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Ancient Greek Law
Ancient Greek laws consist of the laws and legal institutions of ancient Greece. The existence of certain general principles of law in ancient Greece is implied by the custom of settling a difference between two Greek states, or between members of a single state, by resorting to external arbitration. The general unity of ancient Greek law shows mainly in the laws of inheritance and adoption, in laws of commerce and contract, and in the publicity uniformly given to legal agreements. While some of its older forms can be studied in the Gortyn code, its influence can be traced in legal documents preserved in Egyptian papyri and it may be recognized at a later period as a consistent whole in its ultimate relations to Roman law in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire, with scholars in the discipline of comparative law comparing Greek law with both Roman law and the primitive institutions of the Germanic nations. Diversity of Greek law Ancient Greece lacked a codified law cod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and communities. Prior to the Roman period, most of these regions were officially unified only once under the Kingdom of Macedon from 338 to 323 BC. In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period. Three centuries after the decline of Mycenaean Greece during the Bronze Age collapse, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and the colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Greece, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens and the Peloponnesian War. The u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Of The Athenians (Aristotle)
The ''Constitution of the Athenians'', also called the ''Athenian Constitution'' (), is a work by Aristotle or one of his students. The work describes the constitution of Athens. It is preserved on a papyrus roll from Hermopolis, published in 1891 and now in the British Library. A small part of the work also survives on two leaves of a papyrus codex, discovered in the Fayum in 1879 and now in the papyrus collection of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. Discovery The Aristotelian text is unique because it is not a part of the ''Corpus Aristotelicum'' as preserved through medieval manuscripts. It was lost until two leaves of a papyrus codex carrying part of the text were discovered in the Fayum in 1879 and published in 1880. A second, more extensive papyrus text was purchased in Egypt by an American missionary in 1890. E. A. Wallis Budge of the British Museum acquired it later that year, and the first edition of it by Frederic G. Kenyon was published in January, 1891. The editio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycurgus (lawgiver)
Lycurgus (; ) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with the formation of its (), involving political, economic, and social reforms to produce a military-oriented Spartan society in accordance with the Delphic oracle. The Spartans in the historical period honoured him as a god. As a historical figure, almost nothing is known for certain about him, including when he lived and what he did in life. The stories of him place him at multiple times. Nor is it clear when the political reforms attributed to him, called the Great Rhetra, occurred. Ancient dates range from – putting aside the implausibly early Xenophonic 11th century BC – the early ninth century () to as late as early eighth century (). There remains no consensus as to when he lived; some modern scholars deny that he existed at all. The reforms at various times attributed to him touch all aspects of Spartan society. They included the creation of the Spartan constitution (in most traditions a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece. Sparta was recognized as the leading force of the unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with the rising naval power of Classical Athens, Athens. Sparta was the principal enemy of History of Athens, Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), from which it emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami. The decisive Battle of Leuctra against Thebes, Greece, Thebes in 371 BC ended the Spartan hegemony, although the city-state maintained its Independence, political independence until its forced integration into the Achaean League in 192 BC. The city nevertheless recovered m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seisachtheia
Seisachtheia (, from σείειν ''seiein'', to shake, and ἄχθος ''achthos'', burden, i.e. the relief of burdens) was a set of laws instituted by the Athenian lawmaker Solon (c. 638 BC–558 BC) in order to rectify the widespread serfdom and slavery that had run rampant in Athens by the 6th century BCE, by debt relief. Debt in Athenian society Under the pre-existing legal status, according to the account of the '' Constitution of the Athenians'' attributed to Aristotle, debtors unable to repay their creditors would surrender their land to them, then becoming ''hektemoroi'', i.e. serfs who cultivated what used to be their own land and gave one sixth of produce to their creditors. Should the debt exceed the perceived value of the debtor's total assets, then the debtor and his family would become the creditor's slaves as well. The same would result if a man defaulted on a debt whose collateral was the debtor's personal freedom. Seisachtheia reforms The ''seisachtheia' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solon
Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy.Stanton, G. R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'', Routledge, London (1990), p. 76.E. Harris, "A New Solution to the Riddle of the Seisachtheia", in ''The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece'', eds. L. Mitchell and P. Rhodes (Routledge 1997) 103 Solon's efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral declineAristotle, ''Politics'', 1273b 35–1274a 21 resulted in his Solonian Constitution, constitutional reform overturning most of Draco (lawgiver), Draco's Draconian constitution, laws. Solon's reforms included debt relief later known and celebrated among Athenians as the (shaking off of burdens). He is described by Aristotle in the ''Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle), Athenian Constitution'' as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draco (lawgiver)
Draco (; , ), also called Drako or Drakon, according to Athenian tradition, was the first legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. He replaced the system of oral law and blood feud by the Draconian constitution, a written code to be enforced only by a court of law. His laws were supposed to have been very harsh, establishing the death penalty for most offenses. Tradition held that all of his laws were repealed by Solon, save for those on homicide. An inscription from 409/8 BC contains part of the current law and refers to it as "the law of Draco about homicide". Nothing is known about the specifics of other laws established by Draco. According to some scholars, Draco may have been a fictional figure, entirely or in part. Biographical information about him is almost entirely lacking; he was held to have established his legal code in the year 621/620 BC. Since the 19th century, the adjective ''draconian'' (Greek: , ) refers to similarly unforgiving rules or laws in Greek, English, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draconian Constitution
The Draconian constitution, or Draco's code, was a written law code enforced by Draco in Athens near the end of the 7th century BC; its composition started around 621 BC. It was written in response to the unjust interpretation and modification of oral law by Athenian aristocrats. As most societies in Ancient Greece codified basic law during the mid-seventh century BC, Athenian oral law was manipulated by the aristocracy until the emergence of Draco's code. Around 621 BC the people of Athens commissioned Draco to devise a written law code and constitution, giving him the title of the first legislator of Athens. The literate could read the code at a central location accessible to anyone. This enactment of a rule of law was an early manifestation of Athenian democracy. Background The need for written laws began with the unequal access to legal knowledge of the aristocracy as compared with the general populace; the established laws of Athens were inefficiently formulated in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiryns
Tiryns ( or ; Ancient Greek: Τίρυνς; Modern Greek: Τίρυνθα) is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis in the Peloponnese, and the location from which the mythical hero Heracles was said to have performed his Twelve Labours. It lies south of Mycenae. Tiryns was a hill fort with occupation ranging back seven thousand years, from before the beginning of the Bronze Age. It reached its height of importance between 1400 and 1200 BC, when it became one of the most important centers of the Mycenaean world, and in particular in Argolis. Its most notable features were its palace, its Cyclopean tunnels and especially its walls, which gave the city its Homeric epithet of "mighty walled Tiryns". Tiryns became associated with the myths surrounding Heracles, as the city was the residence of the hero during his labors, and some sources cite it as his birthplace. The famous megaron of the palace of Tiryns has a large reception hall, the main room of which had a throne place ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreros Inscription
The Dreros inscription is the earliest surviving inscribed law from ancient Greece. It was discovered in Dreros, an ancient settlement on the island of Crete, in 1936, and first published by Pierre Demargne and Henri van Effenterre in 1937. Thirteen stones inscribed with archaic letters were discovered in a Hellenistic cistern in Dreros. These stones apparently came from the east wall of the temple of Apollo Delphinios, and make up eight inscriptions or fragments of inscriptions. This display of laws in public, often in sanctuaries, is a frequent feature of archaic Cretan law. The Dreros inscription is the longest of these eight laws. The Dreros law is inscribed on a block of grey schist. The block is broken into two parts, and in total measures . The block is inscribed with large, irregular letters high. Lilian H. Jeffery describes the lettering as "tall, thin, and straggling", and notes that it resembles the lettering on the Dedication of Nikandre. There are four full ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Substantive Law
Substantive law is the set of laws that governs how members of a society are to behave.Substantive Law vs. Procedural Law: Definitions and Differences, Study.com/ref> It is contrasted with procedural law, which is the set of procedures for making, administering, and enforcing substantive law. Substantive law defines rights and responsibilities in civil law, and crimes and punishments in criminal law, substantive equality or substantive due process. It may be codified in statutes or exist through precedent in common law. Substantive laws, which govern outcomes, are contrasted with procedural laws, which govern procedure. Henry Sumner Maine said of early law, "So great is the ascendency of the Law of Actions in the infancy of Courts of Justice, that substantive law has at first the look of being gradually secreted in the interstices of procedure; and the early lawyer can only see the law through the envelope of its technical forms."Henry Sumner Maine. On Early Law and Custom. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
