epistates
Enable an agent to identify an epistates as a historically situated Greek office or supervisory role, distinguish its holder from the office, and assess which responsibilities are supported by evidence.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
5 bundles · 9 layers · 16 findings · 24 questions
Title and office identity Establish what epistates denotes in the particular attestation.
Attested wording
Preserve the wording and qualifiers that identify the role.
Title in context
Treat the original title, its grammatical context and its translation as evidence to examine rather than interchangeable labels.
- What original wording identifies this role as epistates, and is the title preserved or editorially supplied? provenance
- Does the surrounding passage identify the body, activity or persons over which this epistates presides or supervises? definition
Institutional variant
Distinguish uses of the title through their institutional attachments.
Athenian chairmanship distinction
The Athenian Constitution 44 describes a chairman of the prytaneis and a separate chairman selected among the proedroi. These require distinct role variants within this entry. [Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 44](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.2.2.html)
- Is this the epistates of the prytaneis, the epistates of the proedroi, or another evidenced use? boundary
- Which institutional and chronological evidence supports that classification? provenance
Appointment and service Record how a person enters the role and the limits of that service.
Selection and eligibility
Identify the selection procedure and the population from which the holder is chosen.
Variant-specific selection
Record selection method and eligible membership separately for each variant. Aristotle's Athenian account describes selection by lot for both chairmanships within different membership pools. [Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 44](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.2.2.html)
- From which body must the holder be selected, and what exclusions apply in this period? definition
- What evidence establishes the appointment procedure for this particular service episode? provenance
Tenure and recurrence
Bound service in time and distinguish rules concerning repeated appointments.
Bounded service episode
Aristotle gives the prytaneis chairman a night-and-day tenure and distinguishes the repeat-service restrictions of the two chairmanships. Record these as contextual rules. [Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 44](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.2.2.html)
- What dates, day boundary or meeting interval delimit this holder's service? measurement
- Would another appointment violate an attested restriction for this office and period? action
Powers and obligations Separate the tasks attached to the title from powers exercised by other participants.
Meeting procedure
Identify the epistates' role in preparing, conducting or concluding institutional business.
Individual and collective authority
Distinguish duties attributed to the chairman individually from duties attributed to the presiding group and decisions reserved to the assembled body.
- Which meeting actions are expressly assigned to this epistates rather than to the prytaneis or proedroi collectively? boundary
- Does the evidence support this holder taking the proposed procedural action at this meeting? action
Custody and attendance
Capture obligations concerning entrusted objects and required presence.
Entrusted keys and seal
Aristotle associates the prytaneis chairman with custody of specified keys and the public seal, and required presence in the Tholos. This evidence does not establish the same duties for every epistates. [Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 44](https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.2.2.html)
- Which keys, seal or other objects are entrusted to this office variant, and what does custody permit? boundary
- What attendance or handover obligations are evidenced for this service interval? action
Attestation and historical change Connect role claims to evidence and prevent rules from drifting across periods.
Officeholder attestation
Establish whether a source documents an office, a particular holder or an actual exercise of authority.
Rule versus service evidence
A general description of the epistates' duties does not establish that a named individual held the role or performed those duties on a particular occasion.
- Does the source attest the office's rules, identify a holder, or describe an action performed in office? provenance
- What evidence links the named person to this institutional variant and service interval? provenance
Historical applicability
Limit each interpretation to the setting for which evidence supports it.
Dated authority profile
Maintain period-specific interpretations of the office and preserve disagreements instead of combining all attested responsibilities into one timeless role.
- For which polity, institutional arrangement and date range is this responsibility supported? boundary
- What evidence would justify applying this rule to an earlier, later or non-Athenian epistates? provenance
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of epistates this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Society, people and institutions
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- SOC
- Domain
- SOC.PER
What it is Filled
An epistates was a holder of an ancient Greek office of oversight or presidency, whose duties depended on the institution, locality and period.
