HEGEMONY

Form: Gr. hegemonia, or "leadership".

This was the Greek name for the supremacy assumed by a single state in a confederacy of states, and with it the direction, more or less absolute, of the business of the confederacy. In the language of Athenian law hegemonia meant the presidency in the courts, which belonged in different cases to different officials. Their business was to receive the charge, make the arrangements for the trial, and preside while it was going on.