Article
Stephen Todd
Article
Simon Hornblower
Article
Antony Andrewes and P. J. Rhodes
Article
David M. Lewis and Sara Zanovello
Article
K. Raaflaub
Article
Stephen Hodkinson
The council of elders in Greek cities, notably at *Sparta. The Archaic and Classical Spartan gerousia comprised 28 men aged over 60, drawn de facto (if not de iure) from the leading families, together with the two kings. Membership was for life; vacancies were filled through competitive acclamation by the citizens. Its functions included control over resolutions introduced before the assembly (probouleusis), although its application to matters of foreign policy is debated; trial of important criminal cases (although there is dispute over royal trials); and supervision of laws and customs. Sparta's Hellenistic and Roman gerousia underwent various changes. Membership was reduced to 23, the minimum age to perhaps 40, and the office became annual. Its supervisory role was taken by the *nomophylakes, who with the *ephors assumed much of the probouleutic function. The council of Roman Sparta was a composite of all three sets of officials.
Article
Victor Ehrenberg, Lucia F. Nixon, and Simon Price
Article
P. J. Rhodes
Article
Arnold Wycombe Gomme and P. J. Rhodes
Secretaries of various kinds; generally not responsible magistrates, though like them appointed for a year only, by election or by lot. In Athens the principal secretary, responsible for publishing documents which emanated from the council or assembly, was until the 360s a member of the council (*boulē), elected to serve for one prytany (see
Article
D. M. MacDowell
Graphē (γραφή) in Athenian law was a type of prosecution, the commonest public action. The name seems to imply that when this procedure was instituted its distinctive feature was that the charge was made in writing, whereas in other actions the charge was made orally. Any Athenian with full citizen-rights who wished (ὁ βουλόμενος) could prosecute; and since prosecution by anyone who wished was introduced by *Solon, it is probable, though not attested, that it was Solon who introduced graphē. By the 4th cent.