Prytaneum

(prit-a-ne'um.) [ FromGr. prytaneion, from prytanis, a president.] (Gr. Ant.) The senate house in Athens, where the council of the prytaneis, or committee of fifty, a embled, and where those who had rendered any signal service to the commonwealth were maintained at the public expense. At Athens this was among the highest honors which could be conferred on any one. Prytany. The period of office of the prytanes. [s. 738]