Greek Law

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Article

adeia  

Arnold Wycombe Gomme and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Adeia, ‘immunity’, sometimes in Greece offered to men accused of involvement in a crime who were willing to inform on others (e.g. *Andocides in Athens' religious scandals of 415 bce). In Athens the term is used also of a special vote by the assembly permitting itself to discuss a subject which otherwise it would be forbidden to discuss (e.g. to levy the tax called *eisphora) or more generally to override an ‘entrenchment clause’ in an earlier decree forbidding discussion of a matter without a vote of immunity.

Article

adoption, Greek  

Mark Golden

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Greeks counted on their heirs for support in old *age, and for continuation of their oikoi (families) and tendance of their tombs after death. But high mortality ensured that many had no surviving children. Adoption was a common recourse, probably encouraged by the great variation in fertility characteristic of populations with unreliable means of *contraception. The fullest accounts can be provided for *Gortyn and *Athens in the Classical period.The law code of Gortyn apparently modifies prior practice. It permits an adult male to adopt anyone he chooses, including someone without full membership in the community, even if he already has legitimate children; however, the inheritance of those adopted in such circumstances is less than it would be if they were themselves natural children. Adoptive fathers are to announce the adoption to a citizen assembly and make a stipulated payment to their *hetaireia (in this context, a kind of kinship group analogous to the *phratry); they may also publicly disavow the adoption, and compensate those adopted with a set sum.

Article

adultery, Greek  

Mark Golden

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
At Athens, a law (attributed to *Draco or *Solon) allowed a man who killed another he found in the sexual act with his wife, mother, sister, daughter, or concubine held for the purpose of bearing free children, to plead justifiable homicide; such adulterers might also be held for ransom. It is probable that there was also a graphē against adulterers, possible that those caught in the act were delivered to the *Eleven for summary execution or trial. Adulterous wives had to be divorced, and were excluded from public sacrifices. As for unmarried women, Solon supposedly permitted a κύριος (‘controller’, male representative at law) to sell a daughter or sister into slavery if he discovered she was not a virgin. No instances are known, however, and indeed some husbands too probably preferred to respond (or not) to adultery without recourse to the law, so avoiding public dishonour. Many states are said to have allowed adulterers to be killed with impunity (Xen. Hiero 3.

Article

Aeschines (1), c. 390–c. 322 BCE  

Edward Harris

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
  2. Greek Literature
Aeschines was an Athenian politician and orator. He came from a respectable family but was not a member of the wealthy elite. He worked as a secretary for the Council and Assembly, then as an actor. He participated in the embassies that negotiated the Peace of Philocrates with Philip II and argued for its ratification. After the Second Embassy to Philip, Demosthenes and Timarchus accused Aeschines of treason. Aeschines convicted Timarchus of being a homosexual prostitute, which discouraged Demosthenes from bringing his accusation to court until 343/342. Aeschines was acquitted by a narrow margin, but lost influence. He defended the Athenians against the charges of the Locrians at a meeting of the Amphictyons in 339. He accused Ctesiphon of proposing an illegal decree of honours for Demosthenes in 336, but he lost the case by a wide margin at Ctesiphon’s trial in 330.Ancient critics consistently included Aeschines in the canon of the ten great Attic orators. Cicero ranked him second only to .

Article

Agiads  

Paul Cartledge

Article

Publication History:

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

The Agiads were the senior royal house at Sparta, descended mythically from the elder of Heraclid twins (Hdt. 6. 52; see heracles); the junior was known as the *Eurypontids. The origins of the Spartan dual kingship are unknown, but the office was entrenched in the ‘Great Rhetra’ ascribed to the lawgiver *Lycurgus (2) (Plut. Lyc. 6) and persisted until the end of the 3rd cent. bce. Distinguished Agiads included *Cleomenes (1) I, his half-brother *Leonidas (1), and *Cleomenes (2) III. The latter effectively terminated the traditional dyarchy in c.227 by installing his brother on the formerly Eurypontid throne.

