Gymnasiarchika: recueil et analyse des inscriptions de l’époque hellénistique en l’honneur des gymnasiarques

This work introduces the office of the gymnasiarchy in the Hellenistic period (4th - 1st century BC). As the name suggests, this office was bound to a gymnasium's administration and management. Yearly fulfilled by thousands of anonymous citizens, it left almost exclusively epigraphic accounts in the form of decrees which honour the most generous and deserving gymnasiarchs. This engraving on a durable material was to give them longevity and publicity. In the Hellenistic period, about fifty of these texts have been turned up. They are conveniently gathered, translated and commented on here. An evolution of the gymnasiarchy occurs, as a charge which, from magistracy, is tending more and more to turn into a liturgy. This evolution underlines one more time the vitality of Hellenistic institutions which, up until not too long ago, tended to be looked at with contempt in comparison with the "great" Greek age which is the 5th century BC.