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[German version] (ἀνδροληψία; androlēpsía) was in Athenian law an authorization to take the law into one's own hands, conceded by law (only attested in Demosth. 23,82) to relations of an Athenian murdered on Athenian state territory. If the person responsible for the death had made himself inaccessible to the relations of the deceased, they could seize three hostages from among his dependants (interpretation is controversial). Nothing is known of their fate. Unjustified exercise of androlepsia was punished. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography B. Bravo, Symposion 1977, ed. J. Modrz…

[German version] (ἐνεπίσκηψις; Enepískēpsis). In Athens, when property was confiscated (  dḗmeusis ,   dēmióprata ) a third party was able to claim that a particular part of the assets belonged to him or was mortgaged to him. If he objected, by using the form of an enepiskepsis, there would be a   diadikasía between him and the person initiating the confiscation (  apographé ) in which it was determined if the state debtor ‘owed’ cession of the asset parts to the third party (Dem. Or. 49,45ff.; Hesperia 10, 1941, 14). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens II…

[German version] (Χρηματισταί; Chrēmatistaí). In the Egypt of the Ptolemies, judges delegated by the king to try fiscal and civil cases for all sectors of the population. They were probably introduced in the 2nd cent. BC. The courts had jurisdiction over an individual nome, or several in combination. In the provinces the chrematistai courts lapsed during the early part of the Roman Empire; in Alexandria they are attested into the 3rd cent. AD, with a somewhat modified range of functions. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography H. J. Wolff, Das Justizwesen der Ptolemäer, 21970 H. A. Rupprech…

[German version] (ἔνδειξις; éndeixis). Literally ‘charge’: in Athens the endeixis was a special form of public intervention by a private person that resulted in the immediate arrest of the accused or an order for a material surety by the head of the court (the ‘Eleven ’, the Árchōn Basileús or the thesmothétai;  archontes). It was permissible against persons (state debtors, exiles and átimoi ( atimia) who visited places (their home town, the public assembly, council, courts, sanctuaries, the market) that they were forbidden to visit by law or popular resol…

[German version] (ἀναδικία; anadikía). The principle that a case decided by a court could not again be the subject of a court case (for Athens Demosth. 24,54) was breached in individual cases in Greek law. In default proceedings and in some cases after a successful action for false witness, δίκη ψευδομαρτυρίων ( Pseudomartyrian dike), it was possible to open new proceedings, anadikia. According to a scholion to Pl. Leg. 937d this concerns cases on citizens' rights, testimony litigation itself and inheritance suits. Plato, in contrast to the law of Athens, generally envisages anadikia …

[German version] (ὑποβολῆς γραφή; hypobolês graphé). Civil suit against a person who was passed off as the child of a citizen. Such false children, usually bought as slaves, are frequently mentioned in Attic court speeches and  comedies: childless women attempted to consolidate their position in the household in this manner, but hypoboles graphe is only known from the Lexica Segueriana V [2]. The penalty for being a false child was being sold into slavery. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography 1 I. Bekker (ed.), Anecdota Graeca I, 1814/1865, 311 2 Lipsius, 417.

[German version] (κακοῦργοι; kakoûrgoi). Generally ‘malefactors’ but in Athens criminal offenders listed in a specific law: night thieves, thieves of clothing, kidnappers, burglars, and pickpockets. When they were caught in the act, anybody could take action against these mostly lower-class criminals through private arrests ( apagoge ), and could bring them before the Eleven ( Hendeka ). The latter immediately ordered the execution of the criminal if he confessed. Anybody who could plausibly deny the crime was brought before the co…

[German version] (προδοσία; prodosía). There is evidence of constant efforts to punish 'treason' ( prodosía) and 'high treason' ( katálysis toû dḗmou) in Athens. Prodosía is the infringement on the external security of the state, which could extend to the failure of recovering the corpses of the fallen or saving the shipwrecked (Battle of Arginusae, 406 BC; Xen. Hell. 1,7,22 and 32, where a law against temple-robbers and traitors is referred to). Later prodosía fell under the law on eisangelía , but often ad hoc decisions on prodosía were enacted (thus after the Battle of Chaero…

[German version] (ὁμολογία; homología), literally ‘speaking the same way’, describes in Greek colloquial language simple oral consent or agreement. In the legal sense homologia was soon also used for written agreements (  syngraphḗ ,   synthḗkē ). The legal connection with the homologia originated, as can be seen in Athens, in the preliminary procedural concession of individual assertions of the opponent. In the preliminary procedure (  anákrisis , see   diaitētaí [2]) the parties had the duty to answer each other's questions (Dem. Or. 46,10). Answering such a que…

[German version] (Δατηταί; Datētaí). ‘Dividers’, i.e. private arbiters in Athens, chosen by the parties, who presided over disputes amongst joint heirs. The procedure was initiated by private litigation for a division into shares, δίκη εἰς δατητῶν αἵρεσιν (Aristot. Ath.Pol. 56,6), against a joint heir who objected to a compromise. Usually, the archon was responsible for accepting the litigation while the Polemarch was responsible in exceptional cases if the litigation was directed against a metic (…

