Archons – A Assortment of Unmitigated Pedantry
That is the second a part of the second a part of our three(ish) half take a look at the governing constructions of the Greek polis (I, IIa). Final time, we appeared on the fundamental establishments of governance, how almost each polis has magistrates, an meeting, and a number of councils which operate collectively to control the polis. We additionally mentioned how altering the steadiness of energy between these establishments might make a polis a democracy or an oligarchy, with out essentially eradicating any of them (that means that democracies and oligarchies had governments made up of the identical element components), whereas subverting these establishments was how tyrannies fashioned (and thus even tyrants didn’t abolish polis authorities constructions).
This week we’re going to take a deeper take a look at magistrates, the officers that truly perform many of the polis‘ choices. Magistrates (after they weren’t chosen ‘by lot’ which is to say at random from among the many politai) have been understood by our historic sources as bastions of oligarchic energy, however regardless of this each democracies and oligarchies needed to have magistrates as a result of in spite of everything somebody must do the entire good issues that the council or the meeting has determined to do. We’re going to cowl magistrates right here in three components: first what we will and might’t learn about them, then the frequent types of excessive magistrates (‘archons’) {that a} polis may need, and at last an in depth take a look at minor magistrates. That final part goes to be extraordinarily Athens-focused as a result of Athens is the one polis the place now we have a roughly full accounting of the entire minor types of officers a polis would have. The benefit to us is that as a result of Athens is unusually huge, rich and complicated, it appears to have had the ‘full set’ of minor magistrates (whereas most poleis may need wanted far fewer).
I had hoped we’d additionally get to debate courts right here, however that’s going to have to attend as this put up is already lengthy and my time already quick.
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The Limits of Data
We should always begin by noting on the outset how this overview goes to be influenced by the presence and absence of proof. The factor is, our understanding of the political techniques of most poleis is patchy. By the use of instance, right here is the paragraph on the structure of Corinth – one of many largest and wealthiest poleis in Greece and a serious participant in Greek affairs – from the Stock – to offer a way of what our info on even a big and highly effective polis not named ‘Athens’ or ‘Sparta’ would possibly appear like:
Monarchy gave option to the Bacchiad aristocracy in C8m (Diod. 7.9; Salmon (1984) 55-56). The tyranny of the Kypselids lasted from C7m to C6e (Arist. Pol. 1315b22-26; Salmon (1984), 186-230). Thereafter, an oligarchic structure characterised Corinth all through C6, C5 and C4, interrupted solely by a short interval of democracy 392-386 (infra) and the tyranny of Timophanes in 366 (Arist. Pol. 1306aa21-24). A Council of Eighty comprised of eight probouloi and seventy-two abnormal members (Nic. Dam. FgrHist 90) fr. 60.2; cf. Will (1955) 605-15) existed by C4 and doubtless goes again to the time of the tyranny. This council might be the γερουσία talked about by Diod. (16.65.6,9) as concerned within the dispatch of Timoleon to Sicily in 346/5 (Salmon (1984) 231). Thuc. 5.30.5 mentions a Corinthian ξύλλογος in 421, which should be an meeting.
(Stock, 467; that part was written by Ronald P. Legon)
And that’s roughly it for what we all know (for the Archaic and Classical interval a minimum of; just a few Corinthian magistrates become visible within the Hellenistic, however no figuring out in the event that they predate the interval). We’ve received a gerousia, a reference to one thing we’re fairly positive is an ekklesia, a board of what is perhaps eight presiding magistrates (but in addition probably only a choose committee or the gerousia) that run the gerousia and functionally no different attested magistrates. That is once more, one of many ‘huge 4’ poleis in Greece (Athens, Sparta, Thebes and Corinth), probably the most essential historic Greek states and we all know virtually nothing about its structure.
Partially the issue is our literary sources; outdoors of direct discussions of political construction,of which there are only a few, the literary sources hardly ever go into depth on a polis structure past noting its common character (oligarchy/democracy/tyranny). Keep in mind that our sources are principally ‘gentleman historians’ because it have been, newbie dabblers writing for an viewers of newbie dabblers. Because of this, they have a tendency to keep away from technical terminology and shut technical descriptions. So as a substitute of, say, “Consultant such-and-so proposed a invoice within the Home of Representatives, to match the invoice handed within the Senate the earlier month, which was then signed by the president and handed into legislation on <date>,” they’d write, “The People handed a legislation.” If you’re very fortunate, they may add ‘in Congress’ however most of the time they’d depart that out. Certainly that’s by far the commonest means the report political actions, ‘the Athenians’ or ‘the Corinthians’ or ‘the Syracusans’ or ‘the Spartans/Lakedaimonians’ or ‘the Plataeans’ are merely reported to collectively have carried out one thing, by which we’re to grasp that no matter authorities they may have did it, via no matter processes it may need (certainly, this utilization doesn’t change even for very slim oligarchies).
