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Article

evidence, ancient attitudes to, Greek and Roman  

Stephen Todd

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
There are various contexts in which Greeks and Romans sought to demonstrate things. Problems of knowledge were raised by philosophers at least as early as *Plato (1) (this is one function of the theory of forms), even though epistemology did not become an independent issue until the rise of Pyrrhonian scepticism (see pyrrhon). In history, however, the question particularly interested the founders of the genre. *Herodotus repeatedly identifies his informants, even when he explicitly rejects their accounts (e.g. 1. 182. 1). *Thucydides (2) too uses oral testimony, but realizes the dangers of oral tradition (see orality): this presumably is why he sticks to contemporary history, where he combines an explicit theory of cross-examination (1. 22–3) with a steadfast refusal to acknowledge his sources. One later Greek historian, *Polybius (1) (e.g. 4. 2. 3), pays at least lip-service to Thucydides' views on evidence, but the question did not apparently worry Roman writers: *Livy's Preface displays an explicit commitment to the truth, but he makes no use of primary sources; and even this commitment seems to be undermined by the half-heartedness with which *Cicero acknowledges the historian's duty not to lie (De or.

Article

exile, Greek  

Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Exile (φυγή, literally ‘flight’) is permanent (aeiphygia) or long-term removal from one's native place, usually as a punishment imposed by government or other superior power. In Greece it was from earliest times a standard consequence of homicide, and was as much a religious way of getting rid of a source of *pollution as a punishment. Thus *Zeus in *Homer's Iliad is said to make men exiles, driving them like a gadfly over the face of the earth (24. 532 f.).In Classical Greece exile was a punishment for various offences, such as professional failure by a general or ambassador (for Athens see e.g. Thuc. 4. 65, 5. 26. 5). Sometimes, however, the ambiguity of the word ‘to flee’—‘be exiled’ or ‘flee’—means we do not know if an individual was formally exiled or simply fled voluntarily to escape worse. In addition, we often hear of political exiles, as individuals or groups; where the latter feature in the sources, it is usually because they are intriguing against their home government (see e.g. Thuc. 1. 115. 4 or 6. 7. 1 and 3). Again, it is sometimes unclear whether such exiles were driven out by actual decree or because life was for whatever reason intolerable. Occasionally whole communities were displaced; these and other émigré groups in ancient Greece, as in other periods and places, tended to keep their sense of identity, see e.

Article

Four Hundred, the  

Antony Andrewes and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Four Hundred, the, a revolutionary *oligarchic council set up to rule Athens in 411 bce. The movement started in the fleet at *Samos in summer 412, when *Alcibiades offered to win Persian help for Athens if an oligarchy were established. *Pisander (2) was sent to Athens to prepare the way, and secured an embassy to negotiate with Persia. Though the Persian negotiation failed and the oligarchs discarded Alcibiades, it was then too late to stop. In spring 411 the oligarchic clubs (*hetaireiai) murdered prominent democrats and intimidated the council (*boulē) and assembly (*ekklēsia). So far the published programme was ‘moderate’: abolition of civilian stipends (see democracy, athenian for such political pay) and the restriction of the franchise to 5,000, those ‘able to serve the state in person or with their wealth’. But after Pisander's return to Athens in May a meeting of the assembly, summoned to hear the proposals of a constitutional commission, was persuaded or terrorized into electing five men who, indirectly, selected 400 to act as a council with full powers to govern. The supporters of the original ‘moderate’ programme were overwhelmed by the extremists of the 400, who never summoned the 5,000, and who attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate with Sparta. But the democrats regained the upper hand in the fleet at Samos; and when the Peloponnesians attacked *Euboea, the squadron hastily sent by the 400 was defeated.

Article

freedmen/freedwomen, Greek  

David M. Lewis and Sara Zanovello

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
24 May 2017
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Greek Law
In the Greek world, manumission, which spelt the end of an individual’s life in slavery, was achieved in a variety of ways, but it often entailed legal obligations to remain (paramenein) as a free servant for a fixed period of time. In some cases, freedmen and freedwomen subject to paramone obligations were able to “buy out” of this condition (apolysis). Manumission documents, which have been found in many parts of the Greek world, particularly in northern Greece (especially Delphi), reveal the legal position of slaves and how it differed from the legal position of freedpersons. Unlike in Rome, freedpersons in the Greek world did not automatically become citizens of their ex-owner’s polis (although some freed slaves did manage to achieve naturalization in return for benefactions bestowed on the community). In Athens, they held a legal position almost identical to that of resident foreigners (metoikoi), with some minor differences. Manumission was usually a private act, but in some cases the polis manumitted privately owned slaves, and in Sparta, helots could only be manumitted by the state. The frequency of manumission in the Greek world remains a debated topic, but recent work has raised the possibility that its use as an incentive for slaves was probably targeted mainly at slaves working in skilled, “care-intensive” roles, and also for slaves (including hetairai) with whom individuals conceived sexual attachments.

