A-dictionary-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities-william-smith

SYMBOLON. SYMBOLON. 1081
such disputes could be decided by legal process,
either in the one country or the other. Among
every people, however, the laws were so framed,
as to render the administration of justice more
favourable to a citizen than to a foreigner ; and
promise, an action for breach of contract would
nave Iain at Athens. Hut if my cow had broken
my neighbour's fence, my obligation to repair the
damage would have given rise not to an action for
breach of contract, but to a o"Imj &\d€-ns. (Meier,
Att. Proc- pp. 476, 477.) On the other hand, a
StKTj /3Adfiijs would lie against a person who had
committed a breach of contract ; for he was re
garded as a wrongdoer, and liable to pay compen
sation to the party injured. Therefore Dionysodorus,
who had failed to perform the conditions of
a yavriK^j trvyypcupfy, had a 5i'mj £AaS»/s brought
against him by the persons who lent him money
on his ship. (Demosth. 1282 ; see also pro Phorm.
950, c. OUlipp. 1240.) The Athenian law fre
quently gave an option between various forms of
action. It is not, however, improbable that the
; ffvv$r}Kwv iraptx€datws was only one species
of the BLkt) £Au€n?, and the name one of a less
technical kind. Wherever a debt had become
due to a man by reason of some previous contract,
we may suppose that he had the option between
an action of debt (xplovs) and one for breach of
contract The same observation will apply to the
M/cat iropoxaTa&ifirny, apyvpiov, and others of a
similar kind. The main point of difference might
be this: that in a general action for breach of con
tract, the plaintiff went for unliquidated damages,
which the court had to nssess ; whereas, upon a
claim to recover a debt or sum certain, or a specific
chattel, the court had nothing more to do than to
determine whether the plaintiff was entitled to it
or not ; the hyiev was ar^TjTos. All such actions
were tried before the &etrfxoOeTai. (Meier, Att.
Proc. pp.67, 184, 493—497, 510.)
'0^0X07(0 appears to be a word of less technical
nature than