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[German version] (δικαστής; dikastḗs). In the Greek city states lay persons rather than professional judges were appointed to the   dikastḗrion . Dikastes is therefore best translated as ‘juror’. Any male citizen of more than 30 years of age and of blameless reputation could register in Athens as a dikastes. As an ‘identification’ he was given a small …

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[German version] (καταχωρίζειν; katachōrízein). Generally ‘classify’, also military, in official Hellenistic language specifically ‘register, enter in a list’. Thus, for example, in the Greek motherland, simple popular decisions (esp. honours) were protected against repeal by ‘entering’ them formally among the laws. In Roman Egypt, katachorizein might describe any entry in a list, especially important being the incorporation of a copy of the document in the bibliothḗkē enktḗseōn ( Land register). Katachorizein could also signify a legal action against unknown offe…

[German version] (χειρόγραφον; cheirógraphon), literally ‘handwriting’ (handwritten note). Along with the   syngraphe the most common form of private document in the Egyptian papyri. Entering the Roman world from the 3rd/2nd cents. BC onwards, the cheirographon tends towar…

[German version] (κατάλυσις; katálysis). Literally the ‘dissolving’ of the constitution (τοῦ δήμου, toû dḗmou), meaning high treason, which could be persecuted by any citizen in Athens either through graphḗ or eisangelía . It is contested whether an eisangelía of this sort goes back to Solon (6th cent. BC) and was judged by the Areopagus (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 8,4). According to the council's oath transmitted in Dem. Or. 24,144, the boulḗ had the right to intervene in the katalysis. After the law on eisangelía was revoked in 411 BC (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 29,4), katalysis was regulated in detail in 410/09 (And. 1,96-9…

[German version] (πρόρρησις/ prórrhēsis, literally 'proclamation'). Prorrhesis is originally a means of blood feud against somebody accused of a bloody deed. If somebody is addressed publicly as a murderer (Homicide) by somebody who according to Draco's Law is justified in blood feud (IG I3 104,20-33; Dem. Or. 42,57), he has to stay away from the Agora and all sacred sites until the case ( phónos…

[German version] (τιμητὸς ἀγών/ timētòs agṓn, 'legal action with assessment'). In Athens every case to be decided by a dikastḗrion was either 'non-assessable' or 'assessable'. In the first case ( atímētos agṓn ), by statute a particular sanction, whether the death penalty, banishment or a fixed fine, was linked to the verdict; in the second case ( timētaì díkai ) after deciding the verdict, if it was ìaffirmed the jury had to agree again, i.e. on the extent of the punishment or on the amou…

(ἀντιγραφή, -εύς; antigraphḗ, -eús) The expression, like all litigation terms in Greek law not formulated by jurists, is imprecise [1]. It can mean: [German version] 1. Counterplea a) in the sense of a defendant's written counterplea, submitted by the defendant to the authorities responsible for the preliminary examination. He had to swea…

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[German version] (κατεγγυᾶν; kateggyân). ‘To require guarantors from defendant for his appearance at court’. In Athens, this was possible in private cases against non-citizens (Dem. Or. 32,29; Isoc. Or. 17,12; Lys. 23,9) brought before the árchōn polémarchos. Otherwise, the defendant was arrested. Citizens could be subject to the same in proceedings opened by apagōgḗ , ephḗgēsis (request before a magistrate for the arrest of a delinquent) or éndeixis . In cases of freedom, the person claiming the contested person as a slave could demand katengyan from his opponent who was in de…

[German version] (φόνος; phónos). Homicide. In Greek law the nearest relatives could originally carry out a blood fued as a result of phonos. Due to the strengthening of the polis and in Athens, in any case since Draco (end of 7th cent. BC), they were limited to a private lawsuit ( díkē ) as a result of phonos. This lawsuit was brought before the basileús (I.C.), solemn oaths ( diōmosía ) were sworn in three pre-hearings by the parties and witnesses. The adjudication, according to the severity of the crime, was made in the court sessions which met on various cult sites ( dikastḗrion A.I.). Draco …

[German version] (καδίσκοι; kadískoi). Urns used in the courts of Athens ( dikasterion) to receive the votes of the jury, referred to as ἀμφορεῖς ( amphoreís) by Aristot. Ath. Pol. 68,3. In the 4th cent. BC, each judge had two bronze voting stones (ψῆφοι; psḗphoi), one with a hollow bore for a verdict of guilty, the other solid for a verdict of not guilty (ibid. 68,4). He declared his decision by throwing one …