(Certainly this is a vital reality about how the Greeks understood their politics: there was typically little distinction made between the motion of the politai and the motion of the polis. The frequent fashionable distinction ‘we disapprove of the federal government of X place, however haven’t any quarrel with the folks of X place’ is generally fairly alien to the way in which the Greeks take into consideration politics (besides in circumstances of stasis).)
In the meantime, even when some sense of the inner politics is vital, our sources typically assume you already know (or can discover out) the structure of a given polis, so we’d get, “Now then as a result of the Thebans have been in stasis, it occurred that Ismenias and Leontiades, who have been every polemarchs, have been at odds with one another…” (Xen. Hell. 5.2.25). What number of polemarchs does Thebes have? What are their powers and tasks? How lengthy has the establishment existed? Who is aware of! (Xenophon, however not us!) Certainly, that is, so far as I can inform, the solely attestation of polemarchs at Thebes. Presumably, since ‘polemarch’ means ‘warfare chief’ these are army officers of some kind (however Thebes generals are normally the Boiotarchs, so maybe these are organizational or administrative figures, as with the Athenian polemarch?), however that’s skinny gruel to make certain.
Consequently, there’s going to be a good bit of Athens and Sparta right here just because these are the 2 poleis for which now we have detailed descriptions of their political constructions. The lucky factor is that, as we’ve been discussing, the majority of Greek writing about politics tells us fairly clearly that poleis governments shared a lot of establishments and after we can see inside them, we see units of magistrates and courts that don’t look too dissimilar to Athens and Sparta. Consequently it appears pretty secure to generalize from what now we have, with a lightweight admixture of what we all know of different states. Nonetheless, we ought to be conscious that we’re generalizing from two case research – case research that are uncommon given their measurement.
With that out of the way in which, on to Archons.
Energy Overwhelming!
We’re going to start out with senior magistrates and right here we will have interaction in a minimum of a little little bit of cross-polis comparability as a result of these most senior magistrates are typically the one kind that present up commonly in our sources. As famous final time, the overall time period for these senior magistrates was archons (ἄρχοντες, archontes, actually ‘leaders,’ from ἄρχω, ‘to start, to be first’ and thus ‘to steer, to rule.’ Be aware additionally ἀρχή, ‘first, preeminent’ but in addition ‘energy, empire or an workplace.’), however each poleis‘ archons have been more likely to be a bit completely different, with their very own explicit native phrases, numbers and units of powers.
Numbers nonetheless is the primary key distinction right here. Most fashionable governments have a single Justice of the Peace – a president or prime minister – from whom flows all government energy, delegated all the way down to subordinates who are sometimes unelected and whose energy thus derives from the one chief Justice of the Peace on the prime. In some circumstances, that energy is much less vested within the particular person of a major minister as it’s within the collective cupboard (the place the cupboard wields energy and notionally takes duty collectively), however there’s nonetheless one line of energy, reaching from the folks, via a single government particular person or physique, then all the way down to many functionaries whose function is to implement the need of the only government.
This isn’t how historic Greek magistrates (or certainly, historic magistrates typically) labored.
As an alternative, Greek magistrates have been a product of efforts to weaken royal energy by dividing it, which after all solely works if government energy was actually divided, that’s vested in several autonomous figures. Thus you will need to to not see these magistrates as organized right into a ‘chain of command’ and even engaged in collective decision-making. As an alternative, one of the simplest ways to grasp most magistrates is to think about them as particular person actors whose powers are restricted to a single sphere of motion (that’s, they’ve a particular job) and {that a} metropolis may need a lot of them. Thus there isn’t one government energy in a polis, however many. Even in circumstances the place magistrates operate as a board, it’s typically the case that every member of that board carries the total energy of the magistracy – it’s a board of ten magistrates, not a board of ten appearing as a Justice of the Peace, which suggests the people can act unbiased of the board.
