THE SQUARE PERISTYLE AND ITS PR FEDECESSORS
See 6 above for the quotation from Demosthenes
(7) Harpokration, s.v. &(pe'at (1) Pausanias 1.28.11
In Peiraieus beside the sea there is Phreattys. Here exiles, against whom in their absence another charge has been brought, make their defense from a ship, the judges listening on the shore. The legend runs that Teukros was the first to plead thus in his defense before Telamon, asserting that he had nothing to do with the death of Ajax.
(8) Photios, Bibliotheca 535a28-32 (2) Pollux 8.120
The [court] in Phreatto: here was tried a person in exile by reason of an involuntary homicide who received in addition a second charge of voluntary homicide. The court was on the seacoast, and the
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accused had to make his defense from a ship, sailing close to land but not touching it. Neither a gangway nor an anchor could be thrown to the land.
55. Suda s.v. (iyppceaTOL 10th century C.E.
(Ippea&Tot' BSxacrrplov xxv &xoua(ov cp6vxv iv 'AiA vaqt. ArIoTaOivrn; v TOL xaca&
'ApLtcroygeovog; &xptp; SXtipXeraLt eplt a c:&. c)voI&ieaOt &i r6 &xacmlptov foLxev &in6 TtVO;
(pe&rou pwoo?, d(; ee6qppao7roq iv Lt; v6oCL tapruwpe.
In Phreatto: a dikasterion for involuntary homicide at Athens. Demosthenes in the speech against Aristogeiton describes it accurately. It seems likely that the court is named from some hero [named]
Phreatos, as Theophrastos testifies in the 16th book of the Laws.
A shortened and garbled account apparently derived from Harpokration (54). It was not the court for involuntary homicide, and the speech is that against Aristokrates, not Aristogeiton. This entry is repeated almost verbatim in the Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. &v 14peacrot.
(75) Schol. Aristophanes, Ploutos, line 1166
THE COURT AT THE PRYTANEION
Full testimonia on the Prytaneion in Athens are given in Agora III, nos. 541-571, pp. 166-174.
Compare Miller 1978, pp. 132-218, for full testimonia on the Prytaneion in antiquity. Located (it now appears) on the east slope of the Akropolis (see Dontas 1983, pp. 60-61), it served as the central hearth of the city; it was a major community dining hall, as well as being the site of a homicide court.
Only those texts that refer to the court are included here.
The court at the Prytaneion took action on homicide cases in which a person had been killed by an inanimate object, an animal, or an unknown person (as in Aristotle [3], Demosthenes [6], Harpokration [56], Lexicon Patmense [57], Pausanias [1], and Pollux [2]. Aristotle is the only one to include animals; Demosthenes and Pausanias mention only inanimate objects).
The function of the court was to take cognizance of homicides when there was no individual to be tried. The suggestion that it corresponds in some ways to the modern coroner's court (MacDowell
1963, p. 89) makes the picturesque details of the condemnation of inanimate objects and animals seem less absurd.
Although Harpokration (s.v. icperaL [7]) specifically includes the Prytaneion among the courts in which ephetai served as judges, and Pollux states that ephetai served in the five homicide courts, which would include the Prytaneion, probably cases were decided here by the basileus and phylobasileis, as stated by Aristotle, and without a panel ofjudges. The Prytaneion is also separated from the ephetai in the amnesty law in Plutarch, Solon 19 (27) and Andokides 1.78 (14). See Bonner and Smith 1930, p. 91; MacDowell 1963, p. 88. Since there was no known defendant present at cases brought before the court at the Prytaneion, there would seem to be no need for a panel of ephetai.
A homicide court called 'EtXi,st; or 'E=oXKtL is mentioned only in Bekker and in the Etymologicum Magnum. The Bekker entry states that it was built beside (against?) the Prytaneion.
Possibly, the court at the Prytaneion, situated on the steep east slope of the Akropolis, was called
"court of" or "at the battlement". It does not seem in any case to have been a separate court, and so the relevant testimonia are cited as a sort of appendix to those on the court of the Prytaneion.
(14) Andokides 1.78 (3) Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 57.4
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(5) Bekker, Anecdota Graeca 1.311.15 (6) Demosthenes 23.76
56. Harpokration, s.v. L[ IIpUTavet(ot 2nd century C.E.
it IHIpUTravetvdL B8xatTIpLov &cmL xal ToUTO cpovix6v, &X&CeLi (I v TL TOxv &k6xv Vntea6v
&7ioxTelvTL TLVa, TOiTYO S6 iCLV, dav XlOo; f {UXov `
al8Tpoq f rt -TOLOUTOV, xal r6v JAv P3acX6vcra &YVO)tL, cxOr6o t eB)L xal 9XYL r6 r6v cp6vov etpya?iOvov.
At the Prytaneion: this also is a court for homicide. It pronounces judgment if an inanimate object falls on someone and kills him, that is, a stone or stick or piece of iron or something else of the same sort, and one does not know who threw it, but knows and has the object that worked the death.