Article

agoranomoi, Greek  

Alain Bresson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
The agoranomoi were the magistrates who, in the Greek cities, were in charge of policing and organizing the market. Their role was to make sure that transactions were conducted according to the laws of market, which primarily meant preventing cheating on the quality of the goods offered for sale and on the weights and measures used by sellers. Their tasks could also include watching over the nature and quality of the coins used as means of exchange. They were in charge of monitoring prices and, in some cases, they set prices of goods—some basic foodstuffs like fish or meat. They also had to make sure that the market supply of essential goods remained adequate. The number of agoranomoi decreased in the late Hellenistic period (in Athens, from ten in the Classical period to only two). Late Hellenistic and Roman period magistrates belonged to the well-to-do stratum of the population in the cities, and the agoranomoi were no exception.

Article

aisymnētēs  

Percy Neville Ure and Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Aisymnētēs, according to *Aristotle (Pol. 1285a), a supreme ruler appointed by some early city-states in times of internal crisis, for life, for a prescribed period, or till the completion of the task, e.g. *Pittacus at *Mytilene (IACP no. 798 at 1027). Aristotle defines the office as an elective *tyranny; *Dionysius (7) of Halicarnassus (5. 73) compares the Roman *dictator. If Aristotle's account is accurate (and his definition has been questioned), these aisymnētai have affinities with the early lawgivers (*Solon, *Zaleucus, *Demonax, etc. ), the difference presumably being one of local nomenclature. Inscriptions (Syll.3 38, 57, 272, 642, 955) show regular magistrates so called in Teos, Miletus, Naxos, Megara, Selinus, and Chalcedon. The word first occurs in Od. 8. 258, meaning a referee (see Hainsworth's note; cf. also Il. 24. 347 with Richardson's note for the related word αἰσυμνητήρ).

Article

amnesty  

Stephen Todd

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
To propose or demand the recall of *exiles was common throughout the Greek world, and attempts by such exiles to recover confiscated property frequently provoked further strife (e.g. Xen. Hell. 5. 3. 10–17). Far less common was an amnesty in the formal sense of an act of state, though cf. *Ptolemy (1) VIII's indulgences in 118 bce (PTeb. 5. 1–9) and perhaps also the so-called amnesty law of *Solon (Plut. Sol.19). The most famous ancient ‘amnesty’ was not a legislative act (despite *Plutarch's use of the word amnēstia to suggest a Roman parallel, Cic.42) but part of an agreement at Athens in 403 bce between opponents and former supporters of the *Thirty Tyrants; the (incomplete) text at Ath. pol. 39 prohibits mnēsikakein (‘remembering wrongs’, sc. in a lawcourt) against all except specified oligarchic officials. Narrative sources present this agreement as the successful achievement of democratic magnanimity, though it was evidently imposed by the Spartan king *Pausanias (2).

Article

Andocides, c. 440–c. 390 BCE  

George Law Cawkwell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
A member of a distinguished aristocratic family whose grandfather had been one of the ten Athenian envoys who negotiated the *Thirty Years Peace of 446. In 415, shortly before the great expedition to Sicily was due to depart, the Athenians were greatly dismayed one morning to discover that in the night the statues of *Hermes around the city (see herms) had been mutilated: Hermes being the god of travellers, this act was presumably intended to affect the progress of the expedition, but it was also taken, curiously, as a sign that the democracy itself was in danger. In the subsequent accusations the young Andocides and his associates in a club, which was probably suspected of oligarchic tendencies (see hetaireiai), were named as having shared both in the mutilations and in the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries (see demeter; eleusis), and were arrested. Andocides, to secure immunity and, as he claimed, to save his father, confessed to a share in the mutilations and gave an account of the whole affair which, though it may have been far from the truth, was readily accepted by the Athenians. This secured his release, but shortly afterwards, when the decree of Isotimides, aimed at him especially, forbade those who had confessed to an act of impiety to enter temples or the *Agora, Andocides preferred to leave the city and began to trade as a merchant, in which role he developed connections all over the Aegean and in Sicily and Italy.

Article

ankhisteia  

D. M. MacDowell

Article

Publication History:

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

Ankhisteia (ἀγχιστεία), a kinship group, extending to second cousins, or perhaps only to first cousins once removed. In Athenian law the nearest relatives within this group had the right to inherit property (see inheritance, greek); if a person was killed, it was their duty to prosecute the killer. Relatives on the father's side took precedence over those on the mother's.