Article

freedom in the ancient world  

K. Raaflaub

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
  2. Roman Law
On the individual and social levels, the distinction between free and unfree is as old as slavery, and individual or collective freedom from dues, taxes, and other obligations as old as communities with centralized government. These concepts are attested in Egyptian and Mesopotamian documents and the Hebrew Bible. Nevertheless to these civilizations—as to ancient China—the concepts of free citizens or of political freedom were unknown. Typically, near-eastern societies were characterized by a plurality of statuses ‘between slavery and freedom’ (Pollux) and ruled by autocratic and divinely sanctioned monarchs or an absolute divine law. Obedience and integration into a given order were the prime virtues; the rise and fall of empires and cities, protection from foreign enemies, or, individually, status change or protection from domestic exploitation were seen as results of divine will. Such conditions were not conducive to recognizing freedom as a political value. Despite their charter myth of liberation from Egyptian slavery, even the Hebrews (see jews) began to use freedom politically only under Hellenistic influence.

Article

gerousia  

Stephen Hodkinson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law

The council of elders in Greek cities, notably at *Sparta. The Archaic and Classical Spartan gerousia comprised 28 men aged over 60, drawn de facto (if not de iure) from the leading families, together with the two kings. Membership was for life; vacancies were filled through competitive acclamation by the citizens. Its functions included control over resolutions introduced before the assembly (probouleusis), although its application to matters of foreign policy is debated; trial of important criminal cases (although there is dispute over royal trials); and supervision of laws and customs. Sparta's Hellenistic and Roman gerousia underwent various changes. Membership was reduced to 23, the minimum age to perhaps 40, and the office became annual. Its supervisory role was taken by the *nomophylakes, who with the *ephors assumed much of the probouleutic function. The council of Roman Sparta was a composite of all three sets of officials.

Article

Gortyn, Gortyn law code  

Victor Ehrenberg, Lucia F. Nixon, and Simon Price

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
  2. Greek Material Culture
Gortyn was a city in central *Crete. From the 7th cent. bce are known a temple to *Athena on the acropolis, and one to *Apollo Pythios on the plain; an agora lies at the foot of the acropolis. By the 3rd cent. bce Gortyn was one of the most important cities on the island. It had conquered Phaestus, gaining an extensive territory and a good harbour at Matala in addition to the one at Lebena, and had entered into long-term hostilities with *Cnossus. After Cnossus had been captured by Q. *Caecilius Metellus (Creticus), Gortyn, which had sided with the Romans, was made the capital of the new province of Crete-*Cyrene. The well-preserved Roman-period city was extremely extensive (c. 150 ha.: 370 acres), and includes a large governor's residence (praetorium), baths, a circus, a theatre and amphitheatre, and seven Christian basilicas including one to Agios Titos (late 6th/early 7th cent. ce).

Article

government/administration, Greek  

P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
The Greek states involved their citizens, as far as possible, in carrying out decisions as well as in making decisions, and did little to develop a professional *bureaucracy. The need for regular administrators was reduced by such practices as tax-farming, the system of *liturgies, through which rich citizens were made directly responsible for spending their money for public purposes, and reliance on individuals to prosecute offenders not only for private wrongs but also for wrongs against the state.Democratic Athens, with its large number of citizens, its extensive overseas interests, and money with which to pay stipends, developed a particularly large number of administrative posts—700 internal and 700 external in the 5th cent. bce, according to the text of Ath. pol. 24. 3, though the second 700 is probably corrupt. The work of administration, where it could not be devolved, was divided into a large number of separate, small jobs, and most of those were entrusted to boards of ten men, one from each tribe, appointed by lot for one year and not eligible for reappointment to the same board: it was assumed that the work required loyalty rather than ability. The council of five hundred, itself appointed by lot for a year, acted as overseer of the various boards. (See boulē.

Article

grammateis  

Arnold Wycombe Gomme and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law

Secretaries of various kinds; generally not responsible magistrates, though like them appointed for a year only, by election or by lot. In Athens the principal secretary, responsible for publishing documents which emanated from the council or assembly, was until the 360s a member of the council (*boulē), elected to serve for one prytany (see prytaneis) only, thereafter a citizen appointed by lot for the whole year. Other secretaries included one, appointed by election, whose duty was to read documents aloud at meetings of the assembly (see anagnostes). Various boards of officials had secretaries of their own. In the 4th cent. bce there was a secretary to the *thesmothetai, appointed by lot from the tribe (see phylai) which had not supplied any of the nine *archontes, who functioned as a tenth archon in matters such as the organization of the lawcourts where each tribe needed to be represented.

