Dikastes
Encyclopedia
Dikastes was a legal office in ancient Greece
that signified, in the broadest sense, a judge or juror, but more particularly denotes the Attic
functionary of the democratic period
, who, with his colleagues, was constitution
ally empowered to try to pass judgment upon all causes and questions that the laws and customs of his country found to warrant judicial investigation.
In the circumstance of a plurality
of persons being selected from the mass of private citizens, and associated temporarily as representatives of the whole body of the people, adjudicating between its individual members, and of such delegates swearing an oath that they would well and truly discharge the duties entrusted to them, there appears some resemblance between the constitution of the Attic dikasterion (court) and an English or American jury
, but in nearly all other respects the differences between them are large. At Athens
the conditions of his eligibility were, that the dikast should be a free citizen, in the enjoyment of his full franchise , and not less than thirty years of age, and of persons so qualified six thousand were selected by lot for the service of every year. Of the precise method of their appointment our information is somewhat obscure, but we may gather that selection took place every year under the conduct of the nine archon
s and their official scribe; that each of these ten archons drew by lot the names of six hundred persons of the tribe, or phyle
, assigned to him; that the whole number so selected was again divided by lot into ten sections of 500 each, together with a supernumerary
one consisting of a thousand persons, from among whom the occasional deficiencies in the sections of 500 might be supplied.
To each of the ten sections one of the ten first letters of the alphabet was appropriated as a distinguishing mark, and a small tablet , inscribed with the letter of the section and the name of the individual, was delivered as a certificate of his appointment to each dicast. Three bronze
plates found in the Piraeus
, and described by Edward Dodwell
in his Travels, are supposed to have served this purpose. The inscriptions upon these plates consist of the following letters: , and , and also bear representations of owl
s and Gorgon
heads, and other devices symbolic of the Attic people. The thousand supernumeraries had in all probability some different token, but of this we have no certain knowledge.
Before proceeding to the exercise of his functions the dikast was obliged to swear the official oath, which was done in the earlier ages at a place called Ardettus, just outside Athens
, on the banks of the Ilissos
, but in later times at some other spot, of which nothing is known. In the time of Demosthenes
the oath asserted the qualification of the dikast, and a solemn engagement by him to discharge his office faithfully and incorruptibly in general, as well as in certain specified cases which bore reference to the appointment of magistrate
s, a matter in no small degree under the control of the dikast, inasmuch as few could enter upon any office without having had their election submitted to a court for its approbation, or docimasia; and besides these, it contained a general promise to support the existing constitution, which the dikast would of course be peculiarly enabled to do, when persons were accused before him of attempting its subversion.
This oath
being taken, and the divisions made as above mentioned, it remained to assign the courts to the several sections of dikastes in which they were to sit. This was not, like the first, an appointment intended to last during the year, but took place under the conduct of the thesmothetae, de novo, every time that it was necessary to impanel a number of dikastes. In ordinary cases, when one, two, or more sections of 500 made up the complement of judges appropriated to trying the particular kind of cause in hand, the process was extremely simple. Two urns or caskets were produced, one containing tickets inscribed with the distinctive letters of the sections; the other furnished with similar tickets to indicate the courts in which the sittings were to be held. If the cause was to be tried by a single section, a ticket would be drawn simultaneously from each urn, and the result announced, that section B, for instance, was to sit in court F; if a thousand dikastes were required, two tablets would, in a similar manner, be drawn from the urn that represented the sections, while one was drawn from the other as above mentioned, and the announcement might run that sections A and B were to sit in court F, and the like. A more complicated system must have been adopted when fractional parts of the section sat by themselves, or were added to other whole sections: but what this might have been we can only conjecture, and it is obvious that some other process of selection must have prevailed upon all those occasions when judges of a peculiar qualification were required; as, for instance, in the trial of violators of the mysteries, when the initiated only were allowed to judge; and in that of military offenders who were left to the justice of those only whose comrades they were, or should have been at the time when the offense was alleged to have been committed.
It is clear that the allotment of the dikastes to their several courts for the day took place in this manner, in the marketplace, and that it was conducted in all cases, except one, by the thesmothetae; in that one, which was when the magistrates and public officers rendered an account of their conduct at the expiration of their term of office, and defended themselves against all charges of corruption or inappropriate behavior (or euthyne) in it, the logistae were the officiating personages. As soon as the allotment had taken place, each dikast received a staff, on which was painted the letter and color of the court awarded him, which might serve both as a ticket to procure admittance, and also to distinguish him from any loiterer that might endeavor to obtain a sitting after business had begun.
