The title of the nine chief officials of ancient
Athens. After the abolishment of the
monarchy, three positions were created to replace the
king, these were:
Archon Basileus (or Archon king), whose position was to supervise over the religious affairs of the
polis including the work of the courts in cases of religious importance (murder for instance);
Archon Eponymos (The Archon after whose name the year was called), Whose job was to supervise over legislation and civic affairs of the city- he was the most important of the Archontes (plural from Archon);
Archon Polemarchos (Archon Master of War), Whose position originally including the supervision over all military affairs, but was later limited to supervising over all foreigners and non-citizens.
Archontes were elected for a period of one year.
Gradually the number of Archontes increased to 9 as the Ecclesia decided to add two aides to each of the former Archontes, These were called Archontes Thesmothetai.
The Archontes continues to retain their importance until the middle of the 5th century. At that time a law was passed that the Ecclesia will no longer vote for the people who want to be Archontes, but rather they'd be decided upon by chance (many other official positions of lesser importance were filled this way), and the increase in importance in the positions of the Strategoi, hastened this process.