1. The rock of the Acropolis, outside the earliest of the city-walls, was the proper place for the trial of persons charged with premeditated homicide, or with wounding with intent to kill. The penalty for the former crime was death; for the latter exile; and, in either case, the property was confiscated. On the Areopagus. If the votes were equal, the person accused was acquitted. The proceedings lasted for three days, and each side might make two speeches. After the first speech the person accused of premeditated homicide was mercifully permitted to go into exile, in which case his property was confiscated, and in the ordinary course he remained in exile for the rest of his life.
2. Charges of unpremeditated homicide, or of instigating another to inflict bodily harm on a third person, or of killing a slave or a resident alien or a foreigner, were tried at the Palladion, the ancient shrine of Pallas, east of the city-walls. The punishment for unpremeditated homicide was exile At the Palladion. (without confiscation) until such time as the criminal had propitiated the relatives of the person slain, or (failing that) for some definite time. The punishment for instigating a crime was the same as for actually committing it.
3. Trials at the Delphinion, the shrine of Apollo
Delphinios, in the same quarter, were reserved for special
cases of either accidental or justifiable homicide.At the Delphinion.
At Phreatto.
4. If a man already in exile for unpremeditated homicide were accused of premeditated homicide, or of wounding with intent to kill, provision was made for this rare contingency by permitting him to approach the shore of Attica and conduct his defence on board a boat, while his judges heard the cause on shore, at a “place of pits” called Phreatto, near the harbour of Zea. If the accused were found guilty, he incurred the proper penalty; if acquitted, he remained in exile.
5. The court in the precincts of the Prytaneum, to the north of the Acropolis, was only of ceremonial importance. It “solemnly heard and condemned undiscovered murderers, and animals or inanimate objects that had caused the loss of life.”[1] The writ ran “against the doer of the deed,” and any At the Prytaneum. instrument of death that was found guilty was thrown across the frontier. The trial was held by the four “tribe-kings” (φυλοβασιλεῖς), an archaic survival from before the time of Cleisthenes. (On these five courts see Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens, c. 57, and Dem. Aristocr. 65-79.)
In all the courts of homicide the president was the archon-basileus, or king-archon, who on these occasions laid aside his crown. Originally all these courts were under the jurisdiction of an ancient body of judges called the ephetae (ἐφέται), whose institution was ascribed to Draco. The transfer of the first Ephetae. of the above courts to the council of the Areopagus is attributed to Solon. In practice the jurisdiction of the ephetae (see also Areopagus) was probably confined to the courts at the Palladion and Delphinion; but even there the rights of this primitive body became obsolete, for trials “at the Palladion” sometimes came before an ordinary tribunal of 500 or 700 jurors (Isocr. c. Callim. 52, 54; [Dem.] c. Neaeram, 10).
Except in the case of the primitive courts of homicide, the
right of jurisdiction was entrusted to the several archons until
the date of Solon (594). When the direct jurisdiction
of the archons was impaired by Solon’s institution
of the “right of appeal to the law-courts,” the
The presidents of the tribunals.
The chief archon.
The king-archon.
dignity of those officials was recognized by their having
the privilege of presiding over the new tribunals (ἡγεμονία δικαστηρίου). A similar position was assigned to the other
executive officers, such as the strategi (generals), the
board of police called the “Eleven,” and the financial
officers, all of whom presided over cases connected
with their respective departments. In their new position
as presidents of the several courts, the archons received
plaints, obtained from both parties the evidence which
they proposed to present, formally presided at the
trial, and gave instructions for the execution of the
sentence. The choice of the presiding magistrate in each case
was determined by the normal duties of his office. Thus the
chief archon, the official guardian of orphans and
widows, presided in all cases, public or private, connected
with the family property of citizens (Aristotle,
u.s. c. 56). The king-archon had charge of all offences against
The polemarch.
The strategi.
