Agoranomos

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Agoranomos (ἀγορανόμος, plural: agoranomoi, ἀγορανόμοι) was an electable official position in the cities of Ancient Greece and Byzantine Empire that controlled the order of the marketplace (agora, hence the name, translated as "market overseer"). A polis could have several of them.

Some of their duties were setting prices for certain goods, certifying goods and weights and scales, controlling money exchange, and an important function of managing the supply of the polis with grains. In controlling unscrupulous merchants, an agoranomos had rights to impose corporal punishments (and was often portrayed walking along the agora with a whip) for non-free-born and impose fines for free citizens. An agoranomos also kept an eye on temples in the agora.

Over time, an agoranomos has also become an honorary title for a public benefactor, who contributed significant amounts for public institutions.

The term is still in use today in modern Greece (Αγορονομία — Agoranomía), for the analogous in USA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA branch).

See also

• Astynomos, a person in charge of public places outside the agora
• Muhtasib in Islamic world had similar (and some other) duties

References

Demos: Classical Athenian Democracy

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Last updated on Saturday January 26, 2008 at 20:24:34 PST (GMT -0800)
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