Durham, 1968

252 Pages·2012·3.58 MB·English

THE ATHENIAN BOULE
Thesis submitted for the Degree of D. Phil,
of the University of Oxford
by
P. J. RHODES, M.A.
(Wadham and Merton Colleges)
VOLUME I
ABSTRACT/ PRELIMINARY MATTER, TEXT
Durham, 1968,,
11
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
Abstract of Thesis
v
Preface
X
References
xii
Chapter I MEMBERSHIP AND ORGANISATION
Qualifications and Appointment 1
ii Subdivisions of the Boule 16
iii Meetings and Meeting-Places 30
Chapter II LEGISLATION
V(3(J,Ot
49
11 Decrees of the Boule and Demos 53
iii Decrees of the Boule 84
Chapter III ADMINISTRATION
i Finance 89
ii Army and Navy 114
iii Public Works 124
iv Religion 130
v Secretaries and Attendants 138
Chapter IV JURISDICTION
i Internal Discipline 146
ii "Official" Jurisdiction 151
iii 169
iv 6oxi|J.a,aiTa 179
Appendix The Punitive Powers of the
Boule 188
Chapter V CONCLUSION 221
Ill
CONTENTS
VOLUME II
Notes to Chapter I 239
to Chapter II 279
to Chapter III 312
to Chapter IV 362
to Chapter V 4O3
Additional Notes
A The Bouleutic Calendar 411
B HMA 87, 33-8 420
C cpuAax'r] tfjc X^oac; and
423
D o£ &>..i TO 6eoopixc5v 432
E The Date of the Thesmophoria-
zusae 443
Tables illustrating Chapter I
A Deme -Representation in the
Boule 448
B Trittys-Divisions in Prytany
Lists 484
Tables illustrating Chapter II
Introductory Note 492
C Probouleumatic Decrees 494
•
D Non-Probouleumatic Decrees 521
E Decrees of the Demos with
Special Origins 539
F Decrees of the Boule, other
than the Ratified Probouleumata
in Table C 541
G Formulae in v<5iJ,o(, 551
H Decrees quoted with Formulae
in Literary Texts 552
I Riders to Decrees 554
J Clauses requiring Immediate
Action (a^TTfxa u.dAa) 556
K aAXo aya0(5v Clauses 557
IV
Bibliography 562
Plans illustrating Chapter I at end
A Area of Bouleuterium in the Last
Quarter of the Sixth Century
B Area of Bouleuterium at the End of
the Sixth Century
C Area of Bouleuterium in the Middle
of the Fifth Century (with Additions
to the Early Third Century)
D Area of Bouleuterium in the First
Century A.D. (with the Addition of
the West Annexe)
E Old Bouleuterium: Restoration of
Interior Arrangements
F New Bouleuterium: Restoration of
Interior Arrangements.
V
THE ATHENIAN BOULE
ABSTRACT OF THESIS
Chapter I; Membership and Organisation.
The first section of the chapter is concerned with the
membership of the boule - the conditions of appointment and
service, the men who served in the boule, and the rewards and
risks to which they were exposed. In particular the evidence
is surveyed for the allocation to individual demes of specified
numbers of seats in the boule, a system which seems in fact to
have broken down in the second century B.C., though it continued
to influence the layout of lists of bouleutae. The subdivision
of the boule into tribal prytanies is next examined, and it is
suggested that this may be the work of Ephialtes rather than a
part of Cleisthenes1 original organisation. In connection with
the further subdivision of the prytanies so that some men should
always be on duty, attention is given to a recently advanced
theory that the prytanies split according to a regular scheme
resembling but not identical with Cleisthenes1 division of the
tribes into trittyes: the evidence supports the adoption of such
a convention by some tribes, but not a universally enforced rule.
Little can be added to older discussions of the proedri, who took
over the presidential duties of the prytanes in the fourth

century, but their institution seems to be at any rate a little
later than the democratic restoration of 403/2. The chapter ends
with a study of the boule1 s meetings and meeting-places: the
buildings occupied by the boule in the Agora are discussed, with
special reference to the internal arrangements of the bouleuterium
and the conditions in which members of the public were admitted
during meetings; other places where the boule met are listed;
procedure at meetings is examined; and the evidence for the
position of the generals vis-a-vis the boule is reconsidered,
with the suggestion that except at the time of the Peloponnesian
War the generals did not in the classical period possess extra-
VI
ordinary privileges.