Article

graphē  

D. M. MacDowell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law

Graphē (γραφή) in Athenian law was a type of prosecution, the commonest public action. The name seems to imply that when this procedure was instituted its distinctive feature was that the charge was made in writing, whereas in other actions the charge was made orally. Any Athenian with full citizen-rights who wished (ὁ βουλόμενος) could prosecute; and since prosecution by anyone who wished was introduced by *Solon, it is probable, though not attested, that it was Solon who introduced graphē. By the 4th cent. bce charges in other actions also were put in writing, but the name graphē continued to be used for an ordinary public action, excluding special types like apagōgē or phasis (see law and procedure, athenian, § 3). Sometimes it was used more loosely to refer to any public action, or to the written charge in any case.

Article

graphē paranomōn  

D. M. MacDowell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Graphē paranomōn (γραφή παρανόνων) in Athens was a prosecution for the offence of proposing a law or decree which was contrary to an existing law in form or content. As soon as the accuser made a sworn statement (ὑπωμοσία) that he intended to bring a graphē paranomōn against the proposer, the proposal, whether already voted on or not, was suspended until the trial had been held. If the jury convicted the proposer, his proposal was annulled and he was punished, usually by a fine; if a man was convicted three times of this type of offence, he suffered disfranchisement.It is not known when this type of action was instituted, but the earliest known cases are the prosecution of Speusippus by Leogoras in 415 bce (Andoc. 1. 17) and a case involving *Antiphon (1) and *Demosthenes (1), the general, around the same time (Plut.

Article

guardianship, Greek  

Adolf Berger and Barry Nicholas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
The development of the law of guardianship in Greece and Rome was influenced by the change in the conception of guardianship itself, which began as a right of preserving and protecting the ward's property in the interest of the whole kin (as contingent heir of the ward), but became gradually a duty of the guardian in the interest of the ward. This explains the restrictions imposed upon the guardian with regard to his control over the child's property, and the increasing supervision of public authorities over his activity as guardian. The Greek guardian was either epitropos (lit. ‘master’, ‘lord’) of boys and girls until their majority—18 years in the case of boys—and registration in the citizen list, or kyrios (lit. ‘trustee’, ‘steward’) of women for lifetime or until marriage. Guardians were appointed by the father's will; failing testamentary appointment the next relatives (brother or uncle), being the most likely successors, were entitled to claim the guardianship; in the absence of these an official (the chief archon in Athens) appointed the guardian. The guardian had to provide for the ward's education, attend to all his interests, and represent him in legal transactions: in general he was required—as Plato, Laws 11.

Article

hektēmoroi  

Arnold Wycombe Gomme, Theodore John Cadoux, and Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Hektēmoroi (ἑκτήμοροι), ‘sixth-parters’, a class of peasants in Attica before *Solon. Exactly what they were and what Solon did for them was not clearly remembered and is much disputed. They had to hand over to the rich one-sixth of the produce of the land they worked for them, on penalty of enslavement for themselves and their families, and this obligation was signalled by markers (ὅροι) of wood or stone; Solon abolished the status and uprooted the markers, thus ‘freeing the black earth’ as he put it.The nature of the original obligation is the most controversial feature of all this. It was surely no ordinary debt, certainly not one in monetary form (*coinage was still in the future). Nor is it easy to understand the jump straight from indebtedness to slavery: loss of the land would have been an obvious intermediate stage, if the land had originally belonged (in some rudimentary sense of that word) to the hektēmoroi.

Article

hellanodikai  

Frederick Adam Wright and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Hellanodikai (‘Greek judges’), the title of the chief judges at the *Olympian Games, the *Nemean Games, and the Asclepian Games (see asclepius) at *Epidaurus. The Olympic hellanodikai were appointed for a single festival from the leading families of *Elis: they presided over the games, exercising disciplinary authority over the athletes, and over the banquet which ended the festival. The title was also used for a magistracy in *Sparta (Xen.

Article

helots  

David M. Lewis

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
The helots were the slaves of the Spartans. Distributed in family groups across the landholdings of Spartan citizens in Laconia and Messenia, helots performed the labour that was the bedrock on which Spartiate leisure and wealth rested. Since they outnumbered the Spartiate class, keeping the helots in line was a significant challenge, and scholars are divided over the degree of tension that marked helot-Spartiate relations and the intensity of oppression inflicted upon the former by the latter. Debates exist over many other aspects of helotage, e.g., the krypteia, the alleged massacre of 2,000 helots, the socio-economic organization of helotage, the demography of the helot population, helot rebellion, and the ancient tradition of comparing the helots to other servile groups (e.g., the penestai of Thessaly, the Mariandynoi of Heraclea Pontica).Crucial to the operation of the Spartan sociopolitical system, the exploitation of the helots was, in Plato’s view (Leg.

