Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

224 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
LAW AND ORDER
Our knowledge of crime in ancient Greece is meager. We know
much more about legal procedure than we do about criminals.
Although we hear about burglary, theft, mugging, rape, and murder,
we know only of isolated cases. We are unable to compare the
prevalence of such crimes in antiquity with their occurrence today.
Most of our evidence comes from law-court speeches that were
written on behalf of well-to-do clients embroiled in cases of disputed
adoption, inheritance, and the like. The following discussion,
therefore, reflects the limitations of our sources.
No Greek community had a police force in the modern sense of
the term. The Skythian archers whom Athens possessed had the
primary task of keeping the peace. In the absence of any state-run
means of law enforcement, it was up to the injured party to arrest
any criminal caught in the act and to bring him or her before a
magistrate. This must have been extremely difficult in the case of
victims of violent crime, especially if they happened to be elderly
or female. If the injured party was incapable of apprehending the
criminal, he or she could summon the magistrate, who would then
make an arrest on his or her behalf. Instances of this sort, however,
are likely to have been rare. In the case of a wrongful arrest, a fine of
1,000 drachmas was imposed. Other than in cases involving theft,
murder, rape, and adultery, the accused received a written summons
naming the day that he or she was required to appear before
a magistrate.
Bringing an Action
Athenian law was divided into public and private actions. Public
actions involved the community as a whole, whereas private actions
concerned individuals. There was no public prosecutor. Although
in practice many cases would have been brought to the courts by
magistrates or other officials, Solon legislated that “anyone who
wishes” was free to initiate prosecution in a public action or graphê.
This privilege was regularly abused by individuals who had an
aptitude for meddlesomeness and litigiousness and who used it to
bring frivolous or unjustifiable actions, as we know from numerous
complaints in literature as well as from remarks by prosecutors
and plaintiffs, who preen themselves on the grounds that they have
“never previously appeared before a jury of their peers.” Indeed
it seems to have been one of the major drawbacks in the Athenian
judicial system. In the case of a private suit or dikê, it was the respon-