grammateus

• a scribe, secretary (post-class.): unus, quem cuncti grammatea dicebant, Ap. Met. 11, 17, 6.

GRA´MMATEUS(γραμματεύς, Lat. scriba), a secretary or clerk, the name of many officials of various kinds in Athens and other Greek states. The higher sort were everywhere concerned in the drawing up of public decrees, and the many such decrees preserved in inscriptions usually record the name of the γραμματεὺς who discharged this duty. We find monuments of this kind not only in Greece proper, but throughout the Grecian world, in the Dorian Halicarnassus as well as in the Ionian Samos and Ephesus, in outlying colonies like the Tauric Chersonesus, in the later Achaean and Aetolian leagues. Details of the office are in most cases unimportant or altogether wanting (see Gilbert, Staatsalterth. vol. ii., Index, s. v. γραμματεύς). Sometimes the functionary is called γραμματεὺς τῆς πόλεως, sometimes γρ. τῆς βουλτ;γτ;λῆς: at Lampsacus both titles existed (Gilbert, 2.159, 160); in Lemnos, Imbros, Scyros, and Salamis there was a γρ. τοῦ δήμλτ;γτ;υ (ib. 1.424). At Athens a long list of γραμματεῖς has been recovered: a γραμματεὺς τῶν Ἑλληνοταμιῶν (C. I. A. 1.226 ff., 260, 315), τῶν ταμιῶν (1.117 ff., 179 ff., 318), τῶν λογιστῶν (1.226 if.), τῶν ἕνδεκα (Boeckh, Securk., p. 535; Poll. 8.102), τῶν ἐπιστατῶν (C. I. A. 1.284 ff.), τῶν εἰσαγωγέων (1.37), τῶν στρατηγῶν (2.222), τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν τῶν νεωρίων (Seeurk. p. 165), τῶν σιτωνῶν (C. I. A. 2.335), τῶν ἐμπορίου ἐπιμελητῶν ([Dem.] c. Theocrin. p. 1324.8). In C. I. A. 2.61 we find mentioned, after the γρ. τῆς βουλῆς, τοὺς ἄλλους γραμμα (τέ) ας τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖ (ς δ) ημοσίοις γράμμασιν. It is inferred from Poll. 8.92 that the three first archons possessed the right of naming their own secretaries (Gilbert, 1.218). Four ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν δικαστηρίων have two secretaries among them (ib. 1.162); there is a γρ. of the ὀργεῶνες (1.203), and one of the ἔφηβοι (1.299).

Among this crowd of clerks three γραμματεῖς, all more or less closely connected with the βουλή, stand out from the rest as real state officers: these are partly described under BOULÉ, p. 311 b; cf. Pollux, 8.98. Next to the ἀντιγραφεὺς τῆς βουλῆς the most important official in this body was the first secretary, whose full title was ὁ κατὰ πρυτανείαν γρ. τῆς βουλῆς, of which γρ. κατὰ πρυτανείαν and γρ. τῆς βουλῆς were usual abbreviations. He was appointed by lot from among the βουλευταὶ to serve the time of each prytany, though he always belonged to a different prytany from that which was in power; and his province was to keep the public records and the decrees of the people made during his term of office (to these his name was prefixed in the formula ὁ δεῖνα ἐγραμμάτευε), and to deliver to the thesmothetae the decrees of the senate (Lex. ap. Dem. c. Timocr. p. 720.63). Later we find him called ὁ περὶ τὸ βῆμα (Boeckh, Sthh.3 1.230; Gilbert, 1.159).

The second γραμματεὺς was elected by the senate, by χειροτονία, and was entrusted with the custody of the laws ἐπὶ τοὺς νόμους, Pollux, 8.98; Dem. c. Timocr. p. 713.42; de Cor. p. 238.38). His usual name was γρ. τῆς βουλῆς, but in late inscriptions of the imperial time he is also called γρ. τῶν βουλευτῶν (Boeckh, P. E. p. 187 == Sthh.3 1.233). Further particulars concerning his office are not known.

A third γραμματεὺσ'ς was called γρ. τῆς πόλεως (Thucyd. 7.10), or γρ. τῆς βουλῆς καὶ τοῦ δήμου. He was appointed by the people, by χειροτονία, and the principal part of his office was to read any laws or documents which were required to be read in the assembly or the senate (Pollux, l. c.; Dem. F. L. p. 419.249 == 279; c. Lept. p. 485.94; Suid. s. v.). It is admitted by Boeckh (Sthh.3 1.234-5) that there are some difficulties about the second and third of these secretaries, but there seems no sufficient ground for the contention of Gilbert (1.254) that there was only one until the year B.C. 307-6, after the expulsion of Demetrius Phalereus. The language of Demosthenes (ὑφ' ὑμῶν γραμματεῖς χειροτονηθέντες δύ' ἔτη διετράφησαν ἐν τῇ θόλῳ, de F. L. l. c.) seems to show that there were in his time at least two γραμματεῖς elected by the people and reckoned among the ἀείσιτοι: nor is the suggestion countenanced by Fränkel, the recent learned editor of Boeckh.

The assistants to these three γραμματεῖς, and to some of those mentioned above as civil or military officers of the state, were called ὑπογραμματεῖς or under-clerks (Dem. de Cor. p. 314.261; Antiphon, de Choreut. § § 35, 49; Lysias, c. Nicom. § 29). These persons were either public slaves [DEMOSII] or citizens of the lower orders, as appears from the tone in which Demosthenes speaks of them (de F. L. p. 371.95 == 109; p. 403.200 == 222; p. 419.249 == 279; p. 442.314 == 360). In all these passages, and in de Cor. p. 269 § 127, 314 § 261, Demosthenes is pouring the vials of his contempt upon Aeschines for having been a grammateus; in the third of them he says that Aeschines and his brother were ὑπογραμματεῖς before they were γραμματεῖς. They were not allowed to hold the same clerkship for two successive years (Lys. l. c.; cf. Boeckh, P. E. p. 188 n. == Sthh.3 1.237 n.).

The ἀντιγραφεῖς or checking-clerks differed from the γραμματεῖς in dealing only with the public accounts; they are noticed separately [ANTIGRAPHEIS]. (Boeckh, Bk. ii. ch. 8, much fuller in the third edition; Schömann, Assemblies, p. 318 ff.; Gilbert, references as above.)

(γραμματεύς). The Greek word for a writer, secretary, or clerk. At Athens the officials had numerous clerks attached to them, who were paid by the State and belonged to the poorer class of citizens. But there were several higher officials who bore the title of grammateus. The Boulé, or Senate, for instance, chose one of its members by show of hands to be its clerk or secretary for one year. His duty was to keep the archives of the Senate. So, too, a secretary was chosen by lot from the whole number of senators for each prytany to draft all resolutions of the Senate. (See prytanis.) His name is therefore generally given in the decrees next to that of the president and the proposer of the decree. The name of the grammateus of the first prytany was also given with that of the archon, as a means of marking the year with more accuracy. At the meetings of the Ecclesia, a clerk, elected by the people, had to read out the necessary documents. The office of the ἀντιγραφεῖς, or checking clerks, was of still greater importance. The ἀντιγραφεύς of the Senate, elected at first by show of hands, but afterwards by lot, had to take account of all business affecting the financial administration. The ἀντιγραφεύς of the administration had to make out, and lay before the public, a general statement of income and expenditure, and exercised a certain amount of control over all financial officials. In the Aetolian and Achaean leagues the grammateus was the highest officer of the league after the strategi and hipparchi.