HE´NDECA
HE´NDECA, HOI (οἱ ἕνδεκα), the Eleven, were magistrates at Athens of considerable importance. They are always thus called in the classical writers; but in the time of Demetrius Phalereus, their name is said to have been changed into that of νομοφύλακες (Pollux, 8.102), who were, however, during the democracy distinct functionaries. [NOMOPHYLACES] Another name in the grammarians is δεσμοφύλακες, Schol. Dem. Androt. p. 601.26; Timocr. p. 765.210; of which θεσμοφύλακες (Schol. Aristoph. Pl. 1108) must be a corruption.The time at which the office of the Eleven was instituted is disputed. Ullrich considers the office to have been of an aristocratical character, and concludes from a passage in Heraclides Ponticus (1.10) that it was established by Aristeides. Meier, on the other hand, maintains that the office existed not only before the time of Cleisthenes, but probably before the legislation of Solon; but it seems impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion on the subject. The earliest writer who names them is Antiphon (de Caed. Her. § 70). They were annually chosen by lot, one from each of the ten tribes, and a secretary (γραμματεύς), who seems to have taken a very important part in the business, and to have had one or more ὑπογραμματεῖς under him (Pollux, 8.102).
The principal duty of the Eleven was the care and management of the public prison (δεσμωτήριον), which was entirely under their jurisdiction. On the uses of the prison at Athens, see CARCER When a person was condemned to death, he was immediately given into the custody of the Eleven, who were then bound to carry the sentence into execution according to the laws. (Xen. Hell. 2.3, § 54.) The most common mode of execution was by hemlock juice (κώνειον), which was drunk after sunset. (Plat. Phaed. 116 B ff.) The Eleven had under them jailers, executioners, and torturers, who were called by various names (οἱ παραστάται, Bekk. Anecd. p. 296, 32; ὁ τῶν ἕνδεκα ὑπηρέτης, Xen. Hell. 2.3, § 54; ὁ δημόκοινος, Antiph. de Venef. § 20; Isocr. Trapez. § 15; ὁ δημόσιος, or δήμιος, &c. [DEMOSII]). When torture was inflicted in causes affecting the state, it was either done in the immediate presence of the Eleven (Dem. c. Nicostr. p. 1254.23) or by their servant (ὁ δήμιος).
The Eleven usually only had to carry into execution the sentence passed in the courts of law and the public assemblies; but in some instances they possessed a ἡγεμονία δικαστηρίου. This was the case in those summary proceedings called ἀπαγωγή, ἐφήγησις, and ἔνδειξις, in which the penalty was fixed by law, and might be inflicted by the court on the confession or conviction of the accused without appealing to any of the jury courts (Lys. c. Agorat. § 86, οἱ ἕνδεκα οἱ παραδεξάμενοι τὴν ἀπαγωγὴν ταύτην: cf. id. κατὰ τῶν σιτοπωλῶν, § 2). They also had a ἡγεμονία δικαστηρίου in the case of κακοῦργοι, because the summary proceedings mentioned above were chiefly adopted in the case of such persons: hence Antiphon (de caed. Her. § 17) calls them ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν κακούργων. The word κακοῦργοι properly means any kind of malefactors, but is only applied in Athenian law to thieves (κλέπται), house-breakers (τοιχωρύχοι), man-stealers (ἀνδραποδισταί), and other criminals of a similar kind. (Antiph. de Caed. Her. § 9 f; Lys. c. Theomn. 1.10; [Dem.] c. Lacr. p. 940.47; Attn. Process, p. 86 Lips.)
The Eleven are also said to have possessed ἡγεμονία δικαστηρίου in the case of confiscated property (εἰσῆγον δὲ καὶ τὰ ἀπογραφόμενα χωρία, Etym. M. p. 338, 35). This statement does not refer, as some have thought, solely to the property of persons condemned to death and sold by the Poletae; in an extant inscription we find the Eleven holding inventories of confiscated property, and their secretary bound on his own responsibility to keep correct accounts of payments made (Boeckh, Seeurkunden, p. 535 f.). (Ullrich, Ueber die Elf-Männer, appended to his translation of Plato's Meno, Crito, and the first and second Alcibiades, Berlin, 1821; Sluiter, Lectiones Andocid. pp. 256-261; Att. Process, pp. 81-88 Lips; Hermann, Staatsalterth. § 139; Schömann, Antiq. 1.414, E. T.; Gilbert, Staatsalterth. 1.243 f.) [W.S] [W.W]
(Appendix). Meier's conjecture as to the early origin of this body is now confirmed: Solon provided for their election, it would seem, out of the first three classes, and is not said to have created the office (Ἀθ. πολ. 100.7). The account of their duties (100.52) adds no new particulars.