archeion

ARCHEION(ἀρχεῖον) properly means any public place belonging to the magistrates, whether among barbarians (Hdt. 4.62) or Greeks (Xen. Hell. 5.4.58; [Dem.] iv. Phil. p. 145.53). At Athens the name was more particularly applied to the archive office, where the decrees of the people and other state documents were preserved. This office is sometimes called merely τὸ δημόσιον (Dem. de Cor. p. 275.142). The archives were kept in the temple of the mother of the gods (μητρῷον), and the charge of it was entrusted to the president (ἐπιστάτης) of the senate of the Five Hundred. (Dem. de Fals. Leg. p. 381.129; Lycurg. c. Leocr. § 66 ; Paus. 1.3.4; Athen. 5. p. 214 e; Plut. Vit. x. Oratt. p. 842 e; Harpocrat., Phot., Suid. s. v. μητρῷον; Suid. s. v. ἀρχεῖα. For the building itself, C. Curtius, Das Metroon in Athen, 1868.)