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[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. …

(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] (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…

[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 opposed to the Romans, the Greeks sat during their ass…

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[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 A…

[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. I…

(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 characteristically oligarchic (Aristot. Pol. 4,1298b 26-30; 1299b 30-38). Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) Bibliography 1 C. Michel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecques, 1900 (repr. 1976). [German version] [2] Greek delegates…

[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…

[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 …

[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 …

[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 ( klerosis…

[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 participat…

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[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 g…

[German version] Modern term for the union of Greek states brought into being in 338/7 BC at an assembly in Corinth by  Philippus II of Macedonia after the battle of  Chaeronea (338 BC). The league evidently included all Greek states with the exception of Sparta, and was associated with a treaty establishing a ‘general peace’ ( …

(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 …

[German version] (συνοικισμός/ synoikismós, lit. 'living together'). In the Greek world, the combination of several smaller communities to form a single larger community. Sometimes the union was purely political and did not affect the pattern of settlement or the physical existence of the separate communities: this is what the Athenians supposed to have happened when they attributed the Attic synoikismos to Theseus, commemorated by a festival in classical times, the Synoikia (Thuc. 2,15) — whereas …

[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 fro…

[German version] (αἰσυμνήτης; aisymnḗtēs). Formed from aísa (‘fate’) and   mna (‘to have in mind’): ‘one who has fate in mind (and announces it to the one it affects)’. The Phaeacians (Hom. Od. 8,258-9) name nine aisymnetai, who are responsible for contests ( agones), in the Iliad 24,347 a prince's son appears as aisymnḗtēs. Aristotle sees in the aisymnetes of ancient Greece a kind of monarch, a ‘chosen tyrant’, as demonstrated in  Pittacus of Mytilene around 600 (Pol. 3,1285a 29 - b 1). In the 5th cent. the word appears in Teos synonymously with ‘tyrant’ (Syll.3 38 = ML 30,A; SEG 31,985). In some places, aisymnetes was used as a regular designation of office. In Megara the aisymnetai appear, just like the   prytaneis in Athens, to have formed a constant panel of the council (IG VII 15 = Syll.3 642); in the Megarian colonies proaisymnein designated the chair of the council (e.g. IK Calchedon 10,12 = Syll.3 1011, 1009; IOSPE I2 352 = Syll.3 709 about the Taurian Chersonnese). The Megarians derived the word from an eponymous hero Aesymnus (Paus. 1,43,3), in Achaean Patras there was a cult of Dionysus Aisymnetes (Paus. 7,20,1). Aisymnetes was in Naxos t…

[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 menti…

[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…

[German version] (δημαγωγός, dēmagōgós, ‘leader of the people’). Aristophanes uses demagogue to mean a political leader in the mould of  Cleon (for example in Equ. 191-193; 213-222). The word was possibly coined in the 2nd half of the 5th cent. BC in…

[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 …

[German version] (ψήφισμα, Pl. ψηφίσματα/ psēphísmata), literally a decision made by voting using 'voting stones' ( psêphoi) as opposed to voting by show of hands ( cheirotonía ). But in normal Greek usage, psephisma was applied to decree…

[German version] (χειροτονία; cheirotonía, ‘raising the hand’). Method of voting in popular assemblies and other Greek committees. In large assemblies votes thus given were probably not counted: the chairman would have to decide where the majority voice lay. Distinct from cheirotonía is voting by psēphophoría (‘throwing-in of ballot stones’), which made possible the pr…

[German version] (ζητηταί/ zētētaí, 'investigators') were appointed ad hoc in Athens to enquire into breaches of law; the lexicographers (e.g. Harpocration [2], s. v. Ζ.) attribute an 'office' ( archḗ) to them, which was constructed in Athens from time to…

[German version] (ἐπίδοσις; epídosis). Voluntary tax requested by Greek states during special emergencies to supplement the revenue from regular taxes and contributions furnished through public office. In Athens, epidóseis are documented since the 4th cent. (see for example Dem. Or. 21,161); they were probably introduced by Eubulus. Rhodes, Peter …

(νησιῶται/ nēsiôtai). [German version] [1] See Hecatonnesi See Hecatonnesi Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham) [German version] [2] Aegean league of islanders, with Delos as its centre, c. 315 BC League ( k oinon ) of islanders in the Aegean with Delos as its centre, probably founded by Antigonus [1] Monophthalmus in 315/4 BC rather than by Ptolemaeus in 308 BC. After the defeat of Demetrius [2] Poliorcetes 286 BC, the league was taken over by Ptolemaeus. It served as a political alliance and celebrated festivities in honour of its patron. Under the Ptolemies, there were a nēsíarchos (‘island ruler’) - probably appointed by the Egyptian king - and an assembly ( …

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[German version] (ἐπιχειροτονία; epicheirotonía). Epicheirotonia generally means voting (literally: ‘raising one's hand’). In particular epicheirotonia was used in the 4th cent. in Athens to mean a vote of confidence in officials that was cast in every prytany ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol. 43,5; 61,2; but epicheirotonia…

[German version] (ἰσονομία; isonomía). The concept of isonomia, (equality before the law) - along with other compounds formed with the element iso- (‘equal’) - seems to have played a significant role in political discour…

