πολιτάρχης, -ου, ὁ, (i.e. 6 ἄρχων τῶν πολιτῶν ; see ἕκατοντάρχης), a ruler of a city or citizens: Acts xvii. 6, 8. (Boeckh, Corp. inserr. Graec. ii. p. 52 sq. no. 1967 (cf. Boeckh’s note, and ΤᾺ Proleg. p. 86 note]; in Grk. writ. πολίαρχος was more common.)

πολιτάρχης politarchēs 2x

a ruler or prefect of a city, city magistrate, Acts 17:6, 8*

*† πολιτάρχης, -ου, ὁ,

= πολίαρχος (Pind., Eur.),

the ruler of a city, a politarch: Ac 17:6, 8 (v. MM, xx).†

πολιτάρχης. This title is known from inscrr., as well as from Ac 1788, to have been in use at Thessalonica and elsewhere: see E. De Witt Burton’s art. in the 4/7 ii. (1898), p. 598 ff. (summarized in Hastings’ DB iv. p. 315), where he prints seventeen inscrr., with two more in which the title (πολιτάρχης) or the verb (πολιταρχέω) is plausibly restored, showing that in Thessalonica there were 5 politarchs in the time of Augustus, and 6 in the time of Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius. Of the inscrr. 14 belong to Macedonia (5 of them to Thessalonica), 2 to Philippopolis in Thrace, and one each to Bithynia, Bosporus, and Egypt. To these we can now add a papyrus letter from Egypt, P Oxy IV. 7454 (c. A.p. 1), where the writer claims that his correspondent had made some promise through the ““politarch” Theophilus—a@s καὶ ὑπέσχου διὰ τοῦ πολειτάρχου Θεοφίλου. It is clear from Burton’s citations that the title was essentially Macedonian. It would be brought into Egypt naturally by some early Ptolemy, but it is odd that it should be there at all and appear so seldom. The verb occurs in an inscr. from Cairo of iii/iv Α. Ὁ.» Kaibel 430'— δισσῶν γάρ τε τόπων πολιταρχῶν αὐτὸς ἐτείμω. πολιτεία. In a letter of remonstrance, P Oxy VIII. 111974 (A.D. 254), vindicating the privileges enjoyed by the Antinoites bo 5 πολίτευμα of immunity of public burdens outside their own city, the phrase occurs κατὰ το[ὺ]ς πατρίους τῆς ἡμετέρας πολειτίας νόμους, ‘‘in accordance with the ancestral usages of our constitution ” (Ed.) : cf. Eph 215. Wilcken (Cérest. I. i. p. 78) cites the following exx. from Egypt of πολιτεία practically = πόλις (cevi/as)—P Flor I. 95° (Hermopolis Magna—a.D. 375) ὑπεδεξάμεθα [παρά σου] ὑπὲρ τῆς σῆς πολ[ιτζεδ (Jas, P Lips I. 62ii 5 (Antinoopolis —a.D. 385) (= Chrest. I. p. 220) ὑπεδεξάμην παρά σου καὶ viv ὑπὲρ τῆς σῆς πολιτείας, and BGU I. 304° (Fayam— ¢. A.D. 640) παγάρχ(ῳ) τοῦ Bopp(tvod) σκέλους ταύτης τῆς πολ(ιυ)τ(είας). For πολιτεία --Ξ ““ citizenship,” as in Ac 2228, we may cite Gnomon 47 (ες. A.D. 150) (=BGU V. 1. p. 23) ἀστὴ συνελθοῦσα Αἰ[γ]υ[πτίῳ] κατ᾽ ἄγνοιαν ὡς ἀστῷ ἀνεύθυνός ἐστιν. ἐὰν δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ ἀμφοτέρίων ἀπ]αρχὴ τέκνων τεθῇ, τηρεῖται τοῖς τέκνοις ἡ πολιτεία, ‘if a woman, being a citizen [1.6. of Alexandria], marries an Egyptian in the mistaken belief that he is also a citizen, she is not liable to penalty ; and if both parties present birth-certificates, their children preserve the status of citizens.” The religious sense which the word acquired (cf. the verb in Ac 231, Phil 157) is well seen in the Christian letter P Heid 68 (iv/a.p.) (= Sedectzons, p. 125 f.) πιστεύομεν yap τὴν πολιτίαϊν olov évy οὐρανῷ. Deissmann ad Δ cites Gregory of Nyssa σπεύδειν πρὸς τὴν ἐπουράνιον πολιτείαν (Migne 46, 5974), and Isidore of Pelusium ἥ οὐρανῷ πρέπουσα πολιτεία (fp. 216 and 33).

πολιτάρχης (politarchēs) — city authority. πολῑτάρχ-ης, ου, ὁ, civic magistrate, at Thessalonica, [NT+2nd c.BC+]; in Egypt, [Refs 1st c.BC+]:—also πολῑταρχ-ος, ὁ, [Refs 4th c.BC+]