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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 I3 73,224; also [3]; Prytane…

[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…

(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; Elate…

[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). Bureaucracy refers -- also in a critical sense -- to specific organizational structures of modern states [1]. As an ‘ideal type’ in Max Weber's definition, bureaucracy in general terms refers to a special form of legal rulership: its rulers employ officials in their administration, who -- in full-time salaried positions with a clear…

[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 nomothétai were appointed in Athens in the p…

(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) …

(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 Demosthenes for festival liturgies (Demosth. 20. Lept. 23). The word is used also for membership of federal bodies such as the Boeotian federation (e.g. Diod. Sic 15,38,4; cf. télein ind Hdt. 6,108,5) and the Achaean League (e.g.…

[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 th…

[German version] (εὔθυναι; eúthynai). The term euthynai (‘straightening out’) was used specifically in reference to the audits of the official conduct of administrators after their departure from office. In Athens, this procedure was split into two parts: on the one hand, there was the lógos (‘statement of accounts’), which looked into the way officials handled public funds, carried out by a committee of ten logistaí (‘auditors’) plus one synḗgoros each (‘legal advisor’) ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 54,2), and on the other the euthynae in a stricter sense, offering the opportunity …

(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…

[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 Athens among the recipients of pro(h)edría were the oldest living descendents of Harmodius and Aristogiton (Isaeus 5,47); Demosthenes [2] provided the ambassadors of Philip [4] II of Macedonia with pro(h)edría at the…

(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…

[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; 3…

(λειτουργία; Leitourgía). I. Political [German version] A. Definition In the ancient Greek world leitourgía signified a ‘benefit/service for the people’, especially a benefit for the state or a part of the state, which was provided by rich citizens from their own means. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) [German version] B. Athens The two main forms of liturgy in Athens were the ‘encyclical’, recurring festive liturgy with the responsibility to endow the performers and the celebrations themselves, and the trierarchia with the task of fitting out a shi…

[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 (621/20 and 594/93 BC, respectively) or in a constitutional law in Dreros on Crete (ML 2). Because not all valid laws were written down right away, unwritten laws existed alongside the written ones (e.g. Andoc. 1,115-6, where i…

[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. Thuc. 1,44,1; 5,48,2, distinguishes between a symmachia, as a full offensive and defensive alliance, and an epimachia, as a purely defensive alliance; but that use of the two terms is not widespread, and, for instance, the 'prospectus' of the (Second) Athenian League, which was a defensive alliance, consistently uses symmacheîn and cognate words (Tod 123). In a full …

(Κλεισθένης; Kleisthénōs). [German version] [1] Tyrant of Sicyon c. 600-570 BC Tyrant of Sicyon ( c. 600-570 BC), son of Aristonymus, from the family of Orthagoras, whose tyranny lasted about 100 years ( c. 665-565 BC.; Aristot. Pol. 1315b 11ff.; cf. Nicolaus of Damascus FGrH 90 F 61). During the war with Argus C. pursued an anti-Argive domestic ideology, including prohibition of the presentation of the Homeric epics because they favoured Argos. The Argive hero  Adrastus [1] was replaced by the Theban hero  Melanippus (Hdt. 5,6…

[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…

(διοίκησις ; dioíkēsis, Lat. dioecesis). [German version] I. Greece ‘Housekeeping’ in the sense of administration, especially in the financial realm. Dioikesis is used for the administration of the state in general (for example, Pl. Prt. 319d; [Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 43,1), also for the financial administration (for example, Xen. Hell. 6,1,2; Dem. Or. 24,96f.), and, in an extended sense by the author of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia, for maintenance payments made by the state (24,3). In later 4th-cent. BC Athens, an office for the upper financial administr…

[German version] I. General The states of antiquity had no executive PA independent of government and legislature in the sense of the modern separation of powers. The triple division of constitutions, indicated in Aristot. Pol. 1297b 35-1301a 15 ( tría mória, 1297b 37), into a decision-making, legislating organ ( tò bouleuómenon), an executive element ('on the offices': tò perì tàs archás) and judicature ( tò dikázon) owes more to the schematically working mind of the author than to a political concept as such, especially since the fields defined show conside…

[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 the metic tax (Tod, 178). Other examples include elsewhere the freedom from sales taxes (Syll.3 330, Ilium), from import and export taxes (Syll.3 348, Eretria), from duties that were levied against…

[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 was probably replaced by a distribution of grain. The basis for the payment is uncertain but it was probably granted during the Decelean War …

[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 g…

(τοξόται/ toxótai, 'archers'). [German version] [1] Archers in general The Bow and arrow were very ancient weapons. Widespread in Greece since Mycenaean times, they were not the normal weapons of an aristocratic hero, and were held in lower esteem than the sword or the spear. Homer mentions archers and their weapons several times (for instance, Hom. Il. 4,93-126; 11,385-395; Philoctetes on Lemnos: Soph. Phil. 287-292; 707-711; 1146-1162). Near the end of the Archaic Period, Polycrates [1] of Samos relied…

[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 vertically on axes in such a way that a person looking at them could turn them. In the 4th cent. BC it was probably still possible to read and study them, at the time of Plutarch small fragments were still in existence. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography E. Ruschenbusch, όλωνο…

