Das 21. Symposion der Internationalen Gesellschaft für griechische und hellenistische Rechtsgeschichte fand vom 20. bis 23. August 2017 in Tel Aviv statt. Es wurden 16 Vorträge gehalten, deren Diskussion jeweils ein Respondent eröffnete. Die Vorträge und Antworten zu folgenden Themenbereichen sind in diesem Band zusammengefasst: archaisches griechisches Recht, Recht des klassischen Athen, epigraphische und literarische Zeugnisse des Rechtslebens aus weiteren Poleis der hellenistischen und römischen Zeit sowie juristische Papyrusdokumente. Der Band ist dem Andenken Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewskis gewidmet, Mitbegründer des „Symposion“ und Mitorganisator seit 1971. Die Veranstaltung pflegt das Zusammenwirken der rechtswissenschaftlichen mit den altertumswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen auf internationaler Basis und lässt den Vortragenden freie Hand bei der Wahl von Themen aus ihren aktuellen Arbeitsgebieten.
Die soziokulturelle Stellung des ägyptischen Diasporajudentums im Hellenismus nach Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski
Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski laid the foundations for a new perspective on the socio-cultural standing of the Egyptian diaspora Jewry in Hellenism — one freed of anachronistic concerns. To illustrate this fact, the article below will outline in how far Mélèze Modrzejewski’s approach marked an important step in the history of research. In doing so, it will become apparent to what extent Mélèze Modrzejewski’s work changed the face of Hellenistic diaspora Jewry from a sociocultural and legal point of view.
Schlagworte: Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski, history of research, Hellenistic Egypt, diaspora Jewry, anachronism
Dikai in the chôra: Another Perspective of Mélèze-Modrzejewski’s Politikoi Nomoi
In his règle de droit dans l'Égypte ptolémaïque Professor Mélèze Modrzejewski studied how the law of the Greek city state penetrated the Egyptian chôra in the Hellenstic period. Focusing on a sphere of the law that was left untreated in that seminal paper— the prosecution of delicts—this paper stresses the relyance of Greek courts and state officials in the chôra on types of suits (dikai) originally conceived within the law of the city of Alexandria.
Schlagworte: administration of justice, politikoi nomoi, dikasteria, Alexandrian law, petitions
L’apport de l’approche juridique pour l’étude des Acta Alexandrinorum : l’exemple des Acta Pauli et Antonini
Les Acta Pauli et Antonini ont été la plupart du temps mal compris. Une analyse plus fine révèle pourtant que les Alexandrins, avec Antonin à leur tête, contrevinrent à la lex Iulia de vi, et furent condamnés au terme d’un processus respectant le droit. Ces événements s’inscrivent par ailleurs dans une situation d’instabilité plus générale en Égypte qui aboutirait à la réorganisation de la juridiction préfectorale et à une restriction des appels auprès du tribunal impérial afin de répondre plus rapidement à une situation d’État d’urgence.
Schlagworte: Acta Alexandrinorum, Acta Pauli et Antonini, Alexandrie, Égypte, préfet
Athenian Constitutionalism: nomothesia and the graphe nomon me epitedeion theinai
This article investigates whether Athenian nomothesia and graphe nomon me epitedeion theinai created a system of checks and balances on legislative activity akin to modern ‘constitutionalism’. Although Athens did not have a separate written constitution, the Athenians discussed new legislation, engaging with the existing laws as a coherent whole, ‘as though there were a constitution’ – in doing so they used and enforced constitutional arguments.
Who are the Athenian ἐξηγηταί, and what was their official role? The analysis of the most significant evidence shows that there were two categories of exegetes; the Eumolpids, guardians of the rules concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries; and other exegetes (without qualification in the literary sources), experts of the so called “sacred law”. Their activity cannot be considered “interpretation” in the modern sense of the word.
Schlagworte: exegetai, eumolpids, sacred law, secular law, written law
Outlawry in Classical Athens: Nothing to Do with atimia
This paper challenges a long-standing prejudice, and argues that the theory of evolution of atimia from archaic outlawry to the classical deprivation of citizen rights is not supported by the sources. Rather than being the predecessor of atimia, outlawry was an entirely different form of punishment that involved selfhelp by any citizen and existed throughout the classical and Hellenistic periods alongside atimia, which was one of the legal penalties inflicted by the courts.
