HELLENOTA´MIAE
HELLENOTA´MIAE (
Ἑλληνοταμίαι), or treasurers of the Greeks, were magistrates
appointed by the Athenians to receive the contributions of the allied
states. They were first appointed B.C. 477, when Athens, in consequence of
the conduct of Pausanias, had obtained the head-ship of the league of
national defence against the Persians. The money paid by the different
states, which was originally fixed at 460 talents, was deposited in Delos,
which was the place of meeting for the discussion of all common interests;
and there can be no doubt that the Hellenotamiae not only received, but were
also the guardians of these moneys. Xenophon (
de Vect. 5.5)
describes the position of Athens at the head of the confederacy as
ἡγεμονία and
ἑλληνοταμία (
Thuc. 1.96;
Plut. Arist. 24; Antiph.
de Caed.
Her. § 69; Andoc.
de Pace,
§ 38). The office was retained after the treasury was transferred
to Athens on the proposal of the Samians (
Plut.
Arist. 25;
Diod. 12.38), but was of
course abolished on the conquest of Athens by the Lacedaemonians. The
Hellenotamiae were not reappointed after the restoration of the democracy;
for which reason the grammarians afford us little information respecting
their duties. It is, however, certain from inscriptions that they were ten
in number, and, like the Strategi, chosen one from each tribe, not
necessarily, but as far as circumstances permitted: for as requiring
character and the possession of property they were almost certainly an
ἀρχὴ χειροτονητή (Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.236; Fränkel, n. 307 on Boeckh;
C. I. A. 1.259, 260). In the case where the occurrence of
eleven names has occasioned a difficulty (
C. I. A. 1.188),
there is little doubt that the eleventh is a
πάρεδρος or assessor: in other inscriptions (ib. 180-183)
Ἑλληνοταμίαι and
πάρεδροι are coupled together, and Gilbert (
l.c.) thinks that there was one to each. The
Hellenotamiae, during the period of Athenian supremacy, were the most
important financial officers after the treasurers of Athena (
ταμίαι τῆς θεοῦ), into whose treasury, the
Opisthodomos, they carried the collected tribute. A mina in the talent, or
1/60, was retained as an
ἀπαρχὴ for the
goddess; the rest was disbursed as it was wanted by the
ταμίαι τῆς θεοῦ to the Hellenotamiae, and by
them applied mostly to the Theorica and to military objects. It is needless
to say that the pretext of defence against the Persians was soon dropped,
and that the money of the allies was spent in wars for the aggrandisement of
Athens. The time for paying the
φόρος into
the treasury was, as a rule, in the spring, when the festival of the great
Dionysia was celebrated. If the allies were backward in payment, the action
of the Hellenotamiae was supplemented by the appointment of
ἐκλογεῖς [
ECLOGEIS No. 2]. (Boeckh,
P. E. p.
176 ff.=
Sthh.3 1.217 ff.;
Schömann,
Antiq. 1.438, 453, E. T.; Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.236 f., 398; a classified list of
inscriptions in Boeckh,
Sthh.3 1.217 n.)
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