Prytany

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The prytany ( Greek  πρυτανεῖα , prytaneía ) was primarily in ancient Athens , but also in other Poleis , a state institution in the democratic state constitution since the reforms of Kleisthenes (509-507 BC). In the Athenian democracy , this body, headed by the Epistates, headed the Council of 500 on a rotating basis .

composition

The prytany consisted of 50 prytans and thus comprised 1/10 of the council of 500, the boulé , which was composed of the representatives of the ten Attic phyls , the administrative division of the citizens. The prytany thus corresponded to the 50 representatives of a phyle and so there were ten prytany: one ruling and nine non-ruling Prytany. With the increase in the number of phylenes to 12, then to 13, there was also an increase in the number of prytania.

Term of office

The prytany was the executive committee of the boules for 1/10 of the year, which meant in the solar year with 366 days: 6 times 37 days and 4 times 36 days, in the lunar year from 408/407 with 354 days: 6 times 35 and 4 times for 36 days. This resulted in an official division of the year into 10 months of office. The next ruling prytany was drawn at the end of the term of office of the previous one.

The Chairman

The prytany had a daily changing chairman (epistátes), who held the seal and - for example for the state treasury - the key power and from the 5th century BC onwards. The boules and the popular assembly chair. Later, 9 "chairmen" (próhedroi) were redeemed from the 450 non-ruling council members who had to organize the council and people's assemblies and who in turn selected their leader, also called Epistates, who from then on led both assemblies. This separation of official authority resulted in a further, democratically desired dissolution of the concentration of power at the management level, in that the assembly leadership was separated from the prytany, which already had considerable influence on the content of the assemblies by setting the agenda. You could only be the chairman of a priesthood once in a lifetime. Each prytany had a clerk (grammateús katà prytaneíon) who recorded the deliberations and wrote down the draft resolutions.

Remains of the Tholos, Athens

The tasks

The prytany supervised and steered the legislative process, since all motions and voting drafts of the Athenian citizens and the people's assembly had to be submitted and processed first in the council before they went to the people's assembly as council drafts ( probouleúma ) . Council members had to be contacted for this purpose, as only council members and strategists could contact the council directly. Further tasks were the invitation to the people's assembly, drawing up the agenda for the people's assembly and the council assembly, receiving embassies abroad and foreigners, civil servants and private individuals. The Prytany sat in the Prytaneion , the Tholos on the western edge of the Agora , in which the state hearth was and where the Prytane dined together. The Prytaneion was also occupied by some Prytane during the night.

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Bleicken, p. 231.
  2. ↑ Aristotle 43,2: βουλὴ δὲ κληροῦται φ΄, ν΄ ἀπὸ φυλῆς ἑκάστης. πρυτανεύει δ᾽ ἐν μέρει τῶν φυλῶν ἑκάστη καθ᾽ ὅ τι ἂν λάχωσιν… = The council is drawn, five hundred, fifty from each phyle. The Prytanenamt owns each of the phyls (in the order they are determined by lot ...
  3. ^ According to Bleicken p. 195 between 403/02 and 379/78 v. Chr .; first written evidence for 379/78 BC Chr .: W. Kendrick Pritchett : Lucubrationes Epigraphicae . In: California Studies in Classical Antiquity . Vol. 5, 1972, 164-169 No. 2 = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 32, 50 .
  4. ↑ Aristotle 44; see. also Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : The Greek Polis: Constitution and Society in Archaic and Classical Times . 2nd Edition. F. Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, p. 247.

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