Exetastae
(
ἐξετασταί). Special commissioners sent out by the
Athenian people to investigate any matters that might claim attention. Thus we find mention of
exetastae being appointed to ascertain whether there were as many mercenaries as the generals
reported. It appears to have been no uncommon plan for the commanders, like the French
officials of the Second Empire, who received pay for troops, to report a greater number than
they possessed, in order to receive the pay themselves; in which case they were said
“to draw pay for empty places in the mercenary force” (
c.
Ctes. 146). The commissioners, however, who were sent to make inquiries into the
matter, often allowed themselves to be bribed (
c. Timarch. 113;
De F.
L. 177).
Another kind of exetastae is shown by inscriptions to have existed at Athens for a short
time in the early part of the third century B.C. They were auditors of accounts, and are
mentioned as checking the expenses of psephismata (i. e. of recording them) and of the
erection of statues (
C. I. A. i. 297, 298, 300). In this sense of auditors of
public accounts the name occurred in some other Greek States.