EPI´STATES
EPI´STATES (
ἐπιστάτης), which means a person placed over anything, was the
name of two distinct classes of functionaries in the Athenian state ;
namely, of the chairmen of the Prytanes and Proedri (for whom see BOULÉ, pp. 310
b, 311
a); and also of the directors
of public works (
ἐπιστάται τῶν δημοσίων
ἔργων) These directors had different names, as
τειχοποιοί, the repairers of the walls;
τριμροποιοί, the builders of the triremes;
ταφροποιοί, the repairers of the
trenches, &c.; all of whom were elected by the tribes, one from
each; but the most distinguished of these were the
τειχοποιοί (Aeschin.
c. Ctes. §
§ 14, 27, 29, 31). Other public buildings, such as temples,
belonged to the department of the chief finance minister (
ὁ ἐπὶ τῇ διοικήσει); and it was in this
capacity that Pericles, and subsequently Lycurgus, undertook so many works
of architecture. Sometimes two, three, or five
ἐπιοτάται were specially commissioned to superintend a
particular work. Thus the inscription relating to the building of the
Erechtheium (temple of Athena Polias), dating from B.C. 409-8 and now in the
British Museum, mentions two
ἐπιοτάται, an
architect named Philocles and a
γραμματεὺς
or secretary (
C. I. G. 160 =
C. I. A. 1.322;
cf. Dict. Geogr. 1.276 a; Boeckh,
P. E. p.
203 =
Sthh.3 1.257). Other inscriptions
discussed by Boeckh contain portions of the accounts of similar
ἐπιστάαι of public buildings, one of them the
Propylaea; in each case a
γραμματεὺς is
mentioned, and there appears to have been always an expert, like Philocles,
to advise professionally (
C. L. A. 1.314, 315 b; 300 to 302
a; 299; Boeckh,
Sthh.3 2.300-310).
Among the
ἐπιστάται τῶν δημοσίων ἔργων
were reckoned also the road-surveyors (
ὁδοποιοί, Aeschin.
c. Ctes. § 25), and
those charged with the water supply (
ἐπιστάται τῶν
ὑδάτων, Plut.
Themist. 31). The directors
received the money which was necessary for all these works from the public
treasury (
ἐκ τῆς διοικήσεως, Aeschin.
c. Ctes. § 31). (Schömann,
Antiq. Jur. Publ. p. 247, and
Antiq. pp.
415, 427, E. T.; Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.249 f.)
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