Week 8 Greek Law and Athenian Legal Procedure PDF

November 4, 2024 Greek Law and Athenian Legal Procedure Law and politics are thoroughly intertwined. Legal systems for the rules that make society function. The Athenians were well aware of the importance of rules and law for society. The legal side of this has its problems, as divisions within so...

November 4, 2024 Greek Law and Athenian Legal Procedure Law and politics are thoroughly intertwined. Legal systems for the rules that make society function. The Athenians were well aware of the importance of rules and law for society. The legal side of this has its problems, as divisions within society get caught up with law making. As we move into the Classical period we have a strong sense about the rules of laws. The poet Pindar talks about the concept of Law as though it were a god. Legislation Nomos: The Greek word for ‘law,’ which is also translated as ‘custom’ There are divergent views on what constitutes a law, and where laws come from. There are those who argue that laws started from unwritten laws, better translated as ‘custom,’ which were passed along orally. Some contend that the only real laws are written. Sometime beginning in the 7th century BCE, we start seeing written laws, which continues into the 5th c BCE. The first written laws in any Greek city were attributed to Zaleucus for Locri Epizephyrii in Southern Italy, sometime quite early. The first Athenian laws were attributed to Draco (whose name means ‘Snake’) ca. 621/620 BCE. His laws were rather severe, which is why severe or outdated laws today are described as ‘Draconian.’ Draco’s homicide laws remained, although the rest were replaced by the laws codified by Solon. This had a great deal to do with reconciling the small population of wealthy and the large poor – needed a system that made everyone happy Solon’s laws were first inscribed on wooden blocks for everyone to see in public (atleast for anyone who could read) and later transferred to stone. We do not have these stones unfortunately. Trying to identify specific Solonian laws is difficult, as later laws were often attributed to him due to his outsized cultural impact in Athens as a man of great wisdom and as a law bringer. With the institution of the democracy laws could be passed by majority vote of the Assembly (ekklesia). In the 5th century BCE there was no firm distinction between a law laying down a permanent rule (nomos) and a decree for a particular occasion (psephisma). Every law and decree which is passed goes onto the books, so to speak, and over time as more laws and decrees were passed the books got more and more convoluted and muddy. After 410 BCE there was a serious attempt to clean up the situation with a series of reforms and recodifications. Judicature The administration of justice through courts and judges. This evolved just like the legal system. Until the early 6th century BCE all verdicts were given by: 9 magistrates called archontes (archons) The court of the Areopagus (the most ancient council at Athens) The ephetai (a jury of 51 members) Solon instituted a system of trial by the elaia, which was initially to hear the appeals of the verdicts of the archons, but later it was used for widely. This state of affairs proved to be inadequate, and so a system of juries was set up. Athenian’s appetite for litigations necessitated a system of juries. A number of citizens tried a case on behalf of all citizens. A list of 6,000 jurors were drawn up for a given year. Each trial was presided over by a magistrate (or group of magistrates). Throughout the Classical period the Athenians continuously tinkered with their legal system. Homicide cases remained special cases. Actions Actions = what the transgressor must do when a law is broken. AKA, the punishment. The main distinction between legal cases was whether they were public (dikai demosiai) or private actions (dikai idiai). Public actions concerned the community as a whole. These were serious cases, and penalties were imposed on those who could not garner 1/5th of the jury’s votes, or for those who abandoned their prosecution. A lot of these cases were highly political, and if it appeared that you were settling a personal score in the courts as a public action, it could blow up in your face and you could be penalized for wasting people’s time and trivializing the law. Private actions litigated wrongs or injuries suffered by an individual. These could only be raised by the person who had a claim to being wronged. No penalties were imposed if one lost their prosecution. Demosthenes, one of Athens’ great orators, prosecuted a case in which he was punched out at the festival of Dionysus. As far as we know it didn’t go to court, but the speech tells us he would’ve gunned for a charge of hubris, the sentence for which charge is death, and marks the punch he received as an attack on the whole community. Procedure Charges were made to the relevant magistrate. There was a preliminary inquiry, and an attempt to settle out of court with the help of an arbitrator. In trial, a magistrate presided over court. The prosecutor spoke first, while the litigant spoke second. The time in which one could speak was limited by a ‘water clock,’ which worked like an hourglass. The litigant had to speak for himself (or fill in if he was the closest relative of the litigant, if they were a woman or child). He was able to commission the work of a speechwriter (logographos). Speechwriters were plenty, as Athens was a hotbed of talented speechmaking due to the democratic government structure. Lysias and Demosthenes were speechwriters Evidence included character witnesses from the litigant’s friends. Documents could be read in court, witnesses could be called, and the testimony of slaves was permitted so long as the testimony was received via torture. When the speeches were over the jury immediately cast their votes with colour-coded pebbles placed in an urn (later bronze votes were used). Punishment was then proposed by both prosecutor and litigant, and a second vote was cast to determine which punishment was appropriate. The Trial of Socrates 399 BCE Socrates was charged with two things: creating new gods and corrupting the youth. In Plato’s Apology Socrates details his mission: he engaged the men of Athens who had reputations for wisdom with a line of questioning which revealed that the man was in reality not as wise as purported, often with an audience of young men. Socrates was also aligned with a youth movement with which there were accusations of political subversions and ‘atheistic’ beliefs. Socrates was convicted, and his accusers proposed the death penalty, while Socrates’ proposed penalty was that he should be fed, housed and supported by the polis for the rest of his life, ostensibly a handsome reward. With these as the two options, the jury opted to have Socrates executed. This is a rather extreme example, and typically the accusers would have proposed death with the intent that the convict would propose a more mild but still reasonable punishment, and typically a convict would propose a still rather serious punishment so that their proposal would be taken seriously, and thus avoid the more severe option. The Athenian judicial system’s chief weakness was that pretty speech could sway the crowd, however large juries were more difficult to bully or bribe. November 6, 2024 (No class)  November 8, 2024 Women and the Family in Greek Society Edward Gibbon thought that there were ‘proper’ subjects of ancient history: wars and the administration of public affairs (what wars were fought & what political affairs came and went) The 20th century saw the rise of scholarship with an interest in the people who lived throughout Greek history (this is the rise of social history). Nowadays we’re interested in the people who fought in those wars, administered these governments, and lived and participated in those societies which the wars and administrations were for. One continuous issue we have is learning about the real lives of ancient women. The vast majority of our sources from the ancient world are from men. The Greek Oikos Oikos is the ancient Greek word for the ‘household’ and how the Greeks talk about the ‘family.’ A similar word, oikia, was the physical ‘house.’ When we talk about family, what are we talking about? It is a co-resident group, many (but not all) of whose members were kin or individuals related by marriage. Studying kinship is tricky. We have a basic sense of it, but different cultures define the specificities of kinship in different ways. In Greece patrilateral kinship was more common than matrilateral kinship in the oikos. The distinction between the paternal and maternal relations was important and incorporated into the Greek language. E.g., Matros: maternal uncle. Marriage was patrilocal (Women moved from the oikos where they were born (natal family) into the oikos of their husband (conjugal family). There was often tensions between the natal and conjugal families. Women seemed to be more concerned about issues about their natal family rather than their conjugal family. The Nuclear family formed the core of the Greek oikos, but they were often a stem-family (grandparents, typically the husband’s parents, also lived in the household). We also have evidence for extended families incorporating unmarried women into the household (aunts, sisters, nieces) – mainly because women lack autonomy and need male representation for legal purposes. The senior male of the oikos was the kyrios, who took charge with the outside world and held legal authority (particularly over the women of the household). Women never severed ties with their natal home and might move back home in the case of a divorce. It was actually fairly easy for Greek men to get a divorce in Athens. All a man had to do to dissolve a marriage was return the dowry to the woman’s parents. Thus, men lived their lives in one oikos, while women lived their lives in two. Households could include non-kin members, including slaves, dependants (freedmen, women), and metics (foreigners living as lodgers or renters). Oikoi (oikos plural), particularly wealthy ones, were often very large and, by modern standards, crowded. The concept of the oikos was rooted in the physical dwelling, but included people, property, land, and animals. The aristocratic oikos often went beyond the dwelling to include other estates, farms, and businesses. All of the other real estate holdings were seen as extensions of the central oikos. The oikos was the most significant structure of economics in ancient Greece. oikonomikia = ‘economics’ Greek Houses Greek houses are the oikia, not oikos. Private houses maintained the same basic structure throughout the Classical and Hellenistic periods. We use both archaeological and literary evidence to learn about the organization of domestic spaces in the Greek world. Greek houses, at its core, were all built with a rectangular courtyard in the center and rooms opening onto the courtyard around it. Greek houses tended not to have windows, as glass production was not up to the task, nor would the houses be secure enough to protect the house from burglars. The walls totally separated the living spaces from the outside world. Second stories were common and reached by a ladder. Archaeological remains for second floors are slim, however, because second storeys were constructed from mudbrick on a stone foundation. Interior walls were plastered and often painted simply (red and white were common colours). The importance of the hearth: Literary evidence emphasises the importance of the hearth. The goddess Hestia presides over the hearth It’s clear that the Indo Europeans held the hearth to be central to the idea of community, and likely had communal hearths which was a public analog to the private hearths at the centre of each home. A lot of rituals were conducted at the hearth, particularly those for initiating women and slaves into the household. The hearth was the sacred center of the household and may have continually burned at all times. The andron (‘men’s room’) A room for entertaining guests. Cement floors were slightly raised all around for the placement of couches. Food was not eaten on tables, but while reclining on these couches. The andron has been found all throughout Greece (with the exception of Thasos), in large and small houses, in towns and rural estates, reflecting the widespread cultural practice of the symposium. Women’s quarters (gynaikonitis) are attested in literary sources but have not been securely distinguished in archaeological remains. These were likely located in the second story (explaining why we don’t have a lot of evidence) and it is generally assumed that there was some segregation of the sexes. The nature and extent of this segregation is difficult to ascertain because of the overwhelmingly masculine nature of our textual sources, which tend to exaggerate the authority of men. A Case- Study: Euphiletus’ House We are able to reconstruct this Greek man’s house because it is described in detail in Lysias’ speech On the Killing of Eratosthenes (Lysias 1). This text describes a legal trial that takes place between Euphiletus and Eratosthenes’ kin. A man named Euphiletus is on trial for the murder of another man named Eratosthenes and is in legal court. Eratosthenes’ kin are prosecuting Euphiletus on his behalf. Euphiletus does not deny that he killed him, but his defence was that his killing of Eratosthenes was justified (by law) because he committed adultery with his wife. After the birth of their child, Euphiletus’ wife moved downstairs, while Euphiletus moved upstairs. This allowed Eratosthenes to gain access to and have an affair with Euphiletus’ wife. Euphiletus killed Eratosthenes after finding this out. Euphiletus argues that this was justifiable homicide in flagrante delicto (flagrant crime). To him, he was defending the honour of him and his household. Laws and reaction to adultery were quite extreme. Adultery threatened the legitimacy of citizenship of kin so it was taken very seriously in the Greek world. In Lysias’ speech, Euphiletus is portrayed as a man with modest means, whose household only included a wife, newborn child, and two women slaves (this is a fairly small household compared to some). Lysias’ speech includes a rich description of Euphiletus’ house, from which we can establish hypothetical floor plans and sketches.