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HELLENOTA´MIAE (Ἑλληνοταμίαι), or treasurers of the Greeks, were magistrates appointed by the Athenians to receive the contributions of the allied states. They were first appointed B.C. 477, when Athens, in consequence of the conduct of Pausanias, had obtained the head-ship of the league of national defence against the Persians. The money paid by the different states, which was originally fixed at 460 talents, was deposited in Delos, which was the place of meeting for the discussion of all common interests; and there can be no doubt that the Hellenotamiae not only received, but were also the guardians of these moneys. Xenophon (de Vect. 5.5) describes the position of Athens at the head of the confederacy as ἡγεμονία and ἑλληνοταμία (Thuc. 1.96; Plut. Arist. 24; Antiph. de Caed. Her. § 69; Andoc. de Pace, § 38). The office was retained after the treasury was transferred to Athens on the proposal of the Samians (Plut. Arist. 25; Diod. 12.38), but was of course abolished on the conquest of Athens by the Lacedaemonians. The Hellenotamiae were not reappointed after the restoration of the democracy; for which reason the grammarians afford us little information respecting their duties. It is, however, certain from inscriptions that they were ten in number, and, like the Strategi, chosen one from each tribe, not necessarily, but as far as circumstances permitted: for as requiring character and the possession of property they were almost certainly an ἀρχὴ χειροτονητή (Gilbert, Staatsalterth. 1.236; Fränkel, n. 307 on Boeckh; C. I. A. 1.259, 260). In the case where the occurrence of eleven names has occasioned a difficulty (C. I. A. 1.188), there is little doubt that the eleventh is a πάρεδρος or assessor: in other inscriptions (ib. 180-183) Ἑλληνοταμίαι and πάρεδροι are coupled together, and Gilbert (l.c.) thinks that there was one to each. The Hellenotamiae, during the period of Athenian supremacy, were the most important financial officers after the treasurers of Athena (ταμίαι τῆς θεοῦ), into whose treasury, the Opisthodomos, they carried the collected tribute. A mina in the talent, or 1/60, was retained as an ἀπαρχὴ for the goddess; the rest was disbursed as it was wanted by the ταμίαι τῆς θεοῦ to the Hellenotamiae, and by them applied mostly to the Theorica and to military objects. It is needless to say that the pretext of defence against the Persians was soon dropped, and that the money of the allies was spent in wars for the aggrandisement of Athens. The time for paying the φόρος into the treasury was, as a rule, in the spring, when the festival of the great Dionysia was celebrated. If the allies were backward in payment, the action of the Hellenotamiae was supplemented by the appointment of ἐκλογεῖς [ECLOGEIS No. 2]. (Boeckh, P. E. p. 176 ff.=Sthh.3 1.217 ff.; Schömann, Antiq. 1.438, 453, E. T.; Gilbert, Staatsalterth. 1.236 f., 398; a classified list of inscriptions in Boeckh, Sthh.3 1.217 n.)
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
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