The dikastes received a fee for their attendance ( or ). This payment is said to have been first instituted by Pericles
, and it is generally supposed from Aristophanes
, who makes his character Strepsiades say that for the first obolus
he ever received as a dikast, he bought a toy for his son, that it was at first only one obolus. According to the Scholiast on Aristophanes
the pay was subsequently increased to two oboli, but this seems to be merely an erroneous inference from the passage of his author. Three oboli or the triobolon occurs as early as 425 BC
in the comedies of Aristophanes
, and is afterwards mentioned frequently. The German classicist Philipp August Böckh
inferred from these passages that the triobolon was introduced by Cleon
about 421 BC
, but this opinion is disputed, however, and some scholars think that the pay of three oboli for the dikasts existed before that time.
However this may be, this much is certain: the pay of the dikases was not the same at all times, although it is improbable that it should ever have been two oboli. The payment was made after every assembly of a court of heliastae by the Kolakretai
in the following manner. After a citizen had been appointed by lot to act as judge in a particular court, he received on entering the court together with the staff ( or ) a tablet or ticket . After the business of the court was over, the dikast, on going out, delivered his ticket to the prytaneis, and received his fee in return. Those who arrived too late had no claim to the triobolon. The annual amount of these fees is reckoned by Aristophanes
at 150 talents, a sum which is very high and can perhaps only be applied to the most flourishing times of Athens.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
that signified, in the broadest sense, a judge or juror, but more particularly denotes the Attic
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
functionary of the democratic period
Athenian democracy
Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 508 BC. Athens is one of the first known democracies. Other Greek cities set up democracies, and even though most followed an Athenian model,...
, who, with his colleagues, was constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
ally empowered to try to pass judgment upon all causes and questions that the laws and customs of his country found to warrant judicial investigation.
In the circumstance of a plurality
Plurality
In North American English, the term plurality, used in the context of voting, refers to the largest number of votes to be received by any candidate or referendum. It is contrasted with a majority, which is more than half of the votes...
of persons being selected from the mass of private citizens, and associated temporarily as representatives of the whole body of the people, adjudicating between its individual members, and of such delegates swearing an oath that they would well and truly discharge the duties entrusted to them, there appears some resemblance between the constitution of the Attic dikasterion (court) and an English or American jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
, but in nearly all other respects the differences between them are large. At Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
the conditions of his eligibility were, that the dikast should be a free citizen, in the enjoyment of his full franchise , and not less than thirty years of age, and of persons so qualified six thousand were selected by lot for the service of every year. Of the precise method of their appointment our information is somewhat obscure, but we may gather that selection took place every year under the conduct of the nine archon
Archon
Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...
s and their official scribe; that each of these ten archons drew by lot the names of six hundred persons of the tribe, or phyle
Phyle
Phyle is an ancient Greek term for clan or tribe. They were usually ruled by a basileus...
, assigned to him; that the whole number so selected was again divided by lot into ten sections of 500 each, together with a supernumerary
Supernumerary
A Supernumerary is an additional member of an organization. A supernumerary is also a non-regular member of a staff, a member of the staff or an employee who works in a public office who is not part of the manpower complement...
one consisting of a thousand persons, from among whom the occasional deficiencies in the sections of 500 might be supplied.
To each of the ten sections one of the ten first letters of the alphabet was appropriated as a distinguishing mark, and a small tablet , inscribed with the letter of the section and the name of the individual, was delivered as a certificate of his appointment to each dicast. Three bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
plates found in the Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, and described by Edward Dodwell
Edward Dodwell
Edward Dodwell was an Irish painter, traveller and a writer on archaeology.Dodwell was born in Ireland and belonged to the same family as Henry Dodwell, the theologian, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge....
in his Travels, are supposed to have served this purpose. The inscriptions upon these plates consist of the following letters: , and , and also bear representations of owl
Owl
Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...
s and Gorgon
Gorgon
In Greek mythology, the Gorgon was a terrifying female creature. The name derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful." While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes, and a...
heads, and other devices symbolic of the Attic people. The thousand supernumeraries had in all probability some different token, but of this we have no certain knowledge.
Before proceeding to the exercise of his functions the dikast was obliged to swear the official oath, which was done in the earlier ages at a place called Ardettus, just outside Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, on the banks of the Ilissos
Ilissos
The Ilissos or Ilissus is a river in Athens, Greece. Originally a tributary of the Kifissos River, it is now largely channeled underground.-Ancient Athens:...
