PROXĔNUS

( πρόξενος ). [ Hospitium . ] PRỸTĂNEIUM ( πρυτανεῖον ), the public hall or town-hall in a Greek state. The prytaneia of the ancient Greek states and cities were to the communities living around them, what private houses were to the families which occupied them. Just as the house of each family was its home, so was the prytaneium of every state or city the common home of its members or inhabitants. This correspondence between the prytaneium or home of the city, and the private home of a man’s family, was at Athens very remarkable. A perpetual fire was kept burning on the public altar of the city in the prytaneium, just as in private houses a fire was kept up on the domestic altar in the inner court of the house. Moreover, the city of Athens exercised in its prytaneium the duties of hospitality, both to its own citizens and to strangers. Thus foreign amba adors were entertained here, as well as A then i an envoys, on their return home from a succe ful or well-conducted mi ion. Here, too, were entertained from day to day the succe ive prytanes or presidents of the senate, together with those citizens who, whether from personal or ancestral services to the state, were honoured with what was called the σίτησις ἐν πρυτανείῳ , or the privilege of taking their meals there at the public cost. This was granted sometimes for a limited period, sometimes for life, in which latter case the parties enjoying it were called ἀείσιτοι . Moreover, from the ever-burning fire of the prytaneium, or home of a mother state, was carried the sacred fire which was to be kept burning in the prytaneia of her colonies; and if it happened that this was ever extinguished, the flame was rekindled from the prytaneium of the parent city. Lastly, a prytaneium was also a distinguishing mark of an independent state. The prytaneium of Athens lay under the Acropolis on its northern side (near the ἀγορά ), and was, as its name denotes, originally the place of a embly of the prytanes ; in the earliest times it probably stood on the Acropolis. Officers called prytanes ( πρυτανεῖς ) were entrusted with the chief magistracy in several states of Greece, as Corcyra, Corinth, Miletus. At Athens they were in early times probably a magistracy of the second rank in the state (next to the archon), acting as judges in various cases (perhaps in conjunction with him), and sitting in the prytaneium. That this was the case is rendered probable by the fact, that even in after-times the fees paid into court by plaintiff and defendant, before they could proceed to trial, and received by the dicasts, were called prytaneia . PRỸTĂNES. [ Prytaneium ; Boule .]