Cleroterion
The Kleroterion ( Greek κληρωτήριον , from Greek κλῆρος “lot”) was an ancient lottery machine.
It consisted of a large stone slab in which there were slots arranged in several columns. Small plates with the names of the people standing for the solution were inserted into these slots. On the side of the machine was a vertical tube into which white and black balls were filled, which could then be removed again in random order at the bottom of the tube.
Traditionally, a funnel-like device at the top of the tube was filled with balls. As a reconstruction of the apparatus became clear, such a functioning is unlikely, since the balls block each other at the lower funnel opening and thus do not get into the tube. (A reconstruction is now in the Buigen-Gymnasium in Herbrechtingen .)
Probably from left to right and from top to bottom z. B. determines the composition of the boules . A ball was let out of the machine either for each row of slots or for each individual nameplate. Candidates or groups with a white ball were considered elected; candidates or groups with a black ball were not elected.
Kleroteria were also in court procedural everyday Athens in use. The archons distributed the jury to the negotiating courts by lot . The allocation was made to the judges whose name tablets were inserted into the lottery machine.
The cleroterion shown here from the Stoa of Attalus on the Agora in Athens was probably used to draw the members of the boules, as it has slots in eleven rows - probably for eleven trittyen .
literature
- Sterling Dow : Cleoterion. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume VII, Stuttgart 1940, Col. 322-328.
Web links
- Explanation (PDF file; 2.38 MB)
- The Cleroterion - an ancient lottery machine on YouTube
Remarks
- ↑ Uwe Wesel : History of the law: From the early forms to the present. CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 978-3-406-54716-4 . No. 109.