Skeptouchos

Skēptouchos (Greek: σκηπτοῦχος), plural skēptouchoi (σκηπτοῦχοι) is a term known from ancient Greek sources, usually translated as the one bearing a staff, baton, or sceptre.^[1]

The term skeptouchos occurs in various contexts as early as the Homeric poetry where it is an epithet to a "king", basileus.^[1] In Homer's poems, a sceptre is also carried by priests and prophets, heralds, and judges. Its function was interpreted in early scholarship as a speaker's attribute during assemblies, but, according to Daniel Unruh, the sceptre apparently served as a physical symbol of authority which could be used to inflict a humiliating punishment.^[2] The term skeptouchos also appears in the 7th-century BC Semonides.^[3]

In his Cyropaedia and Anabasis, Xenophon in the 5th-century BC makes references to skeptouchoi as officials at the Persian court, commonly eunuchs. Xenophon mentions Artapates, a loyal chief of the skeptouchoi, who accompanied Cyrus the Younger in Asia Minor. Skeptouchoi were responsible for supplies, organizational matters and order at the Persian court.^[4] No equivalent term has been identified in Elamite, Old Persian, or Semitic, but the visual representation of skeptouchoi are preserved in the sculptures of Persepolis.^[5][6]

Skeptouchoi also appears as a Greek appellation of local princes of the Scythians, as referenced in a c. 200 BC inscription from Olbia,^[7] and in Colchis prior to Mithridates Eupator's conquest, as reported by Strabo.^[8] As David Braund suggests, the title was probably the consequence of Persian influence in Colchis.^[8] Still later, around AD 104, skeptouchoi refers to beadles at the temple of Artemis in the foundation inscription of Salutaris from Ephesus.^[9]