GRA´MMATEUS
GRA´MMATEUS (
γραμματεύς, Lat.
scriba), a secretary or clerk, the
name of many officials of various kinds in Athens and other Greek states.
The higher sort were everywhere concerned in the drawing up of public
decrees, and the many such decrees preserved in inscriptions usually record
the name of the
γραμματεὺς who discharged
this duty. We find monuments of this kind not only in Greece proper, but
throughout the Grecian world, in the Dorian Halicarnassus as well as in the
Ionian Samos and Ephesus, in outlying colonies like the Tauric Chersonesus,
in the later Achaean and Aetolian leagues. Details of the office are in most
cases unimportant or altogether wanting (see Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. vol. ii., Index, s. v.
γραμματεύς). Sometimes the functionary is called
γραμματεὺς τῆς πόλεως, sometimes
γρ. τῆς βου<*>λῆς: at Lampsacus
both titles existed (Gilbert, 2.159, 160); in Lemnos, Imbros, Scyros, and
Salamis there was a
γρ. τοῦ
δήμ<*>υ (ib. 1.424). At Athens a long list of
γραμματεῖς has been recovered: a
γραμματεὺς τῶν Ἑλληνοταμιῶν
(
C. I. A. 1.226 ff., 260, 315),
τῶν ταμιῶν (1.117 ff., 179 ff., 318),
τῶν λογιστῶν (1.226 if.),
τῶν
ἕνδεκα (Boeckh,
Securk., p. 535; Poll.
8.102),
τῶν ἐπιστατῶν (
C. I.
A. 1.284 ff.),
τῶν εἰσαγωγέων
(1.37),
τῶν στρατηγῶν (2.222),
τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν τῶν νεωρίων
(
Seeurk. p. 165),
τῶν
σιτωνῶν (
C. I. A. 2.335),
τῶν ἐμπορίου ἐπιμελητῶν ([Dem.]
c.
Theocrin. p. 1324.8). In
C. I. A. 2.61 we find
mentioned, after the
γρ. τῆς βουλῆς, τοὺς ἄλλους
γραμμα(
τέ)
ας τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖ(
ς
δ)
ημοσίοις γράμμασιν. It is
inferred from Poll. 8.92 that the three first archons possessed the right of
naming their own secretaries (Gilbert, 1.218). Four
ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν δικαστηρίων have two secretaries among
them (ib. 1.162); there is a
γρ. of the
ὀργεῶνες (1.203), and one of the
ἔφηβοι (1.299).
Among this crowd of clerks three
γραμματεῖς,
all more or less closely connected with the
βουλή, stand out from the rest as real state officers: these are
partly described under BOULÉ, p. 311
b; cf. Pollux, 8.98. Next to the
ἀντιγραφεὺς τῆς βουλῆς the most important
official in this body was the first secretary, whose full title was
ὁ κατὰ πρυτανείαν γρ. τῆς βουλῆς, of which
γρ. κατὰ πρυτανείαν and
γρ. τῆς βουλῆς were usual abbreviations. He was
appointed by lot from among the
βουλευταὶ
to serve the time of each prytany, though he
[p. 1.922]always belonged to a different prytany from that which was in power; and
his province was to keep the public records and the decrees of the people
made during his term of office (to these his name was prefixed in the
formula
ὁ δεῖνα ἐγραμμάτευε), and to
deliver to the thesmothetae the decrees of the senate (Lex. ap. Dem.
c. Timocr. p. 720.63). Later we find him called
ὁ περὶ τὸ βῆμα (Boeckh,
Sthh.3 1.230; Gilbert, 1.159).
The second
γραμματεὺς was elected by the
senate, by
χειροτονία, and was entrusted
with the custody of the laws
ἐπὶ τοὺς
νόμους, Pollux, 8.98; Dem.
c. Timocr. p. 713.42;
de Cor. p. 238.38). His usual name was
γρ. τῆς βουλῆς, but in late
inscriptions of the imperial time he is also called
γρ. τῶν βουλευτῶν (Boeckh,
P. E. p. 187 ==
Sthh.3 1.233). Further particulars
concerning his office are not known.
A third
γραμματεὺσ᾽ς was called
γρ. τῆς πόλεως (
Thuc.
7.10), or
γρ. τῆς βουλῆς καὶ τοῦ
δήμου. He was appointed by the people, by
χειροτονία, and the principal part of his office was to read
any laws or documents which were required to be read in the assembly or the
senate (Pollux,
l.c.; Dem.
F. L. p.
419.249 == 279;
c. Lept. p. 485.94; Suid. s. v.). It is
admitted by Boeckh (
Sthh.3 1.234-5) that
there are some difficulties about the second and third of these secretaries,
but there seems no sufficient ground for the contention of Gilbert (1.254)
that there was only one until the year B.C. 307-6, after the expulsion of
Demetrius Phalereus. The language of Demosthenes (
ὑφ᾽
ὑμῶν γραμματεῖς χειροτονηθέντες δύ᾽ ἔτη διετράφησαν ἐν τῇ
θόλῳ,
de F. L. l.c.) seems to show that there were in his time at
least two
γραμματεῖς elected by the people
and reckoned among the
ἀείσιτοι: nor is
the suggestion countenanced by Fränkel, the recent learned editor
of Boeckh.
The assistants to these three
γραμματεῖς,
and to some of those mentioned above as civil or military officers of the
state, were called
ὑπογραμματεῖς or
under-clerks (Dem.
de Cor. p. 314.261;
Antiphon,
de Choreut. § § 35, 49; Lysias,
c. Nicom. § 29). These persons were either
public slaves [
DEMOSII] or
citizens of the lower orders, as appears from the tone in which Demosthenes
speaks of them (
de F. L. p. 371.95 == 109; p. 403.200 == 222;
p. 419.249 == 279; p. 442.314 == 360). In all these passages, and in
de Cor. p. 269 § 127, 314
§ 261, Demosthenes is pouring the vials of his contempt upon
Aeschines for having been a grammateus; in the third of them he says that
Aeschines and his brother were
ὑπογραμματεῖς before they were
γραμματεῖς. They were not allowed to hold the same clerkship
for two successive years (Lys.
l.c.; cf. Boeckh,
P. E. p. 188 n. ==
Sthh.3 1.237 n.).
The
ἀντιγραφεῖς or checking-clerks differed
from the
γραμματεῖς in dealing only with
the public accounts; they are noticed separately [
ANTIGRAPHEIS]. (Boeckh, Bk.
ii. ch. 8, much fuller in the third edition; Schömann,
Assemblies, p. 318 ff.; Gilbert, references as above.)
[
L.S] [
W.W]