[German version] (ἐπιβολή; epibolḗ) Any office-bearer in Athens (  Archaí , to which the   boulḗ also belonged) was entitled by law to impose within his sphere of responsibility an epibole, a small sum up to a legally determined level by…

[German version] (τυραννίδος γραφή; tyrannídos graphḗ). Popular action for tyranny ( tyrannis ). Plutarch's report of the amnesty law of Solon [1] provides evidence that atimia (cf. also time (1)) for tyranny was already current before Solon (Plut. Solon 19). Those supporters of Cylon [1] who fled into exile after the attemp…

[German version] (συνθήκη; synthḗkē). Something 'fixed in common' by a number of parties, often recorded in epigraphic or documentary form (usually in the plural: synthḗkai). In Greek philosophy, nómos [1] and the synthēkē (as positive rules) are contrasted with nature (φύσις, phýsis) [3. 1168]. The term syntheke is used as a (document of) treaty or contract in the inter-state law of the Greek poleis and in private relationships. According to the content (alliance, friendship) or stage of the arrangement, various synonyms are used for synthēke as an inter-state agreement ([3. …

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[German version] (παραγραφή/ paragraphḗ, derived from παραγράφειν ( paragráphein, 'write beside') describes various institutions in Greek legal language. Specifically in the law of Athens, those accused, who claimed that they had been proceeded against in contravention of the 403/02 BC amnesty (see Triákonta ), had, on the basis of a law introduced by Archinus, the opportunity of adding to the statement of claim, that the díkē [2] ' was not maintainable' (μὴ εἰσαγώγιμον εἶναι, mḕ eisagṓgimon eînai; Isocr. 18,2f.). Subsequently, in separate proceedings, the dikastḗrion [2] had t…

[German version] (Ἐνεχυρασία; Enechyrasía). In Greek law the enforcement of a demand for money or the release of goods. It was used against movable and immovable assets (outside of Athens also against the person) of the debtor after the expiry of a term that is not precisely known. It was based on a judgement or an enforceable document and took the form of the creditor personally taking a colleratal. In Athens the dḗmarchos ( Demarchoi) of the debtor's community of residence gave him access to the collateral. The creditor was free to choose the collateral objects (h…

[German version] (ἐφέται; ephétai). There were in classical Athens, besides the court of  Areopagus, three further collegiate courts for capital cases; these sat at the Palladion, at the Delphinion and in Phreatto ( Dikasterion), and comprised 51 ephetai (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 57,3f.). These colleges of jurors ( Dikastes) were small in comparison with the other dikasteria. It is now believed that, prior to Solon, ephetai also sat at the court on the Hill of Ares, but at that time not all citizens could yet be appointed. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography R. W. Wallace, The Areopagos Cou…

(δημιόπρατα; dēmióprata). [German version] [1] Public auction of goods for the benefit of the Athenian state treasury The public auction of goods for the benefit of the Athenian state treasury. They were initially submitted for confiscation in the course of the   dḗmeusis mostly by the plaintiffs in the main proceeding. After the index (the   apographḗ ) of the goods to be confiscated had been read to the public assembly, ‘to notify everyone of t…

[German version] (ἐπίκληρος; epíklēros). Not quite correctly translated as ‘heiress’. If an Athenian citizen or   métoikos was survived only by daughters, they were not entitled to the inheritance in their own right, but their legitimate sons were, and so the inheritance (  klḗros ) could in some circumstances benefit a different family. Because of that danger the law allowed the nearest male collatera…

[German version] (βλάβης δίκη; blábēs díkē). In Greek law, a private action for damage to property. In the case of intentional damage, the guilty party had to pay compensation to the tune of twice the value of the damage caused, as assessed by the plaintiff in his petition. The blabes dike may originally have been legally applicable only as regards violation of the law relating to neighbours. It may only have been by virtue of case law that this restricted profile of action was extended to include other cases of damage to property. Prevailing opinion has it that this type of action provides a glimpse of the origins of Greek contract law: it is not through mere agreement that the ‘debtor’ incurs an obligation; rather, the ‘creditor’ has a claim for ‘damages’ when an asset he has received in advance from the debtor is then withheld in breach of the agreement between …

[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 could transfer the investigation to the Areopagus, whose report ( apóphasis) would occasion it to appoint kategoroi. The cou…

