Search

(ὕβρις; hýbris). Ethical term for a behaviour that is deliberately dishonouring, including humiliating bodily infringements such as rape (authoritative definition: Aristotle Rh. 1378 b; Latin superbia). Etymologically, hybris is probably derived from Hittite huwap-: ‘to abuse’, the noun being * huwappar > * huppar [1]. Positive opposites:   aidṓs ,   díkē ,   eunomía ,   sōphrosýnē . [German version] I. General In early Greek literature, hybris appears within the much varied terminological chain of ólbos - kóros - hýbris - átē (‘wealth’ - ‘fullness’ - ‘arrogance’ - ‘ruin’; e.…

[German version] (παραμονή; paramonḗ). Noun formed from the verb παραμένειν ( paraménein, 'to stay with someone') used throughout Greece to denote a number of legal relationships. In Egyptian and Mesopotamian papyri the word paramone regularly occurs as a civil-law obligation whereby the debtor subjected himself or a dependant of his, to the power of the creditor to repay the capital sum or the interest ( antíchrēsis [6. 127]). Contracts for the letting of services or the completion of a task ( místhōsis ) often contained a paramone-clause, however, these did not entail civil-la…

[German version] I. General In antiquity homicide is often not yet differentiated from other crimes of killing ( Killing, crimes of). In many ancient laws the special reprehensibility or danger of a behaviour that resulted in the death of another human being was not yet considered a reason for a respective sanction. Thus, in the case of ancient Oriental laws, it would be inappropriate both with regard to the term and the matter to speak of particular offences amounting to homicide within the framework of crimes of killing. Neumann, Hans (Berlin) [German version] II. Greece In archaic Gre…

[German version] (βεβαίωσις; bebaíōsis). In legal transactions involving the transfer of possession of an object, i.e. purchase contracts [4. 115f.], contracts governing transfer of use (μισθώσεις, misthṓseis [3. 141; 4. 122]) and arrhal contracts connected with παράδοσις ( parádosis), bebaiosis signifies the undertaking by the previous owner to the new owner not to interfere with the latter's acquired right of possession (in the papyri: μὴ ἐπελεύσεσθαι, mḕ epeleúsesthai), and to defend that right against third parties [1. 357, 360, 444]. In the event that t…

[German version] (ἀργίας γραφή; argías graphḗ). After Draco (before 600 BC), probably to preserve households with considerable land property, had issued a law against idleness and had threatened it with   atimia , Solon (594/3 BC) made the action into a public one, reduced the punishment to a fine and implemented atimia only on the third conviction. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography E. Ruschenbusch, Unt. zur Gesch. des athenischen Strafrechts, 1968, 50 f.

[German version] (δικάσπολος; dikáspolos). In the Homeric epics this term applied to a king or geron (member of the council of elders) in the role of judge or magistrate (Il. 1,238). Wielding a sceptre he would deliver the judgement (θέμιστες, thémistes) coming from Zeus. It depends on one's theory about the course of a lawsuit (  dikázein) how this is to be imagined in practice. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography M. Schmidt, LFE 2, 1991, 302.

[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] (εἰσαγγελία; eisangelía). In Athens, eisangelia, in the technical sense, refers to a type of public complaint in criminal matters from Solon's times (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 8,4.). Eisangelia designates the statement of claim (Lycurg. 34,137) as well as the proceedings it institutes. The charges were submitted in writing and argued in detail. The proceedings went through a series of changes over the course of time. Originally, they were designed for criminal acts not covered by the laws. Later, the criminal act…

(δικαστήριον ; dikastḗrion). A. Athens [German version] 1. Court site There were two types of court sites, those at which homicidal crimes were judged (φονικά, phoniká) and those at which other public or private suits were negotiated. The former, of which there were five, were at the edge of the town for ritual reasons and had no roof to avoid being tarnished by the accused (Antiph. 5,11; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 57,4) while the latter were at the market or in its immediate vicinity. Except for the two largest ones, the Hēliaía (Ἡλιαία) and the site of the   ekklēsía (ἐκκλησία), they had a roof. The pho…

[German version] (σίτου δίκη; sítou dík ē). Literally a 'claim' for maintenance in the form of 'grain' or 'bread'. In ancient Athens, a man who, after engýēsis (establishment of husband's rights) but before cohabitation ( ékdosis [1]) with the woman concerned, had already received the dowry ( proíx ), or retained the dowry after dissolution of the marriage, had to pay the woman annual maintenance amounting to 18 % of the value of the dowry (1.5 % per month). The kýrios ('head of household') might levy sitou dike for a woman in his charge, or take up δίκη προικός ( díkē proikós, 'dowry procee…

[German version] (κακηγορία; kakēgoría), verbal insult, an offence in Athens since the period of Solon (6th cent. BC). Deceased persons were always protected, living persons only in the case of defamation in public (Plut. Solon 21; Dem. Or. 20,104). The insulted person could file a private complaint ( dike), but had to share the compensation fine with the state. In the 4th cent. BC, all prohibited insults were recorded on a list (e.g. murder, striking the parents, throwing away the shield), but the…

