PhD in Law Trikoz E.N. ©
At the time of the ancient civilization (from Latin antiquitas ), or the so-called Classical Antiquity, which lasted from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. in the Mediterranean, we can identify several local civilizations : Ancient Greek civilization, which blossomed with the polis democracy in the classical period (V - IV centuries B.C.), and Ancient Roman civilization, which thrived in the late republican period and the beginning of the principality (II century B.C. – I century A.D.), and Hellenistic (or Alexandrian ) period (IV – I centuries B.C.) was distinguished between these two, when the epicenter of culture had moved to Alexandria. Typical features of Ancient (Gr ee ce-Roman) Civilization " The Cambridge Ancient History ”, which is a reflection of the most modern historical knowledge in the format of the British version of the "Universal History", takes the upper limit of the historical development of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions up to AD 602 – the death of emperor Maurice (Latin: Mauricius ; 582 – 602).
Greco-Roman civilization to a large extent marked the beginning of the entire state-legal history of Europe, representing a new, in comparison with the Ancient eastern, stage of the general human history. Ancient civilization had the following main achievements, which enriched the historical heritage of mankind : I. The main achievement is the flowering or rise of the human personality, its emancipation, the priority of the spiritual sphere and freedom. It was in the ancient Greek polis that the notion of freedom ( Greek " eleut e ria “ ; on Russian “ элевтрия ” ) appears as a state of absence of domination by anyone over a particular person. Obviously, there was no freedom for all people in the polis, for it was in ancient society that the slave was the most dependent person, and the free citizen was the most free person in that ancient world. In general, ancient society was characterized by the early decay of communal relations (in contrast to ancient Oriental society) and the fuller development of individual private property. Slavery-debt here was early legally abolished and the development of slavery went in the direction of the slavery of foreigners or aliens.
I I. The specificity of the political and economic life of ancient civilization consisted in the formation and domination of the polis ( Greek: πόλις ) – an independent, self- governing city -state with many attributes of community. The peculiar corporatism was both the right and duty of all citizens in the polis. At the same time, the polis collectivism and its civic solidarity coexisted perfectly with individualism and the high value of the human person. The ancient polis is an interesting phenomenon of ancient civilization. In characterizing it, one, but not the most important, feature is brought to the forefront – the relatively small size of the territory and its unification around one urban center. Another peculiarity is that the polis, as a collective of citizens, acted as the supreme owner of land, the guarantor of the land property of individual citizens. This type of ancient polis property, or commun e -state property, found its manifestation in the control by the civic collective over the private property of its members. The second important feature of the ancient polis is the coincidence of the political collective with the collective of landowners, the interdependence of civil status & land ownership. Initially, the " oikos principle " prevailed in the political organization of the polis, when only the head of the household ( Greek " oikos ") had political rights. But already after Solon's reforms in 594 B.C. only the size of the land parcel influenced the extent of the political rights of Athenian citizens.
The Greek polis was also characterized by the principle of exclusivity : no one except Athenian citizens had a legal right to a plot of land, and no one could even purchase a house to live in, contenting themselves only with renting a house. This relationship between civil status and ownership meant that, ideally, citizens were absolutely equal participants in political life, had the right to participate in self-government and in all the revenues of the polis, and sovereignty belonged to the popular assembly of landowners ( Greek ekklesia ). In contrast to the Roman civitas, where the Senate and magistrates had special power, in the ancient Greek polis the system of magistrates was organized in such a way that they were simply the executive bodies of the sovereign ekklesia, since the officials were elected for short terms and by lot, were accountable to the ekklesia, acted collegially, had no hierarchy. Another characteristic feature of the polis is the coincidence of the political and military organization of the polis. The citizens-owners are at the same time warriors of the polis. The polis militia, whose service was the duty and privilege of the Athenian citizen, is essentially an armed people's assembly.
I II. T he state power in the polis could take a variety of forms of political regime : democracy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy and others. At the same time, the general tendency in the development of polis structures was the development of the democratic principle, the principle of equality of political rights and duties for the citizens of the polis. The structure of socio-political relations formed in the ancient world – democracy, was the most responsive to the requirements of self-government of the community of free people. In its highest form this system was characteristic of Athens during the reign of strategist Pericles (5th century B.C.) Athenian democracy was based on the belief in equality, and all citizens could theoretically participate directly and equally in all political affairs. But this was greatly hampered by geographic remoteness, territorial separation, and social inequality. As a result, it was a democracy for the elect, a s elitist form of democracy that was not available to everyone – not for slaves, foreigners, women, youth, and the elderly Thus the Athenian polis was a democratic Republik in the form of the organization of power, but in terms of formational structure it belonged to the slave-owning state.
