POLE´TAE
POLE´TAE (
πωληταί). The
poletae at Athens were a board of ten officials or magistrates which formed
one of the departments of the Treasury. They were chosen by lot, one from
each tribe (Harpocration, s. v.
πωληταί).
They were under the supervision of the Boule of Five Hundred, and its
ratification was required to give validity to their proceedings. It was
their duty to let out to farmers by a kind of auction the revenues arising
from all tolls, customs, and taxes; to let on lease public lands, and plots
of ground for mining purposes at Laurium. They superintended the Architecton
in giving out the contracts for works to be done for the state, such as the
building and repairing of the walls (
C. I. A. 2.167). They
likewise put up to public sale the property of public debtors who had failed
to discharge their obligations to the state within the appointed time, and
of,those who were in arrears with their income-tax (
εἰσφορά), as well as the property and persons of such
aliens who had been convicted on a
γραφὴ
ξενήας of usurping the rights of citizenship, and of metoeci, who
had been convicted on a charge of not having enrolled themselves under a
προστάτης (
γραφὴ
ἀπροστασίου), or on a charge of having failed to perform
their obligations to their
προστάτης
(
γραφὴ ἀποστασίου), and for not
having paid the resident alien tax of 12 drachms (
τὸ
μετοίκιον). [METOECI.] They
likewise put up fog sale all property confiscated (
δημιόπρατα, δημευόμενα). They had also the duty of setting
up public inscriptions (
στῆλαι,
C. I. A. 1.61), and under the direction of the Archon
Eponymus, who supervised the property of orphans, let out on leases the
property of minors. They elected a president (
πρύτανις); and their office, where they put up for auction
the various kinds of property, was called
τὸ
τωλητήριον (cf. [Dem.]
c. Aristog. 787.57,
τὸ τωλητήριον τοῦ μετοικίου).
We find the office of
πωλητὴς in other parts
of Greece, as, for instance, at Halicarnassus (
Bullet.
5.212), where there seems to have been but a single poletes instead of a
board; whilst at Cos we find on an inscription a board
of poletae letting out the contract for the setting up of a
proxenia-decree on a pillar (Cauer,2 160), and a similar
board of poletae giving out a contract for the engraving of a similar pillar
accords to the agreement drawn up by the Architecton (Cauer,2 181). Finally, we find at Epidamnus, the colony of Corcyra, a
functionary called poletes, elected annually, Plutarch (
Quaest.
Gr. 29) says that the Epidamnians being neighbours of the Illyrians,
and finding that their citizens became corrupted in their trading with the
barbarians, elected a poletes through whom all bargains and barterings were
carried out. [
W.RI]
(Appendix). The statements in
the article are confirmed by the account of the Poletae in 100.47 with some
additional details. They are said to ratify the lease of revenues conferred
on any
τελώνης by the
βουλή, in conjunction with the
ταμίας
τῶν στρατιωτικῶν and the superintendents of the theoricon.
The Poletae deliver to the
βουλὴ tablets
(
γραμματεῖα λελενκωμένα) stating the
amount of payments (
καταβολαὶ) to be made
in each prytany. The greater number
[p. 2.1071]were made in
the 9th prytany of the year (cf.
TELONES).