, but in later times at some other spot, of which nothing is known. In the time of Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
the oath asserted the qualification of the dikast, and a solemn engagement by him to discharge his office faithfully and incorruptibly in general, as well as in certain specified cases which bore reference to the appointment of magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
s, a matter in no small degree under the control of the dikast, inasmuch as few could enter upon any office without having had their election submitted to a court for its approbation, or docimasia; and besides these, it contained a general promise to support the existing constitution, which the dikast would of course be peculiarly enabled to do, when persons were accused before him of attempting its subversion.
This oath
Oath
An oath is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow...
being taken, and the divisions made as above mentioned, it remained to assign the courts to the several sections of dikastes in which they were to sit. This was not, like the first, an appointment intended to last during the year, but took place under the conduct of the thesmothetae, de novo, every time that it was necessary to impanel a number of dikastes. In ordinary cases, when one, two, or more sections of 500 made up the complement of judges appropriated to trying the particular kind of cause in hand, the process was extremely simple. Two urns or caskets were produced, one containing tickets inscribed with the distinctive letters of the sections; the other furnished with similar tickets to indicate the courts in which the sittings were to be held. If the cause was to be tried by a single section, a ticket would be drawn simultaneously from each urn, and the result announced, that section B, for instance, was to sit in court F; if a thousand dikastes were required, two tablets would, in a similar manner, be drawn from the urn that represented the sections, while one was drawn from the other as above mentioned, and the announcement might run that sections A and B were to sit in court F, and the like. A more complicated system must have been adopted when fractional parts of the section sat by themselves, or were added to other whole sections: but what this might have been we can only conjecture, and it is obvious that some other process of selection must have prevailed upon all those occasions when judges of a peculiar qualification were required; as, for instance, in the trial of violators of the mysteries, when the initiated only were allowed to judge; and in that of military offenders who were left to the justice of those only whose comrades they were, or should have been at the time when the offense was alleged to have been committed.
It is clear that the allotment of the dikastes to their several courts for the day took place in this manner, in the marketplace, and that it was conducted in all cases, except one, by the thesmothetae; in that one, which was when the magistrates and public officers rendered an account of their conduct at the expiration of their term of office, and defended themselves against all charges of corruption or inappropriate behavior (or euthyne) in it, the logistae were the officiating personages. As soon as the allotment had taken place, each dikast received a staff, on which was painted the letter and color of the court awarded him, which might serve both as a ticket to procure admittance, and also to distinguish him from any loiterer that might endeavor to obtain a sitting after business had begun.
The dikastes received a fee for their attendance ( or ). This payment is said to have been first instituted by Pericles
Pericles
Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
, and it is generally supposed from Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, who makes his character Strepsiades say that for the first obolus
Obolus
The obol was an ancient silver coin. In Classical Athens, there were six obols to the drachma, lioterally "handful"; it could be excahnged for eight chalkoi...
he ever received as a dikast, he bought a toy for his son, that it was at first only one obolus. According to the Scholiast on Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
the pay was subsequently increased to two oboli, but this seems to be merely an erroneous inference from the passage of his author. Three oboli or the triobolon occurs as early as 425 BC
425 BC
Year 425 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Atratinus, Medullinus, Cincinnatus and Barbatus...
in the comedies of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, and is afterwards mentioned frequently. The German classicist Philipp August Böckh
Philipp August Böckh
August Böckh was a German classical scholar and antiquarian.-Biography:He was born in Karlsruhe, and educated at the local gymnasium; in 1803 he left for the University of Halle, where he studied theology. F.A...
inferred from these passages that the triobolon was introduced by Cleon
Cleon
Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...
about 421 BC
421 BC
Year 421 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Barbatus...
, but this opinion is disputed, however, and some scholars think that the pay of three oboli for the dikasts existed before that time.
However this may be, this much is certain: the pay of the dikases was not the same at all times, although it is improbable that it should ever have been two oboli. The payment was made after every assembly of a court of heliastae by the Kolakretai
Kolakretai
Kolakretai was the name of very ancient magistrates at Athens, who had the management of all financial matters in the time of the kings, at least as early as the 7th century BC. They are said to have derived their name from collecting certain parts of the victims at sacrifices , from kola, a...
in the following manner. After a citizen had been appointed by lot to act as judge in a particular court, he received on entering the court together with the staff ( or ) a tablet or ticket . After the business of the court was over, the dikast, on going out, delivered his ticket to the prytaneis, and received his fee in return. Those who arrived too late had no claim to the triobolon. The annual amount of these fees is reckoned by Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
at 150 talents, a sum which is very high and can perhaps only be applied to the most flourishing times of Athens.