Chapter II; Legislation.
The attempt to distinguish between laws and decrees is noted
as a phenomenon first found in Athens after 4O3, and the boule's
slight involvement in the procedures for enacting laws is briefly
treated. The main part of the chapter deals with the boule's
contribution to making decrees of the ecclesia. The rule of
TCpo(3otfXeuoi£ required the boule to give advance consideration to
every matter which the ecclesia was to discuss, and this seems
to have been interpreted so that matters could in some circum
stances be given their first airing in the ecclesia, but would
then (if they were not rejected out of hand) be referred to the
boule before the ecclesia reached a final decision. Accounts of
Athenian debates show that when the boule submitted an item to
the ecclesia it could either place the matter on the agenda with
no recommendation or sponsor a positive proposal. Literary sources
heavily emphasise the part played by the ecclesia in reaching
decisions, but the debates of which we have detailed accounts
were not typical. An attempt is made to distinguish on a basis
of formulaic expressions in published texts between those decrees
in which a recommendation of the boule was adopted and those in
which the final text was not sponsored by the boule. Surviving
texts from the fourth century seem fairly evenly divided between
those which were sponsored by the boule and those which were not,
and in both the fifth and the fourth centuries the cases in which
the boule's proposal was adopted include alliances with other
states, and other matters of great substance, but on many other
occasions decrees of importance were at least redrafted in the
ecclesia; early in the third century, however, signs of an active
ecclesia disappear, and thereafter it was normal practice for the
boule's recommendation to be adopted. Decrees of the boule alone
were subsidiary to those of the ecclesia: it could be authorised
to fill gaps which appeared in a basic measure approved by the
Vll
people, and it could order the publication or republication of a
decree of the ecclesia; its honours could be added to those voted
by the ecclesia, or awarded to officials connected with a body
honoured by the ecclesia; only after Sulla's revision of the
constitution do we have an appreciable period in which the
people's rights to enact decrees passed altogether to the boule.
Chapter III: Administration.
In the second half of the fifth century and the first half of
the fourth the boule was held responsible for Athens' financial
well-being. It was involved in the assessment and collection
of the tribute paid by members of the Delian League, and it took
a close interest in the various sacred treasuries. In state
affairs, it supervised the officials who made contracts and those
who collected revenue; in the fifth century the officials who
made all state payments from one central fund worked under its
direction, in the fourth it watched over the allocation of
revenue to the different spending authorities. But from the
middle of the fourth century the direction of finance seems to
have passed from the boule to certain powerful treasurers, and
it is suggested that power depended on knowledge, and that these
treasurers became powerful because, like the boule, they were
given access to the working of tha various boards charged with
particular duties. In the Hellenistic period treasurers of this
kind continued to exist, and the old boards are not heard of.
Analogous to resources in coin was equipment needed for war, and
the boule was made responsible for the cavalry and (more important)
for the ships and equipment of the navy, supervising the dockyard
officials very much as it supervised the financial officers, and
attending also to the building of ships and the dispatch of
expeditions. Public works again concerned the boule, though a
move can be detected from direct intervention by the ecclesia,
even on matters of detail, towards reliance on professionals; and
in the field of religion the boule provided many of the hieropoei
Vlll
who together with the priests were responsible for festival
administration/ and itself had a number of religious observances
to maintain. The staff attached to the boule was small: until
the 36O1 s the principal state secretary was a member of the
boule serving for one prytany only; subsequently he was appointed
for a year from outside the boule, and other secretaries began
to make their appearance, presenting us with many problems of
identification. At a low level, for such matters as guarding
records, public slaves were used.
Chapter IV; Jurisdiction.
