Archonte

In the majority of the Greek quoted , of which Athens, the archontes (in Greek old ἄρχοντες / árkhontes , of ἄρχω / árkhô , “to order, be the chief”) is the holders of the highest loads, which had important legal and political functions.

In Athens

When Athens ceased being controlled by kings (after the death of Codros with), one passed gradually from a perpetual archontat which hardly differed from monarchy (until in 753) to a government of three archontes elected in the Aristocratie, initially for ten years (archontat decennial, until in 683), then for one year only; after 487, the annual magistratures were drawn with the fate (Stochocratie) among the members from the two higher classes censitaires.

The three archontes were:

the archonte éponyme ( ἄρχων ἐπώνυμος / árkhôn epốnumos , or ὁ ἄρχων / Ho árkhôn , literally “the archonte”, without another precision), which gave its name to the year and, until in 487, remained always the nominal chief of the city. He had in load the civil administration and the public jurisdiction. He was the tutor of the widows and the orphans and supervised the family litigations.
the archonte-king ( ἄρχων βασιλεὺς / árkhôn basileùs ), which took again the religious functions of the former kings. He was responsible for the old religious ceremonies and he chaired the council of the Aréopage. He in load the businesses of homicides and the crimes of had impiété. He launched the religious interdicts and was to be obligatorily married.
the polémarque ( ἄρχων πολέμαρχος / árkhôn polémarkhos ), whose original function was to order the army but which lost this capacity with the profit of the Stratège S after 487, when the archontat was drawn with the fate. It took again certain religious functions (like the ceremonies with the glory of the soldiers) and legal concerning the people who were not Athenian citizens (it supervised in particular all the litigations relating to the Métèques).

With, six thesmothètes ( θεσμοθέται / thesmothétai ) was added like archontes additional; their functions were especially of legal type, and they chaired as magistrates in all kinds of lawsuit but especially of the lawsuits of a material nature. Clisthène added a secretary charged to it to write all the opinions of the archontes.

The fact that it was ten watch that the archontat was probably related to the ten tribes, with a archonte by tribe.

Old the archontes became members with life of the Learned assembly.

Patriarchate of Constantinople

Nowadays, “archonte of the oecumenical patriarchate” is an honorary title given by the patriarchate of Constantinople.

External bond

Order of saint Andre (archontes of the oecumenical patriarchate)

Random links: