Kosmoi

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Kosmoi ( ancient Greek κόσμοι kósmoi ; singular : κόσμος kósmos , state order, constitution ') were the political leaders of the civil parish elected for a year in some ancient Greek city-states ( Poleis ) . In the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman times (8th / 7th centuries BC - 4th century AD), three to ten kosmoi were elected by the electorate as the city's highest officials. The kosmoi formed alongside the Council ( βουλή Boule ) and the People's Assembly ( ἐκκλησία ekklesia ) the third political institution of a city-state.

The institute of the kosmoi was particularly represented in the Doric influenced Crete . The kosmoi each came from one of the three or four phyls of the city-state for one year and were recruited from the aristocratic stratum of the polis, each kosmos could only be re-elected after a certain period of years. Originally the officials were responsible for the formation of the army, but the area of ​​responsibility expanded and included, in addition to warfare, jurisdiction, finance and cult. From Crete, for example, the hiarorgos for cult acts , the titas for the fines or the agoranomos for the market as kosmoi are documented. In Crete during the Roman period (from 67 BC ) the institute of kosmoi was adapted to the Roman conditions, especially since the military facilities were no longer available and the aristocratic order gave way to an oligarchic one . According to the Roman duoviri and their two aediles , four kosmoi now stood at the head of the polis. The chairman of the committee was called protokosmos .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wilhelm Gemoll : Greek-German school and manual dictionary. 9th edition, reviewed and expanded by Karl Vretska with an introduction to the history of language by Heinz Kronasser. Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky et al., Munich et al. 1965.