Search

[German version] (ἡλιαία; hēliaía). 1. Derived from ἁλίζω ( halízō, ‘assemble’), heliaia originally means simply ‘assembly’. In the Doric area this expression survived for the public assembly [1. 32ff.] and in Arcadia for a committee, of probably fifty people, which made political and legal decisions (IG V 2,6A 24 and 27; 3,20 = IPArc nos. 2 and 3, both from Tegea [2. 36f]). 2. In Athens, according to Aristot. Ath. Pol. 9,1 (cf. on this [3. 160]), in opposition to judicial decisions by the archons, Solon introduced the   éphesis to the heliaia, at that time either the entire public…

[German version] (ἐπωβελία; epōbelía). Athenian law stipulated that in some private law proceedings, the losing plaintiff had to pay a fine equivalent to a sixth of the sum in dispute ─ i.e. an   obolos to the drachma (hence epobelia) to the defendant for wilful litigation. The same applied to litigants who were unsuccessful in a   paragraphḗ or who lost an appeal against a   diamartyría , but in this instance only if they had not even succeeded in securing the support of one fifth of the judges' votes for their case (Isoc. Or. 18,12). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. R. W. Harrison, The Law…

[German version] (καταβάλλειν; katabállein). Any method of making a monetary payment, or paying for other services. Plentiful evidence from public life in [1]. Payment of legal fees in IPArk 17,42 (=IG V 2,357). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography 1 J. Oehler, s.v. K., RE 10, 2357f..

[German version] (ἀντωμοσία; antōmosía) was in Greece, in particular in Athens, an oath, which both parties had to make in the preliminary examination or in the main proceedings, probably a relic from archaic legal procedure. By means of the antomosia the truth of the plaint and the answer to the plaint was substantiated in advance. Therefore the name also extended to the pleas ( Antigraphe). The antomosia was not adopted by Plato (Leg. 948d). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens I, 1971, 99 f. G. Thür, Greek Law, ed. by L. Foxhall, 1996, 63 f.

[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] (δεκασμοῦ γραφή; dekasmoû graphḗ). In Athens the charge of active corruption of judges (Dem. Or. 46,26; see also Poll. 8,42; Harpocr. s.v. Δ. γ.). It concerned the offering of inducements to the chairman of a court, a member of a jury committee, the council or the people's assembly in the context of a legal case before them, to manipulate or decide the case to the advantage or disadvantage of a participant. The offence of dekasmou graphe was more precise than that of passive corruption (  dṓrōn graphḗ ), to which bearers of office were exposed irr…

[German version] (δικαστικὸς μισθός; dikastikòs misthós). Daily payment for Athenian jurors from the mid 5th cent. BC (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 2,2). In early Athenian democracy the principle of democratic equality of all citizens applied. Increasing economic and social inequality resulted in only the economically independent citizens, i.e. the wealthy part of the population, being able to participate in courts while the less wealthy and poor citizens, especially the rural population, could not abandon the…

[German version] (λοιδορία; loidoría). Greek ‘invective’, originally perhaps ‘blasphemy’ (Pind. Ol. 9,37). Solon already made ‘speaking badly’ a punishable offence (fr. 32f. Ruschenbusch); in the 4th cent. BC this element of an offence included insult through the use of certain enumeratively listed words ( kakēgoría ). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography R. W. Wallace, The Athenian Law against Slander, in: G. Thür (ed.), Symposion 1993, 1994, 109-124.

[German version] (ἡμιόλιον; hēmiólion), literally ‘one and a half times’. Hemiolion refers to a supplementary charge of 50% of a monetary or goods service (calculated by multiplying the basic amount by one and a half). In the Hellenistic and Roman periods the hemiolion stereotypically appeared in the penalty clauses of private contracts as a fine for non-fulfilment (frequently in addition to interest), both in the papyri of Egypt and in the few documents extant elsewhere. The hemiolion had replaced the diploûn (διπλοῦν, double) of the older contractual clauses, as is well i…

[German version] (ἐξαιρέσεως δίκη; ex(h)airéseōs díkē). In Athens, anyone who claimed that someone else was his slave needed no special authority in order to ‘lead away’ (ἄγειν, ágein) the person concerned. A third party could then intervene and ‘free’ (ἐξαιρεῖσθαι or ἀφαιρεῖσθαι εἰς ἐλευθερίαν, ex(h)aireîsthai / aphaireîsthai eis eleutherían; Aeschin. in Timarchum 62; Demosth. Or. 59,40; Lys. 23,9) the captive with an act of formalized violence. The captor then had to free the captive, although only on receipt of surety, and could then proceed against the third party arguing exhair…

