Atimia

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Atimie or Atimia ( Greek ἀτιμία atimía , German 'dishonor' ) describes the loss of political civil rights in ancient Greece.

While in archaic times the term meant complete disenfranchisement (in the sense of a " freedom of birds "), so that an atimos ( a person ostracized by atimie) could be killed with impunity, the meaning of the term was reduced to the loss of active civil rights in pre-classical times. The atimia could be imposed in whole or in part. It could be pronounced permanently by a court or occur automatically as a result of the failure to pay a debt to the state (such as a fine, whereby the amount of a fine could exceed that of the entire property); when the debt was paid, atimia ended automatically.

According to a law attributed to Solon , an Athenian citizen who had prostituted himself was also atimos .

Anyone who was declared to be atimos could not take part in public life and was not allowed to appear in certain public places, for example in the popular assembly or in court. But he retained his private rights: to kill him was murder; he also kept his property, although the inability to file a lawsuit made defending these rights much more difficult. For some, a life with these restrictions seemed so unbearable that they voluntarily went to asylum. For poor people who could not work, the loss of the opportunity to earn a modest income by attending the People's Assembly or as a heliast (judge at the People's Court ) was a major limitation.

If the prohibitions associated with atimia were violated, there was a risk of arrest ( apagoge ) and the death penalty.

Well-known examples of people who have fallen into atimia are Kimon , Demades , Xenokleides and Andokides .

literature

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  1. ↑ Aeschines : Against Timarchus 1.13-21; Demosthenes : Against Androtion 22, 30.