[German version] (παρακαταβολή; parakatabolḗ). Literally the payment of a sum of money ( parábolon ), it was used in Athenian law to denote a number of payments which the parties had to make at the start of a lawsuit ( prytaneía ). Especially in in lawsuits about inheritance and in those concerning confiscated goods, the pursuer had to deposit one tenth, sometimes one fifth of the value of the dispute, which was forfeited to the State, sometimes to the successful litigant (disputed) if he lost the case. The purpose of this was similar to the epōbelía that had to be paid…

[German version] (ἀσέβεια; asébeia). The Greeks punished violations of the reverence due to the gods. Theft from temples ( Hierosylia) was subject to particular sanction; desecration and mockery of divine objects were together treated as asebeia. In Athens, as a political measure, accusations of asebeia for irreverence towards the state gods were particularly levelled against natural philosophers and sophists. Their project of explaining the world and putting in question all traditional assumptions seemed to threaten the order of the sta…

[German version] (προίξ; proíx). Etymologically 'gift bestowed with an open hand' (in the epics known only in the genitive in the sense of 'free'), in the agnatic family order of Greek poleis proíx denotes the 'dowry' (in contrast to the phernḗ of small families in Hellenistic-Roman Egypt). It is not before the 3rd cent. AD (precursor FIRA I2 58,25; AD 68) that proíx occurs as a translation of the Roman dos . The legal structure of the proíx is best known from Athens (on the Hellenistic inscriptions from Myconos, Tenos, Amorgos, Naxos and Syros cf. [6. 135-137, 149 f.])…

[German version] (βαλαντιοτόμοι; balantiotómoi). ‘Cutpurses’ (pickpockets) were pursued in Athens on the basis of the νόμος τῶν κακούργων ( nómos tôn kakoúrgōn) with   apagōgḗ (‘leading away’) and punished with death. Thür, Gerhard (Graz)

[German version] (κακοτεχνιῶν δίκη; kakotechniôn díkē). Action against ‘wheeling and dealing’, in Athens specifically against a legal opponent whose witness had been condemned for giving false testimony ( pseudomartyrias dike ) (Dem. Or. 47,1; 49,56). The proceedings were conducted by the same official who had also conducted the main trial. The person who had called the witness had to pay a fine to the plaintiff. Since, however, the plaintiff had usually already been awarded damages in the lawsuit, it is rather improbable that he was entitled to the kakotechnion dike without further…

[German version] (ἱεροσυλία; hierosylía). In many Greek poleis ‘temple robbery’, removal from a sanctuary of objects consecrated to gods, which has been very broadly construed (e.g. also embezzlement of silver in state minting of coins, Syll.3 530, Dyme in Achaea, soon after 190 BC. [2]). In Athens hierosylia was probably prosecuted in the 5th cent. by   eisangelía , later by a coming under the jurisdiction of the  thesmothetai ἱεροσυλίας γραφή ( hierosylías graphḗ), involving the threat of the death penalty with denial of burial in Attica and financial ruin. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibli…

[German version] (φαρμακεία; pharmakeía). The giving of a medical drug, magic potion or poison ( phármakon). In Athens, if someone personally administrated it and this resulted in a citizen's death, a δίκη φόνου ( díkē phónou, 'murder charge'; phónos ) could be brought , which was decided by the Áreios págos (Dem. Or. 23; or. 24; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 57,3). In the case of premeditated killing, the punishment was death, otherwise exile. Plato differentiates between the pharmakeia of doctors and sorcerers on the one hand and that of laymen on the other (Pl. Leg. 932e-933e).…

[German version] (ξενίας γραφή; xenías graphḗ), literally a 'charge/claim of (the status of) foreigner'. Public action for arrogation of Athenian citizenship. A Greek polis was constituted as an association of persons; despite their right to personal freedom, outsiders ( xénoi ,  cf. [1. 1442-1447; 4. 18-27]) had no fundamental participation in family or citizen status, or in the protection of the law. The rights of  a citizen (πολίτης/ polítēs; presumably to be distinguished from an  ἀστός/ astós  [3. 49-78]) could be exercised in Athens only by somebody who had been…

[German version] (ἀδίκημα; adíkēma). Non-technical term for an illegal act committed intentionally on a private person (Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1135 b 20 f.; Rhet. 1374 b 8); if adikema was associated with damage to property, it led to a   blabes dike . Sometimes the unlawfully gained property is also referred to as adikema (Pl. Leg. 906d). In the papyri: marital misconduct, violent affront, peculation. Thür, Gerhard (Graz)

[German version] (καταποντισμός; katapontismós). To throw into the sea - the killing of a person by drowning, or the cultic sinking of objects. If the sea was distant, the katapontismos could be performed at a river. Already in myth, katapontismos is attested as a special act of cruelty, or as a capital punishment with the mark of an ordeal (the gods could save the condemned) in cases when the right to a burial and death cult had been forfeited. In historical times, tyrants or cruel rulers were punished with katapontismos, although sometimes only their corpse or even their statue wa…