Article

antidosis, 'exchange'  

D. M. MacDowell

Article

Publication History:

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

In Athens was a legal procedure concerned with *liturgies. Liturgies were supposed to be performed by the richest men. If a man appointed to perform one claimed that another man, who had not been appointed and was not exempt, was richer than himself, he could challenge him either, if he admitted being richer, to perform the liturgy or, if he claimed to be poorer, to exchange the whole of his property for that of the challenger, who would then perform it. If the challenged man failed to fulfil either alternative, the case went to trial (diadikasia) by a jury, who decided which man should perform the liturgy; this was probably the most usual upshot, though actual exchanges of property sometimes did take place.

Article

Antiphon (1), Attic orator, c. 480–411 BCE  

Michael Gagarin

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Antiphon (1), of the *deme of *Rhamnus (c.480–411 bce), the first Attic orator whose works were preserved. From a prominent family, he participated in the intellectual movement inspired by the *sophists, taking a particular interest in law and rhetoric; he reportedly taught *Thucydides (2), among others. Many (though not all) scholars are now inclined to identify him with *Antiphon (2) ‘the Sophist’ (Xen. Mem., fragments of whose work Truth are concerned with the nature of justice and the relationship between nomos (‘law, convention’) and phusis (‘nature’).Thucydides (8. 68) praises Antiphon highly for integrity (aretē), intelligence, and power of expression, adding that he stayed in the background himself but made his reputation giving advice to others. He credits Antiphon with planning the oligarchic coup that overturned the democratic constitution of Athens for a few months in 411 bce (see four hundred).

Article

apodektai  

P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Greek Law
Apodektai (‘receivers’), at Athens, a board of officials who received the state's revenues and, in the 5th cent. bce, paid them into the central state treasury, in the 4th, apportioned them (merizein) as directed by law among separate spending authorities. They were appointed by lot, one from each of the ten tribes or *phylai (Ath.

Article

Apollodorus (1), Greek orator and litigant, c. 394–after 343 BCE  

Jeremy Trevett

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Apollodorus (1) (c.394–after 343 bce), the elder son of the Athenian banker *Pasion, was a minor politician and assiduous litigant. He is the speaker of seven speeches, wrongly attributed to *Demosthenes (2), which provide much information about him and his family. He repeatedly quarrelled with his step-father *Phormion (2) over money, and in c.349 made an unsuccessful attempt to prosecute him for embezzlement (see Dem. . His early political affiliations are unclear, but in 348, possibly at the instigation of Demosthenes, he made an unsuccessful attempt to divert the budgetary surplus from the theoric (see theōrika) to the military fund. In the late 340s he prosecuted Neaera, the wife of a political opponent, for illegal usurpation of Athenian *citizenship (see Dem. . She was a former courtesan, and the speech is a rich source of information about the Athenian demi-monde (see hetairai).

Article

arbitration, Greek  

Edward Harris and Anna Magnetto

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Greek Law

One of the most important decisions a litigant could make was the choice whether to submit his dispute to a private arbitrator or to go to trial. Private arbitration had several advantages because it provided a more flexible procedure and afforded the possibility of compromise solutions aimed at promoting good relations between the parties. By contrast, a trial was an all-or-nothing procedure, which created winners and losers. Nevertheless, there were disadvantages to private arbitration: the arbitrators might be reluctant to vote against a friend, or one of the parties might not agree to arbitration. Because public officials were not involved, documents might be lost. The institution of public arbitrators retained the advantages of private arbitration but avoided several of the disadvantages. Above all, it aimed to promote good relations between the parties and to avoid a bitter fight in court.

Interstate arbitration is identified by the sources as a genuine Greek tradition, attested to be from the Archaic period, that was employed and fostered by other powers, such as the Hellenistic Kings and Republican Rome. It allowed two parties in conflict to solve disputes by resorting to the judgment of a third party agreed upon by both. Its use contributed to the establishing of forms of international law, encouraging the poleis to identify a set of shared principles and rules, at least for territorial disputes, the most common kind of controversy.

