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[German version] (διαδικασία; diadikasía). In Athens a judicial procedure aimed at organizing the legal situation without plaintiffs and defendants. It was not introduced as part of the usual civil action (δίκη, díkē) and took place in two main groups of cases, namely in disputes in which two or more opponents asserted a better claim to a private or public right, or in those cases in which it was a matter of exemption from a duty under public law. In the first group the most common case involved a claim by several persons to a legacy in an inheritance dispute [1. 159ff.]. The object of the cla…

[German version] (παλινδικία; palindikía). 'Once more raising a legal action in the same matter', cf. anadikía and the underlying words (ἀνὰ/ anà and πάλιν δικάζειν/ pálin dikázein). The criticism levelled against advocates ( logográphos), to have obtained a palindikía through trickery (Plut. Demosthenes 61; Poll. 8,26), did not always have to take a rupturing of material legal power ( paragraphḗ ) into account, but could also relate to the fact that that a legal claim was prosecuted with a variety of actions, as was permissible in Ath…

[German version] (μεσεγγύημα; mesengýēma), the ‘thing entrusted’: an item or money, which was entrusted jointly by several individuals to a third party. The mesengyema was then to be returned to one or to all depositors as agreed (Harpocr. s.v.). The procedure was suitable for safe-keeping during disputes, for stakes in bets and for secure keeping of documents (cf. Isocr. Or. 12,13; IG VII 3172,69: Boeotia; BGU 592 II 9 and Mitteis/Wilcken 88,13: both 2nd cent. AD; PAntinoopolis 35 II 14, 4th cent. AD: Egypt). Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography J. Partsch, Griechisches Bürgschaftsrec…

[German version] (ἐπαγγελία; epangelía). In Athens the legally prescribed announcement of the submission of a   dokimasía against a speaker who put forward a motion in the public assembly. It could be submitted by any citizen against the applicant who had incriminated himself of an action that removed his right to speak, but who had not yet been convicted in court (Aeschin. In Tim. 28ff. 81). Epangelia means the announcement of a complaint against the obligor in the Egyptian papyri. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens II, 1971, 204 M. H. Hansen, The Athe…

[German version] (Δήμευσις; Dḗmeusis). Confiscation of assets by the state. 1. Demeusis is encountered in Greek criminal law together with capital punishment, lifelong exile or penalties for severe crimes but the term demeusis is not always used. Occasionally, demeusis occurred in Athens on its own (cf. Dem. Or. 47,44). Plato (Leg. 855a) radically rejected confiscation, apparently because of the injustice to innocent heirs [1]. The property was always confiscated for the benefit of the community even though the sum wholly or partial…

[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…

[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] (ἀνάκρισις; anákrisis). After bringing an action the parties in the proceedings met in the anakrisis, a preliminary process before the magistrate of the court. Just like the official   diaita in Athens, this appointment was used for conciliation procedures or preparation for the main proceedings before the   dikasterion . In the anakrisis the parties were obliged to answer one another's questions. This part of the proceedings can be referred to as the ‘dialectic’, as opposed to the ‘rhetorical’ part of the main proceedings. All the…

[German version] (λαοκρίται; laokrítai). Authorized by the king in Ptolemaic Egypt, consisting in each case of three judges of Egyptian ethnic origin taken from the priestly class, before whom the Egyptians (λαός/ laós, the people) could resolve their civil law disputes according to their hereditary law and in the Demotic language. A building ( laokrísion) designated for the laokritai is attested from the Fayûm (PTebtunis 795,9; 2nd cent. BC). An official of Greek nationality ( eisagogeús ) appointed by the central administration acted as the chairman…