The thesmothetae.
religion, e.g. indictments for impiety, disputes within
the family as to the right to hold a particular priesthood,
and all actions for homicide (c. 57). The third
archon, the polemarch, discharged in relation to resident aliens
all such legal duties as were discharged by the chief archon in
relation to citizens (c. 58). The trial of military offences
was under the presidency of the strategi, who were
assisted by the other military officers in preparing
the case for the court. The six junior archons, the thesmothetae,
acted as a board which was responsible for all cases not specially
assigned to any other officials (details in c. 59).
The Forty, who were appointed by lot, four for each of the ten tribes, acted as sole judges in petty cases where the damages claimed did not exceed ten drachmae. Claims beyond that amount they handed over to the arbitrators. The four representatives of any given tribe received The Forty. notice of such claims brought against members of that tribe. It seems probable that they dealt with all private suits not otherwise assigned, but, unlike the archons, they did not prepare any case for the court but referred it, in the first instance, to a public arbitrator appointed by lot (c. 53).[2]
The public arbitrators (διαιτηταί) were a body including all Athenian citizens in the sixtieth year of their age. The arbitrator, on receiving the case from the four representatives of the Forty, first endeavoured to bring the parties to an agreement. If this failed, he heard the evidence The public arbitrators. and gave a decision. If the decision were accepted, the case was at an end, but, if either of the two parties insisted on appealing to a law-court, the arbitrator placed in two caskets (one for each party) copies of all the depositions, oaths and challenges, and of all the laws quoted in the case, sealed them up, and, after attaching a copy of his own decision, handed them over to the four representatives of the Forty, who brought the case into court and presided over the trial. Documents which had not been brought before the arbitrator could not be produced in court. The court consisted of 201 jurors where the sum in question was not more than 1000 drachmae (£40); in other cases the number of jurors was 401 (c. 53).
A small board of five appointed by lot, one for each pair of tribes, and known as the “introducers” (εἰσαγωγεῖς), brought up certain of the cases that had to be decided within a month (ἔμμηνοι δίκαι), such as actions for restitution of dowry, repayment of capital for setting up a business, Eisagōgeis. and cases connected with banking.
The largest and most important of the legal tribunals, the “dicastery” (par excellence), was known as the heliaea. The name, which is of uncertain origin,[3] denotes not only the place where the court was held but also the members of the court,—the heliastae of Aristophanes, the dicastae, or Heliaea. ἄνδρες δικασταί, of the Attic orators. During the palmy days of the Athenian democracy, in the interval between the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars, the total number liable to serve as jurors is said to have been 6000 (Aristotle, u.s. c. 24. 3), and this number was never exceeded (Aristoph. Vesp. 661 f.). Any Athenian citizen in full possession of his rights, and over thirty years of age, was entitled to be placed on the list (Aristotle, u.s. c. 63. 3). At the beginning of the year the whole body of jurors assembled on the hill of Ardēttos looking down on the Panathenaic Stadium, and there took a solemn oath to the effect that they would judge according to the laws and decrees of the Athenian people and of the council of the Five Hundred (Boulē), and that, in cases where there were no laws, they would decide to the best of their judgment; that they would hear both sides impartially, and vote on the case actually before the court.
It has been suggested that, as the normal number of a court was 500, the maximum number of 6000 jurors was probably divided into ten sections of 500 each, with 1000 reserves. There is evidence in the 4th century for courts of 200, 400, 500, 700 and
- ↑ In the case of “animals,” we may compare the Mosaic law of Exod. xxxi. 28 and the old Germanic law (Grimm 664); and in that of “inanimate objects,” the English law of deodands (Blackstone i. 300), repealed in 1846. See also Frazer on Pausanias, i. 28. 10.
- ↑ Cf. R. J. Bonner, in Classical Philology (Chicago, 1907), 407-418, who urges that only cases belonging to the Forty were subject to public arbitration.
- ↑ Connected either with ἁλίζεσθαι, “to assemble,” or ἥλιος, or Ἥλις (cf. Curt Wachsmuth, Stadt Athen, ii. (1) 359-364). The first is possibly right (cf. Rogers on Aristoph. Wasps, xvii. f.); the second implies that this large court was held in the open air (Lipsius, Att. Recht, 172).
