Apophasis
Apophasis ( ἀπόφασις , literally "discovery") describes a method of investigation that was developed in ancient Athens in the middle to the end of the 4th century BC .
At the request of the ekklesia or on its own initiative, the Areopagus investigated matters that were viewed as a serious threat to public security, such as treason , bribery and attempts to overthrow, but also minor offenses.
An apophasis was also initiated when the threat to the city from an outside enemy was in question. Such an investigation was conducted against Antiphon when, after his exile as an agent of the Spartans, he was captured again in Athens.
The Areopagus investigation was concluded with a report which, like the entire procedure , was called apophasis . The report contained a recommendation such as: B. to track certain people. In such a case, the people's assembly then selected the public prosecutor and the case was tried before the Heliaia . With the participation of the most important institutions of Athenian democracy (People's Assembly, Areopagus, Heliaia), the procedure represented an instrument for the separation of powers and a balance of power.
Single receipts
- ↑ A well-known example is the procedure handed down through the speech of Deinarchus (Din. 1.3-4) against Demosthenes for treason.
- ↑ Deinarchus mentions an apophasis against people who robbed a ferryman or fraudulently collected five drachmas into the theater, and against a member of the Areopagus who received and illegally sold a piece of sacrificial meat for the service on Areopagus, Din. 1.56
- ↑ Demosthenes 18.132; Deinarchus mentions other such cases : Polyeuktus' suspicious journeys from Kydantide to Megara, Din. 1.58; Charinos was banned for treason, Din 1.63
literature
- Maximilian Braun: The "Eumenides" of Aeschylus and Areopagus . Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-4878-7 , p. 247 ( page on Google Books )
- Theodor Thalheim : Ἀπόφασις . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 173.