So as a substitute of one government, what you have got in a polis are many unbiased, little executives, every with a fraction of the general government energy. And in case you are considering, ‘that feels like an ungainly system, since magistrates is perhaps working at cross-purposes with one another,’ properly, sure. There’s a cause we don’t typically construction governments this fashion. However the Greeks did and so they appreciated it that means, as a result of this type of construction retains the powers of the magistrates in examine.
So what would possibly the excessive magistrates of a polis do precisely? Although there are a lot of completely different configurations for prime magistrates, they have a tendency to do the identical fundamental set of jobs (once more, break up up normally). You want magistrates to 1) lead the armies and fleets (not normally a definite job; strategoi are generals and admirals), 2) handle and arrange the legislation courts (which can or might not embody making abstract judgements in minor circumstances), and three) conduct key non secular rituals on behalf of the group. Those that have been right here some time will observe how this maps on neatly to the three roles of kingship (chief common, chief decide, chief priest), although the shift from royal legislation maker-enforcer-judge to ‘courtroom scheduling specialist’ is a significant one.
So at Athens, now we have the preliminary three archons which slot neatly into these roles: the polemarch (πολέμαρχος, polemarchos, lit, ‘war-leader’) was accountable for the military, the archon basileus ( ἄρχων βασιλεύς, lit, ‘king archon’) who crammed in for the king in non secular rituals which required his presence however had no broader non-religious powers, and at last the eponymous archon, who lent his title to the 12 months (“within the 12 months of the archonship of so-and-so” being an ordinary courting type) and ran the courts. It appears pretty clear that early on the eponymous archon typically stood as decide and initially additionally presided overs the conferences of the Athenian boule and ekklesia as its chief Justice of the Peace (and so supervising the legislation making course of as properly).
Over time these workplaces in Athens have been weakened or supplanted, breaking energy up additional with a purpose to buttress the democracy towards each oligarchic energy (bear in mind: robust magistrates are a device of ‘the few’) and tyranny (robust magistrates have a very good place to overthrow the democracy and institute a tyranny). The eponymous archon slowly misplaced most of his energy; the boule got here to be a choose council which ran the ekklesia and in flip there was a good smaller choose council, the prytaneis who acted as a choose of the boule and presided over it. In the meantime, the polemarch grew to become principally an organizational, ‘managing the house entrance’ determine, whereas the warfare main function was changed with a board of ten generals, the strategoi. The strategoi ended up being a reasonably key workplace. As everybody understood you wanted generals with experience, it was an workplace the place one could possibly be elected a number of instances in succession and was by no means decided by lot the way in which the archonships have been; that meant a succesful politician might safe a everlasting function within the state by getting elected time and again as strategos; that is for example the place Pericles held.
As for the courts, these received greater even because the eponymous archon received smaller and so the Athenians created six lesser archons, the thesmothetai (θεσμοθέται, sing. θεσμοθέτης; “law-giver”) who operated the courts (however didn’t dispense justice; these are jury courts). Nonetheless the eponymous archon stored some vestigal authorized powers, like a supervisory function over the epikleroi, typically translated as ‘heiresses’ (though that’s not fairly proper – they weren’t and certainly beneath Athenian legislation couldn’t inherit, however somewhat property was passing via them to legally legitimate inheritors – they have been required to marry into their paternal line with a purpose to generate a husband who could possibly be such a legitimate heir – which in most poleis needed to be male.).
At Sparta, the ephors and the 2 hereditary Spartan kings crammed the function of excessive magistrates; the existence of the 2 hereditary kings is, we all know, fairly uncommon however the board of ephors just isn’t. We all know that a number of different poleis had ephors and evidently on Crete they’d kosmoi (described by Aristotle however epigraphically attested at Eleutherna, Eltynia, Gortyn, Knosos, Lyktos, and so forth.; Stock 1159, 1160, 1164, 1169, 1175) whose powers have been apparently very similar to the ephors. Ephors and kosmoi seem invariably as boards of officers with a variety of government powers: the Spartan ephors (of whom we’re finest knowledgeable) dealt with most overseas coverage, served as a excessive courtroom and will suggest laws to the meeting. At Sparta the ephors had the job of creating positive the kings did their job, together with their non secular function, but in addition had a few of their very own ritual features, just like the ritual declaring of warfare on the helots (Plut. Lyc. 28.4). As you may think, a board of magistrates with such wide-ranging powers tended to be instruments of ‘the few’ and certainly Aristotle notes that the Spartan ephors have been straightforward to bribe (Arist. Pol. 2.1271a) whereas the Cretan kosmoi monopolized energy to supply an successfully hereditary oligarchy (Arist. Pol. 2.1272b). Additionally notably it looks like one of many ephors or kosmoi was at all times eponymous, giving their title to the 12 months identical to the Athenian eponymous archon.