In scope
- Attested uses of epistates, including original spelling and contextual translation
- Distinctions between the epistates of the prytaneis and the epistates of the proedroi
- Institutional, geographical and chronological limits of each role variant
- Eligibility, selection, tenure and repeat-service restrictions
- Responsibilities, procedural authority and custody obligations
- Evidence linking a named holder to a particular office and service interval
Out of scope
- Complete biographies of officeholders
- The constitution and membership of the boule, assembly or other parent institution
- Full proceedings and decisions of meetings chaired by an epistates
- Physical descriptions and conservation of seals, keys, archives or buildings
- Modern supervisory occupations inferred solely from a translated title
Why it exists Filled
Enable an agent to identify an epistates as a historically situated Greek office or supervisory role, distinguish its holder from the office, and assess which responsibilities are supported by evidence.
Distinguishing features Filled
- The identification requires an attested title or an explicitly justified equivalence; an English label such as president or overseer is insufficient by itself.
- An Athenian instance must identify the relevant body: chairmanship of the prytaneis and chairmanship of the proedroi cannot be treated as interchangeable.
- The role is distinct from its holder: one person's attested service does not define the office's general powers.
- Authority must be bounded by institution and period; a responsibility documented for one epistates variant cannot automatically be assigned to another.
- Presiding over a collective body does not by itself establish personal power to enact that body's decisions.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Treat all epistatai as one office with the same powers.
- Invent inscriptions or quotes.
- Present reconstructed duties as attested where they are inferred.
- Misdate the office in a given city.
Only with a human decision
- Correcting a published reference work on the office.
May
- Explain the different offices called epistates in ancient Greece, citing ancient sources and scholarship.
- Distinguish the Athenian presiding role from other uses of the title.
Moral aspects Filled
- False precision about ancient institutions misleads readers.
- Scholarly disagreement should be shown.
Who is affected
- Historians and students
- Readers of reference works
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns it; historians study it.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q66889825 - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.epistates
- Wikidata: Q990084 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q990084)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Attested title: Original wording, normalized epistates or epistatēs, translation and textual qualifier
- Institutional attachment: Prytaneis, proedroi, another explicitly evidenced body, or unresolved
- Historical jurisdiction: Polity or community, institutional setting and applicable period
- Selection and eligibility: Attested selection method, eligible membership pool and exclusions; unknown where unsupported
- Service duration: Attested duration in days, sessions or another source-defined interval, with dating uncertainty
- Repeat-service restriction: Source-specific restriction and reference interval, or unknown
- Mandated responsibilities: Evidenced links to meeting procedures, custody duties or other specified supervisory tasks
- Appointment evidence state: Directly attested, reconstructed, disputed or unresolved
Plane SOC: no invented physical properties.
Recognition not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
An institutional role cannot be identified from appearance alone, and no universal visual insignia establishes that a person was an epistates.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Classify an attested epistates by institution and period, retaining unresolved variants.
- Link an officeholder to a bounded service episode without conflating the person with the role.
- Check an appointment or repeat appointment against the evidenced selection and tenure rules.
- Assess whether a proposed historical action falls within the holder's documented responsibilities.
- Separate custody, meeting management and collective decision-making when interpreting an account.
- Flag unsupported transfers of powers between different uses of the title.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Treating all holders as having identical powers can produce false accounts of ancient institutions.
- Confusing the office with a particular individual can corrupt historical identification and catalogue links.
- Assigning duties without supporting evidence can propagate misleading claims in educational materials.
Standards and interfaces not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
No single applicable standard or legal code can be identified for this historical role without specifying its institution, locality and period.
Context of use required Filled
- The title appears in accounts and inscriptions concerning ancient Greek civic, administrative and other supervisory institutions.
- Historians use the locality, period and institution to determine whether a particular holder exercised presidency, oversight or another assigned responsibility.
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q990084: epistates - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Epistates - general description of the item
Open questions
- Does vr.tr.epistates intend the Athenian chairmanships specifically, or the wider Greek title for supervisory and presiding roles?
- Which non-Athenian or non-civic uses belong within this registry entry, and what primary attestations establish their responsibilities?
- When and where did selection procedures, tenure limits and meeting responsibilities change?
- Which inscriptions or narrative passages securely identify individual holders and distinguish their office variants?
- What evidence establishes accountability, remuneration, removal or consequences of procedural misconduct for each variant?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q990084/spec.json