The Role of the Archon in the Organizing the Lease of Sacred Lands in Attica in the Second Half of the V-IV Centuries B.C.

The purpose of the study is to present the functions of the archon in the process of organizing the lease of sacred lands (temenos) in Attica in the second half of the V - IV centuries B.C. basing on the study of epigraphic material. The study of this problem seems relevant as far as there are presented works in historiography concerning the powers of this official in the socio-political life of Athens, but is not considered the issue of the impact of his activities on the polis’ economy. Having analyzed the content of the temenos lease agreements, the author characterized the functions of the archon in determining the composition of the participants as well as the terms of transaction. Basing on the text of the inscriptions, it was carried out a comparison of the powers of the archons in the organization of the lease of sacred lands in Attica in the second half of the 5th century B.C. and in the 4th century B.C. Finally, the author comes to the following conclusions. Firstly, the cancellation of lease agreements of sacred lands in Attica was not carried out without the archon’s verdict. Secondly, a comparative analysis of the content of the inscriptions of the second half of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. gives an idea that through the time the role of the archon in the lease of temenos becomes less significant. It apparently can be explained by the increasing role of officials of individual collectives (for example, demarchs, phratryarchs or epimeletes).