EXETASTAE
EXETASTAE (
ἐξετασταί), special
commissioners sent out by the Athenian people to investigate any matters
that might claim attention. Thus we find mention of Exetastae being
appointed to ascertain whether there were as many mercenaries as the
generals reported. It appears to have been no uncommon plan for the
commanders, who received pay for troops, to report a greater number than
they possessed, in order to receive the pay themselves; in which case they
were said “to draw pay for empty places in the mercenary force”
(
μισθοφορεῖν ἐν τῷ ξενικῷ κεναῖς
χώραις, Aeschin.
c. Ctes. § 146). The
commissioners, however, who were sent to make inquiries into the matter,
often allowed themselves to be bribed. (Aeschin.
c. Timarch.
§ 113,
de F. L. § 177; Bekk.
Anecd. 252, 6 f.; Boeckh,
P. E. p.
292=
Sthh.3 1.363; Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.250.)
Another kind of Exetastae are shown by inscriptions to have existed at Athens
for a short time in the early part of the third century B.C. They were
auditors of accounts, and are mentioned as checking the expenses of
Psephismata (i. e. of recording them in the form of inscriptions) and of the
erection of statues (
C. I. A. 1.297, 298, 300; Gilbert, p.
238). In this sense of auditors of public accounts the name occurred in some
other Greek states together with those of Euthyni and Logistae (
Aristot. Pol. 6.8 = p. 1322 b, 11;
Schömann,
Antiq. 1.146, E. T.)
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