Athens and Sparta weren’t the one poleis with these sorts of excessive officers, after all, however as famous the magistrates of different poleis are sometimes very poorly attested. Thebes had an eponymous archon (of unclear powers) and a minimum of two polemarchs by 382 (Stock, 455); the Boeotian confederation, of which Thebes was the main energy, additionally had seven Boiotarchs (Βοιωτάρχης, a fusion of βοιωτία (the title of the area) and that ἀρχ- root that means ‘chief’), elected for a time period of 1 12 months who led the mixed armies of the Boeotian poleis. Argos’ meeting had a presiding Justice of the Peace attested in inscriptions, who was assisted by a secretary with a six month time period of workplace; additionally they had board of 5 strategoi who commanded the military reported by Thucydides in addition to a board of treasurers (ἀρτῦναι, artunai; Stock, 604).
Demiourgoi (‘public staff’) seem in quite a few poleis, typically as a board or group of magistrates (Larissa had these, Arist. Pol. 1275b; Stock 696), although the function of demiourgoi appears to range from polis to polis as you would possibly count on with so common a reputation (at Larissa they have been apparently in a position to make new residents, however the title was additionally used for the officers of the Hellenistic-era Achaean League (a federal alliance of poleis) and the representatives of the Peloponnesian League (Dem. 18.157) among quite a few others.) That stated, demiourgos is a phrase with a variety of meanings, to incorporate magistrates but in addition expert staff in public make use of in addition to being utilized in a philosophical sense to imply a form of ‘creator god,’ so it’s a tough phrase.
All informed then what do you have to count on by way of the excessive magistrates of a polis? Properly, first that the important thing jobs listed here are main the military, organizing the courts (and/or appearing as a courtroom as a board) and filling non secular roles; it is best to count on these jobs to separate over a number of magistrates. In democracies, workplaces that don’t require a number of technical know-how could also be chosen by lot, however the remainder are typically elected (in oligarchies typically from a subset of the polis, outlined by wealth). In both case, magistrates serve comparatively quick phrases, normally only one 12 months (however typically slightly longer or shorter). It’s typically solely the ‘specialist’ workplaces (learn: generals) that may be held a number of instances consecutively. The extra highly effective the magistracy, the extra doubtless it’s to be organized as a board of magistrates.
Now these are a very powerful and central magistrates, however a big polis with hundreds of politai (and much more non-citizens) goes to want a slew of different state officers to deal with a number of the day after day issues. That brings us neatly to minor magistrates…
Energy Underwhelming!
Now for those who thought the knowledge on excessive magistrates was restricted, the issue is even worse right here. Small officers doing issues like regulating markets or inspecting grain merely aren’t going to indicate up in our sources when they’re documenting main political occasions (normally warfare), although they may crop up right here or there in inscriptions. As famous, now we have only a few political treatises that survive; Aristotle was speculated to have written the constitutions of 158 Greek poleis, of which just one survives: Athens. Nonetheless, that’s helpful right here as a result of Athens has a reasonably full battery of minor magistrates, so by simply working via them we will get a way of the entire minor figures you may need in a really massive polis and Aristotle lists fairly just a few of them (starting in Arist. Ath. Pol. 47ff). In a smaller polis it’s nearly sure a number of these positions could be mixed, or would fall beneath the authority of one of many main magistrates.
(Be aware that I don’t fairly comply with Aristotle’s order right here; he organizes magistrates by way of how they relate to the Athenian boule, however I believed organizing them by their titles and areas of competence made extra sense, so I’m leaping round a bit).
He begins with the tamiai (ταμίαι, lit. ‘dispenser,’ we’d say ‘controller’ or ‘treasurer’) who serve in a board of ten chosen by lot completely from the wealthiest class of residents; their job is to have custody over state funds saved within the treasury. One other tamias, evidently not one of many ten (Aristotle will get to him later, Ath. Pol. 49) has the taking care of for the adunatoi – individuals who’re each poor and likewise incapable of labor – the state pays them 2 obols a day every for meals (which isn’t nothing, but in addition not loads). One other board of ten hieron episkeustai (ἱερῶν ἐπισκευασταὶ, actually, ‘temple fixers’) are assigned 30 minae (that’s 18,000 obols, for comparative reference) to make use of to revive the temples that the majority wanted it.