Challenges in Athenian Law: Going Beyond Oaths and basanos to Proposals
This paper aims to broaden our thinking about “proposals” (or “challenges”), which until now has focused on oaths and basanos. In addition to these I discuss proposals to resolve the case or an issue in the case, to go to arbitration, to produce a text and to testify in court, distinguishing between proposals that are seriously intended and those made primarily for rhetorical purposes.
The Role of the Complaint (graphe / enklema) in the Athenian Legal System
This paper examines the complaint and its relationship to the statutory charge and Athenian notions of relevance. The paper argues that the complaint did not provide a limit on what was considered legally relevant in court. Moreover, the characteristics of our surviving complaints suggest that it is unlikely that they greatly enhanced legal certainty.
Schlagworte: Ancient Athens, law, graphe, enklema, Complaint, Relevance
Due to the sources, beside the parties’ names and the demanded penalty (timema), a plaint (enklema) contained the description of the matter of fact (pragma) and the rule (nomos) that, according to the claimant, had been violated by the defendant. This pattern (that could also fit with the basic structure of the Roman actiones) shows that it were the parties who, when preparing an action and therefore writing an enklema, had to suggest in which way the opponent’s behaviour had violated which law.
Schlagworte: enklema, subsumption, anakrisis, procedure in iure, epigramma
Two types of bilingual records of legal proceedings are known from late antique Egypt: a) detailed records of proceedings including lawyers’ speeches, witness statements and examination by the judge; b) concise records of the so-called ‘libellus procedure’, i.e. court cases that were handled bureaucratically without a hearing. These however do not constitute two different forms of legal procedure but merely represent different phases of the same legal process: whereas libellus papyri document the initium, that is the commencement of the legal action, detailed reports record the cognitio, i.e. the actual judicial proceedings. The so-called ‘libellus procedure’ was modelled on the processing of petitions through subscriptio and was introduced in the first half of the 4th century.
Schlagworte: Late Roman Egypt, court proceedings, petitions, libellus-procedure, subscriptio
On the basis of the Magdeburg project “Magic curses as enforcement of law” and its database “TheDeMa” the paper collects and analyses all the elements in the ancient curse tablets, greek and latin, which are connected, in a strict sense, with the given legal systems and procedures in ancient societies.
Schlagworte: curse tablets, defixiones, judicial curses, magic and law
Zur Euergesia Hadrians über die Verpachtung des Staatslandes in Ägypten
The article deals with the legal implications of a group of documents addressed to a local official in the Egyptian Chora. These documents are offers for lease of state land for a reduced rent by referring to an edict of the emperor Hadrian which aimed at a reduction of the fiscal burden on the population of the province of Egypt.
Schlagworte: Edict, Roman Egypt, Lease, remissio mercedis, State Land
This paper argues that slaves in classical Athens routinely sought to pass as free persons and citizens, and that they often succeeded in doing so. Comparative evidence from other slave-owning societies shows that successful passing leaves little trace in the historical record. Evidence can be found, however, in the laws that were passed to prevent it, as well as the records of trials concerning identity.
The Status of Slaves Manumitted Under paramonē: A Reappraisal
This paper reappraises the question of manumitted slaves’ status during the time of paramonē, that is, during the time they were obligated by the manumission agreement to stay with the ex-master or anyone else he/she indicated and perform services as ordered. I argue that the manumitted slaves’ status under paramonē was servile (vis-à-vis their manumittors) and free (vis-à-vis other persons).
Schlagworte: slavery, freedom, manumission, paramonē, status
The Characters of Theophrastus: Reflections of Legal Practice in Every Day Life
The paper examines information on private law (family, slaves, professions) and litigation contained in the Characters of Theophrastus. Behavioural flaws, seen as the opposite of the norm, present a mirror reflection of the “code of behaviour” of the good citizen. It is argued that the work offers an insight on legal conceptions and communal values of the late fourth-century BCE and “photographic” images of the Athenian law in action in both private and public life.
Schlagworte: Theophrastus, Characters, Athenian law, Family Law, Athenian Lawcourts
Plutarch on Demetrius of Phalerum: the Intellectual, the Legislator and the Expatriate
Throughout the Lives and the Moralia, Plutarch regularly mentions the work, the activity or even the exemplum of Demetrius, both as a source of information on others and as a very stimulating character per se. From those passages emerges the figure of Demetrius as the intellectual, the politician and the legislator, and finally that of the expatriate fallen in disgrace, who was nevertheless able to recover his vitality and influence in the court of the Ptolemies.
Schlagworte: Plutarch, Demetrius of Phalerum, legislation, Athens and Macedonia