ARCHEION
ARCHEION (
ἀρχεῖον) properly
means any public place belonging to the magistrates, whether among
barbarians (
Hdt. 4.62) or Greeks (
Xen. Hell. 5.4.58; [Dem.]
iv.
Phil. p. 145.53). At Athens the name was more particularly applied
to the archive office, where the decrees of the people and other state
documents were preserved. This office is sometimes called merely
τὸ δημόσιον (Dem.
de
Cor. p. 275.142). The archives were kept in the temple of the
mother of the gods (
μητρῷον), and the
charge of it was entrusted to the president (
ἐπιστάτης) of the senate of the Five Hundred. (Dem.
de Fals. Leg. p. 381.129; Lycurg.
c.
Leocr. § 66 ;
Paus. 1.3.4;
Athen. 5.214 e;
Plut. Vit. x. Oratt. p. 842
e; Harpocrat., Phot., Suid. s. v.
μητρῷον;
Suid. s. v.
ἀρχεῖα. For the building
itself, C. Curtius,
Das Metroon in Athen, 1868.)
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W.S] [
W.W]