[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] (ἐμβατεύειν; embateúein). In Athens the seizure of immovable objects (even ships, Dem. Or. 33,6) by ‘stepping upon’ them, due to a claim of ownership (law of succession of the son of the house, right of distraint, court judgement). In Egyptian papyri ἐμβαδεία ( embadeía) signified official seizure as the third stage of compulsory acquisition in real estate matters.  Succession, law of Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. Kränzlein, Eigentum und Besitz im griech. Recht, 1963, 94ff.  A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens I, 1968, 156; 272; 283  H.-A. Rupprecht, Einfüh…

[German version] (συγχώρησις/ synchṓrēsis). No later than the end of the 1st cent. BC, the synchoresis had developed as a notarial legal document in Ptolemaic Egypt, originating from the voluntary jurisdiction of the chrematistai and a conciliation of parties in a dispute before the court of chrematistai. It was issued as a regular form of document by the katalogeîon in Alexandria [1] during the Roman period. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography S. Allam, Zum Aufkommen der notariellen Urkunde (Syngraphe und Synchoresis) im griechisch-römischen Ägypten, in: Studien zur…

[German version] (οἶκος/ oîkos; “house, household”). The Greek terms oîkos and oikía (οἰκία) were often used synonymously; however, in Attic Greek, oîkos was generally no longer used to denote the house as a building, but for the household, while oikía as a rule meant the building. The work oîkos encompassed the entire possessions of the household as well as the family (although in Athenian law the term seems never to have been applied to the family). In Aristotle, the oîkos to which the married couple, their children and slaves belonged became the most important element o…

[German version] (ἀτίμητος ἀγών; atímētos agṓn). Primarily in Athens, a trial in which the accused could make no counterplea ( Antitimesis) regarding the severity of the penalty. After a guilty finding no further decision was necessary as to the degree of the punishment: the trial was ἀτίμητος, ‘beyond judgement’. The severity of the penalty was already established by the relevant law: in public trials for serious offences it often entailed death or banishment. Thür, Gerhard (Graz) Bibliography A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens II, 1971, 81f.

[German version] (ψευδομαρτυριῶν δίκη; pseudomartyriôn díkē), recorded in several Greek legal systems as an 'action for perjury'. Only a person was liable to such an action who had confirmed (generally not on oath) a pre-formulated statement of a litigant before a court ( martyría ), but not one who had denied knowledge of something out of court ( exōmosía ). The opponent in the case was entitled to undertake this private action ( díkē ); the respondent found guilty or the unsuccessful plaintiff in the original trial demanded a financial penalty proportionate to the damages ( blábēs díkē …

[German version] (ὅροι; hóroi). Boundary stones marking the boundaries (also called horoi) of political territories, temple districts and properties, public places and private land throughout the entire Greek world. They bore only the inscription hóros, sometimes with more precise additions, and were under the protection of Zeus Horios. Following inter-state arbitration in border disputes [4] and revision of leased temple land [8], commissions of ὁρισταί ( horistaí) often appeared to set the horoi in the site. As the Greek poleis did not have a  land register, horoi also function…

[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] (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.

[German version] (κατενεχυρασία; katenechyrasía). Derived from ‘security’ (ἐνέχυρον/ enéchyron, Hypotheke [1] A). The compulsory execution usually carried out privately by the creditor was called katenechyrasia, but more frequently enechyrasía . The most common term, however, was prā́xis (in rare cases eisprā́xis ). In Greece, execution always meant the confiscation and sale of different pieces of the debtor's property, never the entire estate, but (especially in Egypt) it could include the person as well. While the creditor had to proceed privately in the poleis, in Egypt it…

[German version] (φυγή; phygḗ). Literally 'flight' out of the legal community because of the threat of blood feud, which leads to the condition of 'banishment'. Dracon already intended it for homicide in Athens (end of 7th cent. BC; IG I3 104,11). Later in Greek law it was often tolerated in place of the death sentence (Dem. Or. 23,69) or imposed as a sanction for political crimes, either lifelong ( aeiphygía ) or for set periods of time ( apeniautismós ), in the case of ostrakismos for 10 years; it could be recalled by a popular decision or aídesis (agreement of penance…