Subsequent have been a board of ten poletai (πωληταί, observe the completely different spelling in Greek, this phrase means ‘vendor’ or ‘contractor’) who set free public contracts; they too have been chosen by lot. They really have fairly just a few jobs as a result of there are many public contracts; Greek poleis use public contracts each to contract to have issues carried out (so that you would possibly set free a contract for a sure sum of money to restore a temple, for example) but in addition for sure sorts of income. We all know for example that these poletai set free the contracts for working Athens’ publicly owned mines (the place the ‘purchaser’ of the contract would give the state cash in alternate for the correct to take advantage of the mine for a time period); an identical system was used for the letting of some lands and taxes. In addition they maintain auctions of the property of people who’ve been banished from the town and their property seized as the results of being convicted at trial. Notably, they do all of these items ‘within the presence of the council,’ so the boule is regularly keeping track of these fellows. Then now we have the very clearly associated workplace of the ten apodektai (ἀποδέκται, lit: ‘receivers’), additionally chosen by lot, a board accountable for verifying monies paid to the state – so the poletai create a report of funds due after which as these funds are obtained the apodektai wipe off from the tablets the funds given.
Then now we have magistrates accountable for executing just a few particular features: 5 hodopoioi (ὁδοποιοί, actually ‘path-maker’ however right here ‘street builder) who oversee the general public slaves who keep the roads. There are additionally a bunch of non secular magistrates right here known as hieropoioi (ἱεροποιοί, ‘rite-makes’) in several teams: ten for expiatory rites, one other ten for annual or four-yearly festivals (besides the Panthenaia).
We even have a set of what we’d time period market-regulating magistrates. There are ten astunomoi (ἀστυνόμοι, a phrase combining astu (city) and nomos (legislation, customized) to make ‘metropolis warden’), elected by lot, 5 of whom within the metropolis correct and 5 extra within the Piraeus (Athens’ port). Their job is to supervising the renting out of enslaved female musicians (flute, harp and lyre gamers; αὐλητρίδες, ψάλτριαι and κιθαρίστριαι respectively), whose charges have been restricted by statute to 2 drachmas (each guaranteeing the restrict was noticed and settling disputes over who received to rent which musician). The astunomoi additionally had the job of creating positive the constructing codes have been adopted (no balconies over the street, no water-overflow into the street, and so forth), that nobody deposited human waste within the metropolis and likewise eradicating any our bodies discovered within the streets for burial (a job Aristotle is fast to notice that was carried out by public slaves, which the astunomoi merely supervised).
Likewise break up between the Piraeus and Athens have been ten agoranomoi (ἀγορανόμοι, combining agora (market) and nomos (identical as above) to make ‘market supervisor’ or ‘market warden’), and ten metronomoi (μετρονόμοι, are you noticing a sample? Metron is a weight or measure, so these are ‘weights and measure inspectors’), each chosen by lot. The previous examine for counterfeit items and the latter examine weights and measures (these fellows would have additionally been accountable for imposing in Athens the stipulations of the Athenian coinage decree which mandated the usage of Athenian coinage, weights and measures inside the cities Athens managed in addition to Athens itself). The sale of grain was essential sufficient to get its personal officers, initially ten however finally thirty 5 sitophulakes (σιτοφύλακες, lit: ‘grain warden’) who regulated the value of grain (in all phases of manufacturing, so grain, meal and bread) as properly a fixing the usual weights (so these fellows do the job of each the agoranomoi and the metronomoi however just for grain and bread). Lastly there are ten emporiou epimeletai (ἐμπορίου ἐπιμεληταί, the latter phrase that means ‘curator’ or ‘superintendant’ (one who has cost of a factor), so ‘curators of ports’) who handle the harbor markets and cope with overseas merchants (specifically to make sure that rules designed to compel the import of grain to maintain costs of it low within the metropolis are adopted).