Compare Demosthenes 23.76 (6), which this repeats almost verbatim, and the Suda, s.v. HLt lIpuTacveicLw for the same information.
(7) Harpokration, s.v. (ye!a:
57. Lexicon Patmense, s.v. itt IlipuxaveLttO Commentary on Demosthenes 23.76.
fTil IIpUTaveL&W iv TOUT)L TCO)L TLxaLTXW pT6L 8xL CovTaL (p6vou, 6rav 6 [iv &v7)LPIip.vo; 5B)Xoq 9L, C7TetTaL 'e 6 TOv cp6vov Bpaaa;. xaL a7oqppei 3eaLiXeCug TTv ypacpv 7pt6 vof paXxia, xac 6
Bta Tou x5puxoc; xpuTTeL xal &itayopeUeL T6v8e T6v &vX6vToa T6v 8evca Ly 7LP3alvEIV t?epov xaOi X')paq ATTLXT)^. &v tCOL aOut G) TOUT)L 8XcaT)YplGL X&V TL 6fetoV no`a(v IaTL LVt Ta xaOl av?X7) TOv a&vX(Ov, ~xadTa~ TouTot xat 67epopl?eTaL.
At the Prytaneion: in this court they are tried for homicide whenever it is clear who the person killed is, but the killer is being sought. One delivers the accusation to the basileus, and the basileus makes the announcement through the herald and forbids the man who killed So-and-so to set foot in the sanctuaries and land of Attica. Also, if an inanimate object falls on someone and hits him and kills him, a trial is held for it in this same court, and it is cast beyond the frontier.
(1) Pausanias 1.28.10
The court called "court in the Prytaneion", where iron and all lifeless things are brought to trial, originated, I believe, on the following occasion: When Erechtheus was king of the Athenians, the Ox-slayer slew an ox for the first time on the altar of Zeus Polieus; and having done so he left his axe there and fled from the country; but the axe was tried and acquitted, and every year it is tried down to the present time. Other lifeless things are said to have inflicted of their own accord a righteous punishment on men. The best and most famous instance is that of the sword of Kambyses.
58. Photios, Lexicon, s.v. tpo8x0taCLa 9th century C.E.
Tipo8&xacla* ol Ta& itL (pOv&L Bixac pyxaXOU,ueVOL &v IIpuTaveltc Ttpo T7)( 8Lxrs; &a-CeXOUav inl TpetZ; Vvaq, &v ot; &i Exatrepou Jipou; X6yOL TcpoayovTaL trooro (paal ipo&Lxaalav.
Preliminary hearing: men who are being charged with homicide continue to be charged in the Prytaneion for three months before the trial, during which time speeches are brought in for both sides. This is called a preliminary hearing.
This entry is repeated verbatim in the Suda, s.v. spo&xxacaL. On the translation, compare Miller 1978, p. 182. MacDowell (1963, p. 36) translates the passage as "persons accused on charges of
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homicide live at the prytaneion for three months before the trial ..." and adds that there is no other evidence to confirm or refute the statement.
In homicide trials three preliminary hearings were to be called by the basileus in each of three successive months, and then the case was to be brought to trial in the fourth (Antiphon 6.42).
This association of the preliminary hearings with the Prytaneion, found in Photios and in the Suda, s.v. TpoBxxatLa, is questioned by Lipsius (1905-1915, p. 840, note 39). The misstatement, if it is one, may have arisen from the fact that the basileus and phylobasileis presided over the court at the Prytaneion, and a lexicographer, knowing that the basileus held the prelimrninary hearings on all homicide cases, inferred that the basileus held these in the Prytaneion. On the other hand, the Prytaneion constituted a venue that would not prejudice the outcome of the deliberations. It seems therefore to be the right place.
(27) Plutarch, Solon 19.3 (2) Pollux8.120
The [court] at Prytaneion judges cases of homicides whose identity is unknown and of inanimate objects that have fallen and killed someone. The phylobasileis presided at this court, and it was their duty to cast beyond the border the inanimate object which had fallen.
Two testimonia on a homicide court called "the battlements", na&XLeLq, follow. They may refer to the court at the Prytaneion (see p. 96 above).
59. Bekker, Anecdota Graeca 1.243.16-18
7iaXelq- i&oXal retLXC)v, 7poiaX((C5ve;, OfJq. atr Ft xxat &xacrrpLov T(V (poVLXG)V, ()6Xo8O-
T=(Xt F 7p6o; TCL IIpuravetCoL.
Battlements: projecting heights of walls, breastworks, vault. It is also a homicide court, and it is built beside the Prytaneion.
60. Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. ?7aXit; 12th century C.E.
{TcaX^K;s 6 7ipoviax)6v ToO T?I)(; EXa5 .... L be i?ox7! TELXWV) &^Iq. cOn 5 xal bixaarr=pLoV TOV
(povLX)v.
Battlement: the breastwork of the wall.... It is the projecting height of the walls, vault. And it is also a homicide court.
THE CoURT IN ZEA
(5) Bekker, Anecdota Graeca 1.311.3-22