[German version] (μαρτυρία, martyría). In Greek law, the deposition in court of a testimony, its content or a document drawn up for this purpose. Witnesses (μάρτυρες, mártyres; synonyms [2. 2032f.]) were formally invited to be present at business transactions, and witnesses to wrongful acts were called by the injured or avenging party. At the time of the Attic orators (5th/4th centuries BC) they were not sworn in but affirmed that they were ‘acquainted with’ a formulaic phrase drawn up by the person presenting the case o…

[German version] (ἀγραφίου γραφή; agraphíou graphḗ). In Athens a written charge of ‘not writing down’ by a debtor (and therefore annulment of his debt), counted by Aristotle (Ath. Pol. 59,3) as one of the public actions which came into the area of competence of the thesmothetai. According to Demosthenes (58,51) these are state debtors who had carried out deletion of their names from the publicly drawn-up list, even though the debt had not been paid (Harpocration, dependent on Demosthenes, who also quotes Lycurgus and Pytheas as sources, al…

[German version] (λογογράφος; logográphos). Writer of Greek court speeches. The ten classical Attic rhetors were called logográphoi. The word was, however, also frequently used in a derogatory sense (e.g. Aeschin. 1,94; 3,173). As in principle the parties in the proceedings in Athens had to represent the matter themselves before the court, the ‘orator’, if he was not appearing on his own matter, remained undetected in the background: he was not a representative of a party or an attorney ( syndikos ), but a ‘speech writer’ (which is how logographos should be literally translated). H…

[German version] (ὠνὴ ἐν πίστει/ ōnḕ en pístei, literally 'purchase on trust') in Graeco-Egyptian law describes a real security corresponding to 'assignment by way of security' (beside enéchyron, pawning, hypothḗkē and hypállagma ). In papyri, OEP dogmatically corresponds to ancient Greek prā́sis epì lýsei . The seller (= loantaker) sells to the buyer (= loangiver) a thing at a price which corresponds to the size of the debt. The object purchased serves as security for the debt, on the payment of which, ownership ( kyrieía, see Kýrios II.) reverts to the seller. This is the conse…

[German version] (κατήγορος; katḗgoros). The prosecutor in Athens. Athenian public criminal law was based on the principle of popular complaint ( graphḗ ), a special office for public prosecution did not exist. Nonetheless, in cases that threatened the state directly, the council or the public assembly could nominate citizens to represent the interests of the state without holding an office. They were called kategoros, or, more frequently, synḗgoros (‘attorney’) (representation of the demes: Aristot. Ath. Pol. 42,1; IG II2 1196; 1205). In such cases, the public assembly c…

[German version] (κακογάμιον; kakogámion, literally ‘marrying badly’) was a punishable offence in Sparta (Stob. 66,16), or ‘it appears’ (Plut. Lysander 30,7) to have been prosecuted through dike , although clearly this did not entail a private complaint as in agamíou díke . It is unknown what offences committed by the husband counted as kakogámion or what punishments were imposed. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography D. M. MacDowell, Spartan Law, 1986, 73f.

(γραφή; graphḗ). [German version] [1] Statement of complaint Literally ‘script’, in adjective law in Greek poleis graphe generally had the meaning ‘statement of claim’ (Dem. Or. 45; 46; cf. also IPArk 17; 114/5; 178 from Stymphalus and SEG 27, 545, 27 and 33 from Samos). Especially in Athens graphe was used in the actual sense of ‘complaint document’ that each blameless citizen (ὁ βουλόμενος, ‘each person who wishes’) could lodge against persons who harmed certain public interests, whilst a party whose rights had been infringed in a private sense could defend himself with   díkē [2]. Thi…

[German version] (ἐπιδικασία; epidikasía). In Athens, the legitimate natural sons of the testator or those adopted during his lifetime (  eispoíēsis ) could claim their inheritance through the simple act of   embateúein , but outside heirs needed an epidikasia decree from the archon to do so ( Archontes [I]). This arrangement, similar to the granting of the Roman   bonorum possessio , authorised the applicant to come into the inheritance, but did not exclude the possibility of a later court decision regarding the right of succession of another pretender (  diadikasía ). Similarly, the   e…

[German version] (ἀπενιαυτισμός; apeniautismós). Absence for a year, penalty of exile, usually for one year, for certain crimes or misdemeanours, in particular manslaughter by criminal negligence (Bekker anecdota 421,20; Suda), which, pronounced by the court, could be in force as φυγή ( phygḗ) for a fixed time, if it was not taken in the strict legal sense, but as a pseudo- phyge (suspension of citizens' rights and duties and automatic reinstatement at the end of the term). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography D. M. MacDowell, Athenian Homicide Law, 1963, 122 f.