Nautodikai
Nautodikai ( Greek ναυτοδίκαι nautodíkai , "seaman's judge ") were officials of a first around the middle of the 5th century BC. Authority in ancient Athens, proven by inscriptions . The Nautodikai were responsible for introducing lawsuits for ship owners and wholesalers, and they also chaired the relevant processes.
The amount in dispute had to be at least ten mines , which was the case at the time of the Peloponnesian War in the last third of the 5th century BC. Around 4.3 kilograms of silver. The place of fulfillment of the contested legal transaction - goods imports or exports related to Athens - had to be Athens, the defendant had to be either a citizen of Athens or Metöke and had his residence in Attica or one of the Athenian clergy .
In this context, the Nautodikai were also responsible for lawsuits against people who unjustifiably pretended to be a member of a phratry and thereby assumed the status of an Athenian citizen. During the 5th century BC This popular accusation , called xenias graphe , was negotiated for a few years by a separate authority, the Xenodikai , before it was again placed under the competence of the Nautodikai.
Both the number of members who simultaneously belonged to the authority and the appointment process are unknown. The Polemarchus was the recipient of the lawsuits introduced by the Nautodikai and passed them on for trial to the phylum judges determined by lot . Complaints could only be filed in a certain month and had to be heard within a specified period. Lysias complains in a 397 BC. He said that a lawsuit he filed in the winter month of Gamelion had not been resolved by the Nautodikai. Appeal against a judgment was possible and had to be submitted to the Polemarchus within a specified period, who forwarded it to the Nautodikai. The summer months, which are important for seafaring, were excluded for such proceedings.
literature
- Erich Berneker : Nautodikai. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, Col. 19.
- Edward E. Cohen: Ancient Athenian Maritime Courts. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1973, ISBN 0-691-09227-3 , pp. 162-166.