[German version] (ἰσοπολιτεία; isopoliteía). The term isopoliteia (equal citizenship), was used from the 3rd cent. BC, (instead of   politeia ) to denote the granting of citizenship by a Greek state to individual persons (e.g. IG V 2,11 = Syll.3 501) or indeed chiefly to whole communities (e.g. IG V 2, 419 = Syll.3 472). Modern research distinguishes between isopoliteia, the exchange of rights between states, which maintained their independence, and   sympoliteía , the merging of two or more states into a single state. The ancient linguistic usage …

[German version] (ῥαβδοφόροι/ rhabdophóroi, 'staff-bearers', also referred to as ῥαβδοῦχοι/ rhabdoûchoi, 'staff-holders'). A term applied to various officials who carried a staff of office, in particular to officials at contests and other festivals, whether judges (Plat. Prot. 338a 8) or assistants of the judges who enforced discipline (for Athens: Aristoph. Pax 734; for Olympia: Thuc. 5,50,4). In Roman contexts the Greek words rhabdophóroi and rhabdoûchoi are used of the lictores ( lictor ) who carried the fasces before holders of imperium (Pol. 5, 26,10). Rhodes, Peter J. (Du…

[German version] (ἡγεμονία, ‘leading position’). An important basic feature of international relations in Greece was the formation of alliances in which one of the members took up a prominent position as hēgemṓn (‘leader’). The earliest example was a group of alliance agreements through which Sparta secured its position in the 6th cent. BC in the Peloponnese and which solidified into the  Peloponnesian League: therefore, Cleomenes I was therefore able ‘to collect an army from the entire Peloponnese’ in 506 (Hdt. 5,74,1), and …

[German version] (ἀμφικτυονία; amphiktyonía). Probably arose from amphi-ktiones = ‘living in the environs’ (Androt. FGrH 324 F 58), although the Greek usually derived it from an eponymous hero Amphictyon (e.g. Hdt. 7,200; Theopomp. FGrH 115 F 63). Amphictyony designates a group of people who congregate around a sanctuary and tend its cult. As a rule, cult members lived near the sanctuary; the most significant ones, namely the amphictyony of Anthela and that of  Delphi, included members from many parts of Greece. They made good on their promise to become the amphictyony par excellence b…

(Ἀριστοτέλης; Aristotélēs). [German version] [1] Athenian oligarch Athenian oligarch who, in 404 BC, was banned from Athens and sent to Sparta by  Lysander (Xen. Hell. 2,2,118). Later, he was one of the 30 Tyrants in Athens (Xen. Hell. 2,3,2;  Triakonta), who sent him to Sparta with the request for a Spartan occupational force (Xen. Hell. 2,3,13). Traill, PAA, 174765. Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld) [German version] [2] Rhodian envoy, 166/5 BC Rhodian envoy to Rome who, in 166/5 BC, failed in his request for a renewal of the amicitia by the Senate (Pol. 30,23,2-4) [1. 167,2; 2. 208]. Günther, …

(οἱ τριακόσιοι/ hoi triakósioi, 'the Three Hundred'). Collective name in ancient Athens for a group of 300 men, with various functions: [German version] [1] Group of the wealthiest Athenian citizens, 4th cent. BC A group of the 300 wealthiest citizens in 4th cent. BC Athens, made up of the three richest members of each of the 100 tax groups (Symmoria), created in order to raise the eisphora , a property tax. They were liable for the liturgy (I) of the proeisphora , by which they had to advance the whole sum due from their tax group, and then recover fo…

[German version] (ὁδοποιοί; hodopoioí). The hodopoioi (‘road masters’) in Athens in the 4th cent. BC were an authority made up of 5 persons (perhaps appointed from phyles grouped as pairs) who were in charge of public slaves to keep the roads in a good condition ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 54,1). The assertion of Aeschines (Ctes. 25) that in the time of  Eubulus [1] the administrators of the theorika were hodopoioí can only mean that these officials supervised the hodopoioi or supplied them with the means but not that the authority had been abolished [2. 237f.]. Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliog…

[German version] (νεωροί/ neōroí). Public officials in Greek states who bore responsibility for shipyards ( neṓria). Athenian inscriptions from the 5th cent. BC mention neōroí (IG I3 154; IG I3 127 = ML 94) and hoi epimeloménoi tōi neōríōi (‘those who care for the shipyard’; IG I3 153); epimelētaí are found at the end of the 5th cent. (IG I3 236); in the 4th cent. the title epimelētaí tōn neōríōn was frequently used. These epimelētaí of the 4th cent. were responsible for the ships and the entire contents of the shipyards. They distributed materials to the trierarchs (…

[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) Bibliography R. Thomsen, Eisphora, 1964, 187-189.

[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 phoros ('tribute') as they had done in the hated Delian League of the 5th. cent. BC (e.g. IG II2 43 = Tod 123,23): the syntaxeis were at any rate to some extent under the control of the synhedrion of the allies (e.g. IG II2 123 = Tod 156). The term was used by…

[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 buildings and roads and for boundary disputes. There could also be special officials for the walls, wells and ports. In Athens 10 astynomoi, who were annually determined by lot, officiated in the 4th cent. 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 secretary of the state was referred to as the ‘council secretary’ or ‘secretary at the prytany’. He was responsible for the publication of documents resulting from the activities of the council or the citizens' assemb…

[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 Law of Athens, vol. 2, 1971, 59-64  J. H. Lipsius, Das attische Recht, 1905-1915, 211-219  D. M. MacDowell, The Classical Law in Athens, 1978, 194-197.