Article
incest
Mark Golden
Article
infanticide
Robert Sallares
Article
inheritance, Greek
Brenda Griffith-Williams
Ancient Greek inheritance systems were predominantly patrilineal, with (at least by the Classical period) provision for adoption of an heir or transmission through a female line in default of male descendants. Each city-state had its own inheritance laws, but detailed sources are available only for Athens and Gortyn, with some information from Sparta and Aegina. The distinctive features of the Athenian system were apparently unrestricted choice in adoption and relatively limited rights of property ownership and inheritance for women. It is clear (chiefly from the Athenian sources) that the continuity of an oikos (‘house’, or ‘line of descent’) was of major concern to the individual for religious as well as material reasons: he wanted an heir and successor not only to take over his property but also to conduct the commemorative rituals for him. The state, too, had an interest in maintaining a sufficient number of oikoi (‘households’ or ‘estates’) to provide income through public services and taxation, and to discourage the consolidation of land into the hands of a wealthy elite.
Article
Isaeus (1), Athenian speech-writer, c. 420–340s BCE
Brenda Griffith-Williams
Isaeus was a logographer (professional speechwriter) working for Athenian litigants in the 4th century
Article
Isocrates
J. D. Mikalson
Article
isonomia, 'equality of law'
P. J. Rhodes
Article
isopoliteia, 'equal citizenship'
Jakob Aall Ottesen Larsen and P. J. Rhodes
Article
judges, foreign
Antony Spawforth
Article
kingship
Oswyn Murray
Article
kinship
S. C. Humphreys
Article
law in Greece
Stephen Todd
Article
law, international
Jakob Aall Ottesen Larsen and Simon Hornblower
Under this heading law must be taken in its widest sense to include customary, religious, and moral law. Some approach to statutory law can be seen in the amphictionic laws (see
Article
laws of Crete
David M. Lewis
Article
legal procedure, Athens
Edward Harris
The Athenians strongly believed in the rule of law and attempted to implement this ideal in their legal procedures. Every year there were six thousand judges, who swore an oath to vote according to the laws and decrees of the Athenian people and to vote only about the charges in the indictment. There was a distinction between private cases (dikai), which could be brought only by the person who was wronged, and public cases (graphai), which could be brought by any citizen and in some cases by metics and foreigners. All cases were tried in one day. There were certain special public procedures for specific types of cases.
The Athenians of the Classical period strongly believed in the rule of law. In his Funeral Oration delivered in 322
For men to be happy they must be ruled by the voice of law, not the threats of a man; free men must not be frightened by accusation, only by proof of guilt; and the safety of our citizens must not depend on men who flatter their master and slander our citizens but on our confidence in the law (trans. Cooper).