nomothetae

(νομοθέται). At Athens a commission for the examination of proposed laws. Their number was fixed by the popular assembly and they were chosen by lot from among the Heliasts. (See Heliaea.) This number was often a very large one (e. g. a thousand, Poll.viii. 101), but varied according to the importance of the laws under consideration. See Schöll, Ueber attische Gesetzebung (Munich, 1886); and Gilbert, Greek Constitutional Antiquities, p. 255. See ecclesia.