Subsequent now we have the ‘protecting the opposite magistrates trustworthy’ magistrates, the logistai (λογισταί, which might imply this official, but in addition a math instructor or a calculator (as in an individual who does math), so we’d name these fellows ‘accountants’), in addition to the euthynoi (εὐθύνοι, lit: ‘corrector’); there are ten of every chosen by lot, the logistai chosen from the members of the boule and the euthynoi from the ten tribes writ massive. The logistai‘s job is to maintain the official information of the actions of the prytaneis, a rotating presidency of the boule, whereas the euthynoi had the job of recieving any and all complaints about magistrates who had completed their time period of workplace. Every euthynos was anticipated to take a seat in the entire tribal conferences of their tribe (Athens has ten of these, so one euthynos per tribe) and take all complaints, assisted by a pair of paredroi (πάρεδροι, lit: ‘these sitting close by’ however right here ‘assessors’ or ‘councilors’). The concept right here is that to keep away from corruption, each official with actual energy additionally has an official whose sole job is to discipline complaints. The euthynoi took these complaints, assessed in the event that they have been legitimate after which referred them to the suitable courtroom (main fees going to the thesmothetai).
As well as now we have a bunch of minor magistrates concerned with the day-to-day working of the justice system. The hendeka (ἕνδεκα, lit: ‘the eleven’) are eleven residents chosen by lot to protect the jail in addition to execute thieves and bandits (both after a confession or after trial); observe that the jail right here simply holds folks pending trial, as Athenian legislation doesn’t punish with long-term imprisonment. Then there are 5 eisagogeis (εἰσαγωγεῖς, ‘announcer’ or ‘introducer’) who’ve the job of introducing into courtroom quite a lot of monetary circumstances, apart from these involving public contracts which fall beneath the authority of the apodektai. Small claims go earlier than a board of forty residents chosen by lot, whereas bigger claims are despatched to be determined by a diaitetes (διαιτητής, ‘arbitrator’), residents over 59 years, chosen by lot, whose determination can then be appealed earlier than a totally jury if it isn’t acceptable.
We’ve additionally received some functionaries for the council: a number of grammateis (γραμματεῖς ‘clerks’). One clerk for the prytaneis who retains their official paperwork and pronouncements, one other who sits in on the boule and makes copies of the entire legal guidelines and at last a final clerk who reads paperwork to the boule or the ekklesia. The primary two are chosen by lot, however the correct studying of official paperwork was evidently extra essential so the final reader is elected by a present of arms.
There are additionally a set of minor army workplaces. We’ve already talked about the ten senior army officers, the strategoi, however they’ve a slew of subordinate army commanders, additionally elected: one commander for every tribal contingent (a taxiarch, ταξίαρχος, a taxis being a unit of the phalanx), who then appoint their subordinate officers. The listing of Athenians rich sufficient to personal horses and thus required to function cavalry (the hippeis) have been stored by a board of ten katalogeis (καταλογεῖς, lit: ‘writer-down’ or ‘enroller’), who, being army officers, are elected somewhat than chosen by lot. They don’t command the cavalry, that’s carried out by a pair of elected hipparchs (ἵππαρχοι, ‘horse-leaders’) who’ve ten elected subordinates the phularchs (φύλαρχοι, ‘tribal commanders’ since they’re one for every tribe) who work just like the taxiarchoi, however for the cavalry as a substitute of the infantry). There are additionally just a few odd commanders, a cavalry commander particularly for the island of Lemnos and a treasurer to command the Paralus, a sacred messenger trireme. All army officers are elected via a vote (by present of arms) somewhat than by lot, as a result of warfare can’t be trusted to any random citizen.
And that’s the listing! I’m positive I’ve missed some workplaces right here or there, both as a result of Aristotle doesn’t report them or as a result of I missed them whereas studying via Aristotle. As you’ll be able to see, that is various minor officers, every with their very own distinctive space of competency, which is how we are likely to see magistrates organized: a lot of particular person magistrates or boards every of which solely has energy over one or two very particular issues. Crucially in Athens, a minimum of, these magistrates aren’t overseen by the archons or any supreme or chief Justice of the Peace; as a substitute it’s the boule which has the job of overseeing them, so every Justice of the Peace or board of magistrates is their very own nominally unbiased decision-maker and law-implementer – a massively fragmented somewhat than unitary government.
And since that is as soon as once more getting very lengthy and my time getting fairly quick, we’ll go forward and cease right here for now. We’ll decide up with courtroom techniques and a little bit of Greek legislation subsequent on this collection, however not subsequent week – I’m going to be away from house giving a chat so I’m lining up (hopefully) a guest-post to fill the house which I hope you’ll all get pleasure from. Till then!