The boule had disciplinary powers over its own members, and
could after a double vote expel a man. Its executive powers
were reinforced with jurisdiction over the officials whose
activities it supervised and private citizens concerned in those
activities: it was kept well occupied with financial and naval
cases; jurisdiction in cases arising from public works is
plausibly claimed but not securely attested; and some religious
charges too were heard by the boule. Many cases came to the
boule by the procedure of etaa,^"Ye\fci , designed to deal with
major offences against the state and "crimes" not specifically
covered by any law. It is argued that from the time of Ephialtes
the intended procedure was that etoayYsXtat should be heard by
the legislative bodies, the boule and ecclesia; but there was an
increasing tendency for a law-court to take the place of the
ecclesia if a higher penalty was called for than the boule alone
could inflict, and this confusion with other procedures encouraged
the use of etaasfYshCa, in more trivial cases. The boule was
also involved in certain Soxtp-aafat , vetting the archons and
boule of the following year, checking the deities' examination of
newly enrolled citizens, and again itself examining the cavalry
and invalids applying for a maintenance grant.
It is commonly believed that the boule's punitive powers
were originally unlimited, but that as the democracy was brought
to completion the severest penalties were reserved for the
ecclesia and the law-courts. In an appendix to this chapter
the question is reexamined, and it is argued that the boule
received punitive powers which were limited from the start when
Ephialtes deprived the Areopagus of most of its jurisdiction.
Chapter V; Conclusion.
The final chapter outlines the history of the Athenian boule,
starting with its creation by Solon as a probouleutic body,
Cleisthenes1 reform - in organisation only - and its acquisition
of further functions through Ephialtes. The boule became the
instrument through which the demos ruled, and so the growth of
the ecclesia1 s power was accompanied by a strengthening, not a
weakening, of the boule. After experiments with oligarchy at
the end of the Peloponnesian War the old democracy was restored,
and changes in administration do not seem to have affected the
relative powers of boule and ecclesia; but from the middle of
the fourth century the rise of powerful financial officials must
have affected both bodies. The Hellenistic period is marked
by the continued predominance of the major treasurers in finance,
and by the ecclesia1 s increased reliance on the boule in
decree-making. Sulla strengthened the boule at the expense of
the ecclesia; under the Roman Empire the Areopagus, boule and
ecclesia were all active, but their activities were of no great
consequence.
Five matters meriting separate discussion are treated in
Additional Notes. There are tables showing deme-representation
in the boule, the arrangement of demes in lists of bouleutae,
and the use of certain formulae in laws and decrees, and there
are plans of the buildings occupied by the boule in the Agora.
PREFACE
I began these investigations in Michaelmas Term 1963. Dr.
my
D. M. Lewis suggested the subject and has supervised by^work
for most of the time, and with his extensive knowledge of the
material and keen eye for detail has been able to draw my
attention to much that I should otherwise have missed/ and to
save me from more inadequacies than I care to think of; Mr.
G. E. M. de Ste Croix provided valuable encouragement and
guidance in 1964-5, when Dr. Lewis was in America. Many others
have helped me, and I have tried to acknowledge specific debts
in their place, but here I must thank at any rate Mr. G. L.
Cawkwell, Mr. W. G. G. Forrest, Mr. A. R. W. Harrison and
Mr. R. Meiggs, who have read and helped me to improve
substantial parts of this thesis, and Miss J. Martin and
Mrs. I. Williams, who have done most of the typing.
From 1963 to 1965 I held a Craven Fellowship in Oxford
University, and a Hildebrand Harmsworth Senior Scholarship at
Merton College. As Craven Fellow I was able to visit Greece as
a Student of the British School in Athens (and also to work in
the libraries of the American School and the German Institute,
and in the Epigraphical Museum), and to visit Germany as a
Gasthorer and member of the Historisches Seminar of the Eberhard-

Karls-Universitat, Tubingen. Since 1965 I have been a lecturer
in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham, and
this thesis has been completed with the assistance of the
University in the time that could be spared from my other
responsibilities; the Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman
Societies and the Institute of Classical Studies in London has
sent me books with admirable speed during term, and has provided
pleasant working conditions in vacation.
Theses have to be completed while the spate of new-
publications continues. I cannot pretend to have read everything
written on my subject, but I hope I have missed nothing of