ANTIGRAPHEIS
ANTIGRAPHEIS (ἀντιγραφεῖς), checking-clerks, contrarotulatores, contrôleurs. Efficient checks on the handling of public funds, whether municipal or national, were even more necessary among the Greeks than in modern civilised countries; and the Athenians, with their deep distrust of official honesty, sought refuge in multiplying such checks. Hence it was the rule in Athenian finance, that wherever there was a public officer entrusted with the payment of money, there was by his side an ἀντιγραφεὺς who watched over him and kept duplicate accounts. Thus it is proved by inscriptions that there was an ἀντιγραφεὺς to each deme (C. I. G. 100); and a general in the field disposed of his military chest subject to a like control. (Dem. de Chers. p. 101.47.) The administrators of sacred funds, such as the ταμίαι τῆς θεοῦ and the ἑλληνοταμίαι or treasurers of Delos, were similarly controlled (Inscr. 139, 141, 150, 158).Two of these ἀντιγραφεῖς stand out from the rest as important public officers; the ἀντιγραφεὺς τῆς διοικήσεως and the ἀντιγραφεὺς τῆς βουλῆς (Harpocrat., Suid. s. v.). The office of the former was to control the expenditure of the public treasury (διοίκησις), and to lay the revenue accounts before the people in every prytany, so that he was a check upon the ἀποδέκται [APODECTAE]. This must be the officer described by Aeschines (in Ctes. § 25) as “ formerly ” elected by χειροτονία: his further statement, that at one time the Athenians had carried their confidence in Eubulus so far as to unite the offices of the ἀντιγραφεῖς and ἀποδέκται in the same persons, is either a rhetorical exaggeration, or, if true, an instance of their infatuation where the Theoric fund was concerned [THEORICA]. Androtion's auditing of his own accounts is represented by Demosthenes as an act of equal dishonesty and impudence.
The ἀντιγραφεὺς τῆς βουλῆς was originally elected by the people, but afterwards appointed by lot from the senate itself; always, it would seem, from the non-presiding tribes, the prytanes being excluded (C. I. G. 190). He was always present at the meeting of the senate, and checked the accounts of moneys paid into its keeping (Pollux, 8.98); but he is to be distinguished from the γραμματεὺς who prefixed his name to its decrees. He controlled financial matters only, not business generally.
The account of the checking-clerks in Böckh (P. E. bk. ii. ch. 8) contains many inaccuracies in the first edition, from which the English translation most in use is taken; and these are not entirely corrected in the second edition. (Compare Schömann, Assemblies, pp. 287, 318-19; Antiq. p. 378; Hermann, Staatsalterth. § 127, n. 17 and 18; Wayte on Demosth. Androt. p. 605.38, p. 615.70.) [W.W]
(Appendix). The distinction between these and the GRAMMATEIS is perhaps too strongly emphasised in both articles. The ργαμματεύς, an assessor to the βουλή (ὃς παρακάθηται), is appointed ἐπὶ τοὺς νόμους, and sees that they are correctly transcribed (ἀντιγράφεται καὶ οὗτος πάντας, Ath. Pol. 54).