To confirm these words about the elitism of Athenian democracy we give the figures of statistics : of the total of 235 thousand inhabitants of Attica there are 105 thousand citizens, 100 thousand slaves and 30 thousand meteks ( foreigners from other polis ). out of 105 thousand full citizens there are 50 thousand women and 10-15 thousand minors. This left about 40,000 citizens who directly embodied " democracy ".
Athenian Law Archaeological evidence from the Agora Museum in Athens klepsydra —“water clock” pinakia —“identification tablets”, bronze juror ballots kleoterion —“allotment machine”
machine that selected the leaders of citizens of Athens
Assembly – Ekklesia • Passed legislation • Elected magistrates • Final court of appeal • Empowered strategoi • Right to punish officials • Court cases where public interest was threatened The study of mechanism of Athenian democracy shows that in real life direct democracy functioned only in demes ( lower administrative-territorial units, groups of several villages ), while the political system of polis in whole in practice was a refined form of representative ( parliamentary ) democracy. Demand for knowledgeable speakers (political connections, education, rhetorical training ). • Evidence that People ( demos ) chose rich men as leaders on grounds of incorruptibility. • Assembly Speakers : few in number, of aristocratic backgrounds. • Election of Strategoi without limitation of iteration ( Pericles as strategos year after year).
The Gortyn code was a legal code that was the codification of the civil law of the ancient Greek city-state of Gortyn in southern Crete. The inscription has been dated to the first half of the Vth century BCE. The fragmentary boustrophedon inscription on the circular walls of what might have been a bouleuterion The Code stands with a tradition of Cretan law, which taken as a totality represents the only substantial corpus of Greek law from antiquity found outside Athens. The Code deals with such matters as disputed ownership of slaves, rape and adultery, the rights of a wife when divorced or a widow, the custody of children born after divorce, inheritance, sale and mortgaging of property, ransom, children of mixed marriages ( slave, free and foreign) and adoption. The island of Crete
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece
Lycurgus ( 820 B.C. ) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta. He is credited with establishing the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. All his reforms promoted the three Spartan virtues : equality, military fitness, and austerity.
Statue of Lycurgus, Lawgiver of Sparta, at the Law Courts of Brussels, Belgium Many ancient historians believed that he instituted the communalistic and militaristic reforms – most notably the Great Rhetra – which transformed Spartan society. Lycurgus while regent for his nephew, Labotas, seized the opportunity to establish a new state. Imitating customs he found in Dorian Crete he innovated the Gerousia, the Ephorate, the Enomotiae, the Triacades and the Syssitia.
Draco, an archontic legislator ( 621 B.C.), was one of the first domestic arbiter of justice (restricting blood feuds, protecting private property, etc.) Draco ( Greek : Δράκων ; 625 – 600 B.C.), also called Drakon, was the first recorded legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by the Draconian constitution, a written code to be enforced only by a court of law. Since the 19th century, the adjective draconian ( Greek : drakónteios ) refers to similarly unforgiving rules or laws, in Greek, English, and other European languages.
Solon had to contend with the written code of laws from the reign of Draco, the 7 th century BCE lawmaker infamous for his very harsh legal codes. By replacing Draco’s laws with fair and just legal codes, Solon in effect eliminated situations where debtors could be enslaved simply for their inability to pay debts. Other harsh punishments (mostly capital punishments) for trivial or petty crimes were also scrapped off the law books.
They wrote up the Solon laws on the Boards and set them in the Stoa Basileus, and all swore to observe them ; and the Nine Archons used to make affirmation on oath at the Stone that if they transgressed any one of the laws they would dedicate a gold statue of a man. And Solon set the laws to stay unaltered for two hundred years. Stoa Ba sileus : The Greek word S toa refers rather generally to any rectangular building. The Stoa Basileus was the building in Athens where the Archon Basileus held court. * Boards : The Solon laws were engraved on wood, or stone, three-sided billboards which were set on pivots, or axles. The importance here is that law was now public – anyone who could read had access to the letter of the law.
Criminal Procedure in Ancient Athens and the Trial of Socrates
The klepsydra ( water-stealer ) was used to record time for speeches in the courts.