Article

archontes  

Arnold Wycombe Gomme and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Archontes (‘rulers’), the general Greek term for all holders of office in a state. But the word was frequently used as the title of a particular office, originally at least the highest office of the state. Archontes are found in most states of central Greece, including *Athens, and in states dependent on or influenced by Athens.In Athens by the 6th cent. bce there were nine annually appointed archons. The powers of the original hereditary king (basileus) came to be shared among three officials: the basileus, who retained particularly the religious duties; the archōn, who became the civilian head of state; and the *polemarchos (‘war-ruler’), who commanded the army. (The Athenians believed that there had been a gradual transition from kings through life archons and ten-year archons to annual archons; annual archons allegedly began c.683/2 bce.) Six *thesmothetai (‘statute-setters’), judicial officials, were added to the original three; and in the 5th or 4th cent. the board was made up to ten with the addition of the secretary to the thesmothetai, so that one could be appointed from each of *Cleisthenes (2)'s ten tribes (*phylai).

Article

Areopagus  

Edward Harris

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Christianity
  3. Greek Law
The Areopagus council was the most respected court in Classical Athens. It had jurisdiction in trials for intentional homicide, intentional wounding, poisoning, and arson. The Areopagus could launch investigations into crimes on its own initiative or at the command of the assembly and exercised surveillance over religious matters. The assembly might also delegate specific tasks to the Areopagus. There is no reason to think that the Areopagus acquired additional powers during the Persian Wars later removed by the reforms of Ephialtes. During the Roman period, the Areopagus was the leading political body alongside the council and assembly, and the herald of the Areopagus one of the most prestigious offices.The Areopagus was the most respected political institution in Classical Athens and retained its prestige down to the Roman Empire. Lycurgus(Leoc. 12) called it the finest example of justice in all of Greece. Demosthenes(23.65) claims that “in this tribunal alone no defendant who has been convicted or accuser who has lost has even proved that his case was wrongly decided.” .

Article

aristocracy  

Victor Ehrenberg and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

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

The term is applied by modern scholars to the regimes of early Greece in which states were ruled by the noble families which had emerged from the Dark Age with the most landed property and political power, but the word aristokratia is not found before the 5th cent. bce, perhaps coined in response to ‘*democracy’. Thereafter it was the preferred term of those wishing to give a favourable picture of oligarchy. In *Plato (1)'s Republic aristocracy is the name given to the ideal form of constitution when there are several rulers rather than one; in the threefold classification of monarchy (*kingship), *oligarchy, and democracy aristocracy is the good form of oligarchy.

Article

assembly, Macedonian  

R. M. Errington

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Mass assemblies are known from Macedonia under the monarchy only in times of crisis; since Macedonian crises were usually directly military or connected with a military operation, those assembling were soldiers or soldiers and camp-followers, who were asked to support a decision already taken by the king or (if the king was dead) by leading barons and officers. There is no ancient evidence for an assembly ever having met at regular intervals, either in peacetime or in war. Reported meetings are always ad hoc and reflect a temporary weakness of the leading persons (whether the king or other leaders) caused by extreme circumstances which momentarily created an unusual level of dependence on the army by the leade (s), and necessitated the acquisition of practical support for an unusual, difficult, or even dangerous decision by those immediately affected by it. Modern historians writing about Macedonia have often been dissatisfied with merely describing the subtle and unsystematic workings of this state dominated by its kings and barons, who, however, were in practice dependent on maintaining the support of the army for their extravagant military operations. Some have tried to explain what they found by extrapolating from the loosely structured play of political forces which the sources report a more developed, more civilized, and more systematic assembly system. Picking up tiny hints from writers of the Roman empire, who were either interpreting a particular political situation in Roman terms for their Roman readers (e.g. Q.

Article

astynomoi  

Arnold Wycombe Gomme and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Law
Astynomoi (‘city magistrates’), an office found mostly in the Ionian states (see ionians). In *Athens there were five for the city and five for the *Piraeus, appointed by lot for one year. Their principal duties were to keep the streets and sanctuaries clean and free from obstructions, and they enforced certain sumptuary laws (Ath.