archontes

He may however have been one of the local archontes, who are mentioned in another document (CPJ, II 432, see below) as representing the community in regard to public water consumption. […] It was translated by the editor, Fuks, as “from the archontes of the synagogue of the Theban Jews” which implies that the Thebans had their own leadership, and in that case it is surprising that no archontes are mentioned in connection with the local synagogue (line 60).

1985, Aryeh Kasher, The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt: the struggle for equal rights (Mohr Siebeck, ISBN 978‒3‒16‒144829‒4), page 140

The archontes’ resistance to the Venetians arose far more from a sense of threatened hegemony than from a sense of national violation, as evidenced in part by the Greek nobles’ inability ever to unite in coalition against the occupiers. Their anger instead arose out of their being dispossessed of their lands and status. In the process of consolidating their hold of the island, the Venetian authorities had confiscated all the land that had belonged to the Byzantine imperial fisc and to the Greek archontes.

2000, Sally McKee, Uncommon dominion: Venetian Crete and the myth of ethnic purity (University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978‒0‒8122‒3562‒3), page 69