Grammateis (secretaries) and legal procedure in ancient Athens
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22105271 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dionysios Filias (0000-0001-9359-1919, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 187-207 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-27 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Ancient History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2324-8106 • E-ISSN: 2324-8114 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/jah-2020-0003 |
| OpenAlex | W3116702854 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
The advent of writing in the Greek polis administration resulted in the appointment of officials responsible for document management. These were known as grammateis (secretaries). The need for records connected to judicial proceedings led to the involvement of secretaries in the polis legal procedure. Although there remains little evidence of this, in Athens secretarial support was certainly connected with almost every use of writing in a judicial context. Secretaries appear to have received suits, published notifications of trials and recorded fines, but their most well-attested duty is that of the reading of documents brought as evidence in the courtroom. The study of references to secretaries in a judicial context demonstrates that their duties were essential to the persons involved in the administration of justice. By keeping track of judicial documents secretaries helped the officials to keep accurate records for the sake of accountability, while the reading of legal texts enabled the Athenian citizen-judges to get to know verbatim the texts of the state laws and avoid manipulation by litigants who produced their own interpretations of a law. The purpose of this article is to present all the relevant cases of secretarial support in the justice system of Athens and to discuss the contribution made by the secretaries to the Athenian legal procedure
Accountability · Administration of justice · Duty · Economic Justice · Political science · Ancient Near East History · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · History · Law
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A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (Revised Edition)
Chapter Eight. What The Mnemones Know
Twisting the Law in Ancient Athens
Writing Greek Law
The Athenian Grain-Tax Law of 374/3 B. C
Du châtiment dans la cité
Les ευθυμοι athéniens
Literacy and Paideia in Ancient Greece
A Law in the City Eleusinion Concerning the Mysteries
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Δikaσthpia
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The Documents in the Attic Orators
Financing the Athenian Fleet
The Establishment of a Central Archive at Athens
| Highly cited | No |
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