[German version] (οἱ τετταράκοντα/ hoi tettarákonta, 'the Forty'). In Athens, a college of forty judges appointed by lot, four each out of the ten phylai ( phyle [1]) after 404/3 BC. They were assigned to a phyle other than their own and handled cases concerning defendants of that phyle. They decided private suits for sums up to 1…

[German version] (4th cent. BC). The  Delian League had broken up in 404 at the end of the Peloponnesian War. One could remember the power which Athens had had over its allies, but Sparta's behaviour with respect to the Greeks in the early 4th cent. also led to dissatisfaction. In the King's Peace of 386, the Greeks in Asia Minor were given over to the Persians and all other Greeks were declared independent. In 384, Athens formed, explicitly in the context of this peace, an alliance with Chios (IG II2 34 = Tod 118). In 378, Athens established, after the liberation of Thebes from Spa…

[German version] (ἐπιμαχία; epimachía). Thucydides (1,44,1; 5,48,2) uses the term epimachia for a purely defensive alliance, which obliges the participants to give assistance only in the case of an attack, as opposed to the symmachía, which is an offensive as well as defensive alliance to the full extent, where…

[German version] In Greece federal states were regional units composed of separate poleis (Polis) and organised in such a way that at any rate foreign policy was in the hands of the federal organisation (Synhedrion), but the individual poleis retained their own citizenship and a greater degree of autonomy than was enjoyed by each of the demes (Demos [2]) of Attica. 'Tribal states' in the less urbanised parts of Greece were similar, with a federal organisation and smaller local units which had a degree of autonomy: as …

[German version] (5th cent. BC). The Persian offensive …

[German version] (καταλογεῖς; katalogeîs) are known as Athenian Commissioners of Enrolment. During the oligarchical overthrow of 411 BC, 100 men no younger than 40 years of age were chosen as katalogeis - ten from each phyle - in order to draw up a register of 5,000 Athenians intended to have full citizenship ([Aristot.] Ath. Pol.…

[German version] (Δοκιμασία; Dokimasía). In the Greek world it means the procedure of determining whether certain conditions have been met. In Athens the following dokimasíai are attested: 1. The dokimasía of young men who at the end of their eighteenth year were presented to the father's dḗmos to be recognized as a member of the deme and a citizen. The dḗmos, a college of judges and the council took part in this procedure. 2. The dokimasía of the   bouleutaí (council members) in the council and before a college of judges, that of the archontes likewise …

[German version] (ἐποικία; epoikía). Epoikia was occasionally used instead of apoikía for Greek colonies, e.g. the early 5th-cent. BC Locrian colony near Naupactus (ML 20). The Athenian decree of 325/4 BC regarding the foundation of a colony on the Adriatic coast contains the reconstructed [ apoi] kía as well as époi[ koi]. It has been claimed that strictly speaking epoikia and époikoi did not refer to the original settlement, but to its later reinforcement with additional settlers [1]. This special meaning may occasionally have been intended, but it is u…

[German version] (ὀστρακισμός, 'trial by sherds' from óstrakon , pl. óstraka, 'pottery sherd'). A procedure in Athens that permitted expulsion of a man from the country for ten years without having been convicted of an offence, but without confiscating his property. According to the (Pseudo-) Aristotelian Athēnaíōn Politeía (22,1; 22,3), ostracism was introduced by Cleisthenes [2] (508/7 BC), but not applied until 488/7. A fragment by Androtion (FGrH 324 F 6) reports that ostracism had been established immediately before its first applicatio…

[German version] (ἀποδέκται; apodéktai, ‘receivers’). A ten-man board of officials in Athens, with members chosen by lot from each of the ten phylai. They were charged by the boule with receiving state funds and remitting them to the central treasury in the 5th cent. BC, and apportioning them to various spending authorities ( merizein) in the 4th, following routine procedures. They had their own powers o…

[German version] (μαστροί/ mastroí, ‘searchers’, ‘trackers’) is the name given in some Greek towns to official accountants with functions similar to those of the eúthynoi ( eúthynai ) or logistaí (e.g. Delphi: Syll.3 672; Pallene: Aristot. fr. 657 Rose). The accounting process is called mastráa/mastreía, e.g. in Elis (IvOl 2 = Buck …

[German version] (ἀντίδοσις; antídosis, exchange). In Athens someone designated to discharge a leitourgia ( Liturgy) could take measures to avoid it by naming somebody richer who was not exempt from it, but who had escaped it. He could ask him to assume the leitourgia or, if the other man denied, insist on an exchange of their respective fortunes. Such an exchange was in practice fully possible [1; 3], although this is contested [2]. If the person so named wanted neither the leitourgia nor an exchange, then …

[German version] (ζευγῖται, literally 'yoke-men', from ζεῦγος/ zeûgos = 'yoke', 'team'), the third of Solon's [1] four property-classes in Athens ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 7,3 f.). The name indicates either that they were the men rich enough to serve in the army as hoplîtai , 'yoked together' in a phálanx [2. 135-140; 5], …

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[German version] (ἑλληνοταμίαι). The title Hellenotamiai (‘Stewards of Greece’) was borne by the treasurers of the  Delian League. The exchequer they managed, originally located on Delos, was probably transferred to Athens in the year 454/3 BC (Thuc. 1,96,2; Plut. Aristides 25,3; Pericles 12,1; cf. IG I3 259 = ATL List 1), because the annually elected boards were numbered in a continuous sequence starting in 454/3. From the beginning, however, the Hellenotamiai were Athenians, were appointed by Athens (Th…