Table of Contents
Preface 8
Part 1 The Growth of a Legal System
I Judgements in Early Greece
Introduction 10
Primitive disputes 11
Kings 13
Elders and people 16
The trial on the shield of Achilles 18
Public opinion 21
II Magistrates and Juries
Kings and arkhons 24
The Areopagos 27
The Eliaia 29
Democratic juries 33
The allotment of jurors to courts 35
III The Code of Laws
Drakon and Solon 41
Laws and decrees 43
The reinscription of the laws 46
Legislation by nomothetai 48
Graphe paranomon 50
IV Prosecutors and Cases
Volunteer prosecutors 53
What the laws specified 54
Types of case 57
Public prosecutors 61
Sycophants 62
Part 2 The Scope of the Law
V Personal Status
Citizens by birth 67
Citizenship conferred on aliens 70
Outlawry and disfranchisement (atimia) 73
Aliens 75
Resident aliens (metics) 76
Privileged aliens 78
Slaves 79
Freedmen 82
Public slaves 83
VI The Family
Control of dependants and of an oikos 84
Marriage 86
Concubinage 89
Children 91
Succession by legitimate sons 92
Heiresses 95
Intestate succession by other relatives 98
Adoption and wills 99
Claiming an inheritance 102
VII Death
The funeral 109
Homicide and the family 109
Kinds of homicide 113
Procedure in homicide cases 118
The use of apagoge for homicide 120
VIII Assault and Abuse
Battery and deliberate wounding 123
Sexual offences 124
Restriction of liberty 126
Slander 126
Hybris 129
IX Property
Property and owners 133
Land and buildings 134
Mines 137
Sale 138
Lease 140
Loans and security 142
Procedures for claiming property 145
Theft 147
Damage 148
Enforcement of property rights 153
X Life in the Community
Work 155
Trade 155
Town regulations 159
Military service 159
Liturgies 161
Debt to the state 164
Public officials: dokimasia 167
Public officials: apokheirotonia and eisangelia 169
Public officials: euthyna 170
Corruption and improper participation in public business 172
XI Treason
Tyranny and subversion of democracy 175
Betrayal 176
Misleading the people 179
Informing (menysis) 181
Eisangelia 183
The trial of the Arginousai generals 186
Execution ordered by the Boule 189
Report (apophasis) from the Areopagos 190
XII Religion
Sacred law 192
Festivals 194
Impiety 197
Atheism 200
Part 3 Legal Proceedings
XIII Arbitration
Private arbitration 203
Deme and tribe judges 206
Public arbitration 207
Appeal and annulment of public arbitration 209
XIV Barring Legal Action
Diamartyria 212
Paragraphe 214
Diamartyria in the fourth century 217
Paragraphe and the role of the jury 219
XV Foreigners, Merchants, and the Legal Calendar
Treaty cases (dikai apo symbolon) 220
The polemarch and the xenodikai 221
The Athenian Empire 224
The legal calendar and the nautodikai 228
The mercantile laws and monthly cases 231
XVI Trial and Punishment
Initiation by a magistrate 235
Initiation by a private individual 237
Preliminary proceedings 240
Evidence 242
The trial 247
Penalties 254
Pardon and amnesty 258
Notes 260
Index 276