th cents. BC With the meaning ‘village’, kome signified in the Greek world a small community. Thucydides regarded life in scattered, unfortified kômai as the older and more primitive form of communal living in a political unit (Thuc. 1,5,1; on Sparta: 1,10,1; on the Aetolians: 3,94,4). Under the Aristotelian model of pólis formation, families first group together in a kṓmē, and then the kômai group together in a pólis (Aristot. Pol. 1,1252b 15-28; cf. 3,1280b 40-1281a 1). Scattered living in a kome is typical f…

[German version] (ἀρχαιρεσία; archairesía). Appointment of officials ( archai). In the Greek world an official was usually appointed for a year either by election ( hairesis in the proper meaning, but the term can be used for any method of appointing officials) or by casting lots ( …

[German version] (πολέμαρχος/ polémarchos, plural polémarchoi, 'leader in war') was the title of military officialsin various Greek states. In the stories of the rise of tyrants, Cypselus [2] in Corinth (Nicolaus of Damascus FGrH 90 F 57,5) and Orthagoras [1] in Sicyon (POxy. XI 1365 = FGrH 105 F 2) are said to have been polémarchoi. But it is unlikely that men outside the ruling aristocracy would be appointed to such an office or that the polémarchos of archaic Corinth would have civilian judicial duties like that of classical Athens. In the Spartan army of the fifth-f…

[German version] (ἀείσιτοι; aeísitoi). Aeisitoi are entitled, not just occasionally but regularly, to participate in the banquets prepared by the Greek states (cf. Poll. 9,40). In Athens one so honoured was accorded   sitesis in the  Prytaneion (e.g. IG II/III2 I 1,450b) [2; 3]; as aeisitoi were designated also the officials who were assigned to the council and who ate with the   prytaneis (e.g. Agora XV 86) [1]. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography 1 Agora XV, 1974, 7-8 2 A. S. Henry, Honours and Privileges in Athenian Decrees, 1983, 275-78 archontes 3 M. J. Osborn…

[German version] (οἱ δέκα; hoi déka) ‘the Ten’; a committee of ten men, elected after the overthrow of the Thirty in 403 BC to rule the oligarchy of Athens. According to Lysias (12,58) and some…

[German version] (ἐφόδιον; ephódion, ‘travel money’). In Greece, ephodion denotes the allowance for travel expenses paid to an ambassador (e.g. in Athens: Tod 129; cf. the parody in Aristoph. Ach. 65-67; in Chios: SIG3 402). In the Hellenistic and Roman periods a rich citizen could aid his city by declining such a payment due to him (e.g. IPriene 108). Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham)

[German version] (πεταλισμός; petalismós). Petalismos was the name for a ballot using the leaves (πέταλα/ pétala) of the olive tree. At Syracusae, the petalismos was the equivalent of the Athenian ostrakismós , i.e. a procedure for sentencing a leading individual to a period of banishment without finding him guilty of a misdemeanour. Diodorus Siculus (11,87) mentions the …

(στρατηγός/ stratēgós, 'army leader'; pl. strategoi). In many Greek states the formal title for a military commander. [German version] I. Classical Greece In Athens, strategoi are occasionally mentioned earlier (e.g. Peisistratus [4] as …

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(Βουλή; Boulḗ) . [German version] A. General In Greek communities the boule was a council assembly, usually that responsible for current public duties, which also had to prepare the work of the public assembly (  ekklēsía ). Composition and responsibilities could change according to the respective form of constitution. In Homeric times the council consisted of nobles convened by the king as advisors; in oligarchically organized communities the boule could become a relatively powerful body, compared with a comparatively weak public assembly, by restricting eligi…

[German version] (συνοικισμός/ synoikismós, lit. 'living together'). In the Greek world, the combination of several smaller communities to f…

[German version] (ἀρχαί; archaí, ‘office holder’). In most Greek states the powers of hereditary kings were divided in the  Dark Ages and the archaic period and distributed among a series of officials ( archai or   archontes ), who were usually appointed for a year, often without the option of re-election. This process cannot be traced in detail because the sources tend toward a too schematic reconstruction. Apart from the offices that were responsible for the state as a whole, special offices were created on occ…

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[German version] (ἐπιμεληταί; epiméletai). Functionaries, who ‘take care of something’ ( epimeleîsthai). The word is used as the title for several Greek officials; see also epískopoi, epistátai. 1. The author of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia…

[German version] (πυλαγόρας/ pylagóras; also πυλαγόρος/ pylagóros, Hdt. 7,213 f,. or πυλάγορος/ pylágoras). literally a participant in the Pýlaia [2] meetings, i.e. the meetings of the  amphiktyonía of Anthela (near Thermopylae) and Delphi. Each of the 12 éthnē of the amphiktyonía was represented in the Council by two hieromnḗmones , who could both speak and vote,…

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[German version] (ναυκραρία/ naukraría, ναύκραρος/ naúkraros). In ancient times, naukraría (pl. naukraríai) denoted a subdivision of the Athenian citizenry; naúkraros (pl. naúkraroi) were the leaders of such subdivisions. The meaning of the terms is controversial. Generally, the naúkraros was traditionally interpreted as ‘ship's captain’ (deriving from naûs, ‘ship’), but other derivations are proposed, e.g. from naós (‘temple’; [4. 56-72]; cf. [3. 153-175], [1. 11-16]) or from naíein (‘live’); [5. 10]). However, none of these more recent interpretations is …