ĂGONŎTHĔTAE

( ἀγωνοθέται ), persons in the Grecian games who decided disputes, and adjudged the prizes to the victors. Originally, the person who instituted the contest and offered the prize was the Agonothetes , and this continued to be the practice in those games which were instituted by kings or private persons. But in the great public games, such as the Isthmian, Pythian, ., the A go no the tae were either the representatives of different states, as the Amphictyons at the Pythian games, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated. During the flourishing times of the Grecian republics the Eleans were the A go no the tae in the Olympic games, the Corinthians in the Isthmian games, the Amphictyons in the Pythian games, and the Corinthians, Argives, and inhabitants of Cleonae in the Nemaean games. The A go no the tae were also called Aesymnetae ( αἰσυμνῆται ), Agonarchae ( ἀγωνάρχαι ), Agonodicae ( ἀγωνοδίκαι ), Athlothetae ( ἀθλοθέται ), Rhabduchi ( ῥαβδοῦχοι ), or Rhabdonomi ( ῥαβδονόμοι , from the staff which they carried as an emblem of authority), Brabeis ( βραβεῖς ), and Brabeutae ( βραβευταί ).