Anagrapheis

The anagrapheis ( Greek  ἀνα-γραφείς [singular: ἀνα-γραφεύς ]) was a group of Attic men who lived in 410 BC. Were commissioned to collect the legal texts applicable in Attica .

In the 200 years since Solon reformed the Athenian legal system, enacted laws were unsystematically drawn up throughout the territory of the Athens polis . Legal texts therefore always had to be searched for by the parties to the litigation because they were not collected in a central location. For a long time the Athenians saw no reason to change this system. After in the year 410 BC After four months after an attempt at an oligarchic overthrow had failed, which also made use of different and contradicting laws, the demos of Attica saw the time had come to collect these laws centrally. For this reason, several men, the anagrapheis , were commissioned to collect these legal texts. Initially, the company was set to run for four months, but it quickly became apparent that it would not be possible in this short period of time. Thus, the recording of the legal texts extended to ten years. It was only interrupted for eight months during the reign of the Thirty .

literature

• Dorothee Haßkamp: Oligarchical arbitrariness - democratic order. On the Athenian constitution in the 4th century BC Chr. , Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, p. 28f. ISBN 3-534-18809-8