[German version] (ὑπεύθυνος; hypeúthynos) is used in the penal provisions of Greek decrees to mean ‘liable, owing’ (context: payment of monetary fines, e.g. IPArk 11,37), in Athens specifically for ‘accountable’. Every Athenian holding an office had to submit to an accountability process when his term had expired (εὔθυναι,   eúthynai ) before the completion of which he could not leave the country or dispose of his assets. In the Egyptian papyri, hypeuthynos simply means ‘required to make payment’. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens 2, 1971, 208-211 I…

[German version] (τιμηταὶ δίκαι/ timētaì díkai). Legal processes at Athens which, having completed the ballot on the issue of conviction, had to undergo a further 'assessment procedure' ( timetos agon ). In private cases concerning money ( dike [2]), it was the rule, in public cases ( eisangelia , graphe [1]) the exception. Recorded as TD are: the dike epitropes ( epitropos [2]), dike klopes ( klope ), aikeias dike , exhaireseos dike , pseudomartyrion dike , lipomartyriou dike , kakotechnion dike , biaion dike , exoules dike , blabes dike ([4. 98 f.] assumes fixed …

[German version] (λαογραφία, λαογράφος; laographía, laográphos). From the Ptolemaic period onwards, censuses were conducted in Egypt ( laographíai: the people were ‘written down’). These took place from Augustus onwards on a 7-year cycle, and from Tiberius onwards every 14 years. In the Roman period, laographía also referred to the list compiled in the process of those liable for poll tax and the poll tax itself ( Taxes). Men between the ages of 14 and 60 were subject to it unless they were Roman citizens or citizens of privileged Greek p…

[German version] (ἀμνηστία; amnēstía). Legally established relinquishment of accusation, reopening of proceedings, execution of judgement and carrying out of punishment as means of reconciling the contending parties after internal or external wars. Plutarch (Mor. 814b) mentions the Athenian amnesty decree of 403 BC τὸ ψήφισμα τὸ τῆς ἀμνηστίας ἐπὶ τοῖς τριάκοντα, while Aristotle (Ath. Pol. 39,6) and the orators Andocides (1,90), Isocrates (18,3) and Aeschines (2,176; 3,208) use the original phrasing ‘not to think badly’, μὴ μνη…

[German version] (ἐκεχειρία; ekecheiría). Technical term for ‘armistice’, ‘court rest’, and the ‘divine peace’ as agreed upon by Iphitus of Elis and Lycurgus of Sparta for the games in Olympia (Plut. Lycurgus 1,2; Paus. 5,20,1), claimed by the other great festival locations as well. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography StV II no. 185; III S. 414 (II A6)  L. Robert, Études Anatoliennes 2, 1937, 177ff.

[German version] (ἐμπορικαὶ δίκαι; emporikaì díkai). Commercial suits in Athens involving maritime imports and exports. Traders and shipowners were the parties but also foreigners and   métoikoi . The emporikai dikai could be brought on only in winter months when maritime traffic was resting. First they came under the jurisdiction of the nautodíkai, then the   eisagogeís and finally (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 59,5) under that of the   thesmothétai . Under the jurisdiction of the eisagogeís they had to be completed speedily within one month. Execution of the judgement was assu…

[German version] (ἔγκλημα; énklēma). In general Greek usage ‘reproach’, in the laws of Athens ‘suit’ in civil trials, in the criminal law of Egyptian papyri ‘charge’. Before the law, which in Athens required written form for the court file (presumably 378/7 BC), the enklema was a verbal application to the head of the court (  dikastḗrion 3.) to open the trial, which included the name of the parties, the suit and, if provided, (in the   tímētos agṓn ), an estimate of the judgement sum. Written enklḗmata are preserved in Dem. Or. 37,22-32; 45,46, and imprecisely called   graphḗ …

[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] (ἀπογραφή; apographḗ) was in Athens any written statement in respect of an authority, especially the submission of a list of goods to be confiscated by the state. Subsequently the application for confiscation of the listed stock and the whole confiscation process were also called apographe [1]. Trial by jury, normally presided over by the Eleven Men, was responsible for the proceedings. In Egypt apographe meant a written notice to a public authority on property or personal status as well as an entry in the public land registry [2]. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography 1 A. …

[German version] This name has been given to a papyrus scroll of 2 m in length discovered by S. Gabra in Tuna-el-Gebel, which contains 10 columns of a legal text in the Demotic language. The text dates from the 1st half of the 3rd cent. BC, but individual regulations could reach back to the time of the pharaohs; in POxy 46,3285 two fragments of a Greek version have survived, dating to the 2nd half of the 2nd cent. AD. Viewed in today's terms, the content can be divided into four sections: 1. Land …