[German version] (ἐγγύησις; engýēsis). In Greece a festive legal act concluded between the bridegroom and the   kýrios of the bride in the presence of witnesses on which the husband's rights are founded (also called ἐγγύη, engýē), formerly wrongly interpreted as ‘engagement’. It only became fully effective with the transfer of the bride to the husband (  ékdosis ). In Gortyn the engýēsis is never mentioned b…

[German version] (λιπομαρτυρίου δίκη; lipomartyríou díkē). Law suit on account of failure to provide a witness statement. The procedural testimony ( martyría ) consisted in the Greek poleis of a statement pre-formulated by the plaintiff or the defendant that was pronounced to the witness in the procedure and which the latter confirmed by h…

[German version] (ποινή; poinḗ). Used in Homer quite concretely for blood money (Hom. Il. 18,498; aídesis ), but also generally for revenge, retribution, later extended to any monetary penalty a private person could demand for a tort ([4. 10, 35]; cf. Latin poena ; however, the extension to fines to be paid to the state or to corporal punishment entered Greek only by way of back-translation of the Latin term). The connexion with blood money (also ἄποινα, ápoina; cf. ἀποινᾶν, apoinân, demand poine, Dem. Or. 23,28 and 33; IPArk 7,14) lives on in the negative νηποινεὶ τεθνάναι ( nēpoineì tethn…

[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] (ἀγχιστεία; anchisteía). In Athens the closest collateral relatives were combined as anchisteia. In the event of  murder of a member of their family they had a duty to bring an action against the perpetrator and the right to grant pardon ( Aidesis) to an unintentional perpetrator (IG I3 104,13-25). The anchisteia also referred to the circle of those with inheritance rights if there were no direct descendants (blood or adopted   eispoiesis ). The anchisteia comprised 1) the brot…

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[German version] (πρόκλησις; próklēsis), literally 'challenge'. The concentration in cases before the Athenian courts of justice ( d ikastḗrion ) on a single time-limited trial created a need for careful preparation of material before the case, or in a preliminary trial before the relevant court magistrate ( anákrisis , diaitētaí ). Próklēsis was an opportunity to provoke the opponent to make binding statements before the trial. This means both the act, before witnesses, of making a deposition aimed at the opponent and its content  and the fixin…

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[German version] (ἀπαγωγή; apagōgḗ). ‘Taking away’ was a drastic, speedy procedure in criminal cases in Athens. In its original form it permitted two categories of criminals (κακοῦργοι and ἄτιμοι, kakoûrgoi and átimoi), if caught in the act, later also where the facts of the case were obvious, to be taken away to prison and if they confessed to be punished immediately, or otherwise to be kept in custody and handed ov…

[German version] (παράβολον; parábolon). Literally payment, a sum of money that according to Poll. 8,63, had to be deposited in Athens as security payment when lodging an éphesis …

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[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] (παρατιλμός/ paratilmós, literally the removal of hair), a measure employed against an adulterer ( moicheía ) caught in the act, whereby the hair around the anus was plucked out whilst rubbing in hot ashes. Generally it was accompanied by inserting a radish into the anus (ῥαφανίδωσις, rhaphanídōsis; Aristoph. Plut. 168 with scholia.; Aristoph. Nub. 1083). This degrading self-help measure could occur in Attic law instead of legally permitted killing, but it could also be avoided by…

[German version] (ἐπιορκία; epiorkía) means ‘perjury’, ever since Homer and throughout (with the exception of a single incidence in Solon's Laws as ‘oath’, Lys. 10,17). It was common practice for every  oath to conclude with a curse for a potential perjurer. As epiorkia was not a secular offence, its punishment ─ which was not limited to the offender himself, but could extend to his entire household ─ was in the remit of the gods, who were witnesses and guarantors of the oath (Xen. An. 2,5,21; Dem. Or. 23,68; 19,220; Lys. 32,13).  Oath Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography K. Latte, s.v. Meine…

[German version] (συνήγορος; synḗgoros), literally 'co-speaker'. Person who speaks in court with - not instead of - one of the parties in a case; a term not always distinguished from sýndikos . In principle, the Greek view was that each party should present their own case in person. In ancient Athens synēgoroi claiming either a close relationship to the party they supported or enmity to the party they opposed could be allowed in private and public actions; only accepting money was forbidden to a synegoros (Dem. Or. 47,26). Since joint action in court was, from a more recent poi…

[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 transactio…

[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. …

[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]). …

[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 …

[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 …

[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,…

[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 illustrated…

[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 / ap…