Article

hieromnēmones  

Francis Redding Walton and Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Religious officials found in many Greek states. *Aristotle (Pol. 1321b) classifies them with the civil registrars of public and private documents, and temples frequently served as record offices. Their functions varied widely: some appear as archivists, others as financial officers, some managed the festivals or controlled temple properties, and in several cities, e.g. Issa and *Byzantium, they were the eponymous magistrates. They usually formed a college, and the position was one of responsibility and honour. Best known are the hieromnēmones who represented their states in the Delphic-Pylaean amphictiony (see amphictiony; delphi). Their number was normally 24, but varied considerably under the Aetolian domination (c.278–178 bce). Their exact relationship to the other delegates, the pylagorai (in the Aetolian period called agoratroi), is not clear. The duties of the hieromnēmones are set forth in a law of 380 (IG 22.

Article

homicide, Greek  

Edward Harris

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 June 2020
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Homicide was considered the most important crime in Athenian law because the killer attempted to usurp the state’s monopoly of legitimate violence. To express the special nature of homicide, the laws of Athens created special courts and procedures. The person accused of murder was considered polluted and was banned from agora and shrines. There were four basic categories of homicide: intentional homicide tried at the Areopagus, involuntary homicide and planning a homicide tried at the Palladion, and just homicide according to the laws tried at the Delphinium. Similar rules and procedures were found in other Greek communities. In the Laws, Plato proposed certain reforms for Athenian homicide law.According to Demosthenes (20.157–158), the most important goal of the Athenian legal system was to prevent men from killing one another. Draco, the author of most of the laws on homicide, therefore made the act of killing an object of fear and terror. Because homicide was the most serious offense, the laws, oaths, sacrifices, proclamations and procedures were very different from those for other offenses; it was so heinous that it was considered a crime against both gods and men (.

Article

homonoia  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Homonoia (ὁμόνοια) lit. ‘oneness of mind’, a political ideal first met in Greek writers of the later 5th cent. bce, essentially signifying either(1) concord or unanimity within the *polis and especially the avoidance of *stasis or(2) the achievement of *Panhellenic unity against the *barbarian (i.e. *Persia or *Macedonia). The ideal was sufficiently powerful (because so rarely attainable) to attract theoretical praise, as perhaps in the lost speech On Concord by *Gorgias (1) (408 bce?), and, from the 4th cent. bce on, *personification (a woman) and worship, as with the Panhellenic cult of the ‘Homonoia of the *Hellenes’ at *Plataea (BCH1975, 51 ff. = Austin no. 63 (trans.); see persian-wars tradition). The restoration of internal homonoia is a constant theme of Hellenistic decrees for foreign *judges (see arbitration, greek).

Article

hubris  

N. R. E. Fisher

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
  2. Greek Literature
  3. Greek Myth and Religion
  4. Philosophy
Hubris, intentionally dishonouring behaviour, was a powerful term of moral condemnation in ancient Greece; and in Athens, and perhaps elsewhere, it was also treated as a serious crime. The common use of hubris in English to suggest pride, over-confidence, or alternatively any behaviour which offends divine powers, rests, it is now generally held, on misunderstanding of ancient texts, and concomitant and over-simplified views of Greek attitudes to the gods have lent support to many doubtful, and often over-Christianizing, interpretations, above all of Greek tragedy.The best ancient discussion of hubris is found in *Aristotle's Rhetoric: his definition is that hubris is ‘doing and saying things at which the victim incurs shame, not in order that one may achieve anything other than what is done, but simply to get pleasure from it. For those who act in return for something do not commit hubris, they avenge themselves. The cause of the pleasure for those committing hubris is that by harming people, they think themselves superior; that is why the young and the rich are hubristic, as they think they are superior when they commit hubris’ (Rh.

Article

Hyperides, Athenian orator and politician, 389–322 BCE  

Judson Herrman

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Law
  3. Greek Literature
Hyperides (Ὑπερείδης), son of Glaucippus of the deme Collytus, was one of the ten canonical Attic orators and was esteemed by ancient critics as a versatile speechwriter; as a politician, he was a prominent opponent of Macedon in the period before and after the battle of Chaeronea.Hyperides' biographical details can be gathered from the pseudo-Plutarchan Lives of the Ten Orators ([Plut.] X Orat. 848d–850b), and from references in contemporary speeches and inscriptions.1 Apparently, he was born to a wealthy family, as he is reported to have studied with Plato and Isocrates ([Plut.] X Orat. 848d, Hermippus frr. 67–68 Wehrli).2 He refers (Hyp. Eux. 28–29) to three prosecutions as his first political cases, beginning with actions against Aristophon and Diopeithes of Sphettus, and culminating in an impeachment (see eisangelia) in 343 of Philocrates for his role as leader of the delegation that negotiated the notorious peace treaty with .