Ancient Greek Legal System(3)

Public Laws
Public laws dictated how public services were to be provided and how public functions should be conducted. Solon contributed some of these laws. He wrote laws that required that people who lived a certain distance from public wells needed to dig their own, laws that forbade the export of agricultural goods except olive oil, laws that restricted the amount of land a man could own, laws that allowed venders to charge any kind of interest rate they wanted to, and even laws that prohibited dealing in perfume.
Procedural Laws
Procedural laws were guidelines that told judges how to use other laws. These laws told in step-by-step detail how law should be enforced. Procedural laws even included such minute details as how many witnesses must be called forward for someone to be found guilty of homicide.
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LAW GIVERS
Law giverswere not rulers or kings, but appointed officials whose only job was to write laws. Most of the lawgivers were middle class members of the aristocracy and many were arkhons before becoming a law giver. The officials in the government wanted to make sure that law givers would not take sides or be a part of just one group, otherwise laws might be unfair. Because of this, law givers were not a part of normal government, and they were considered political outsiders.
One of the most famous law givers in Athens was Draco. His homicide law is the first known written law of Ancient Greece. He was appointed law giver in Athens after a failed Cylon attempt to overthrow the government. Draco earned a reputation for being extremely severe with his punishments, and it is even argued that he set death as the penalty for all offenses. He served as law giver until he was succeeded by Solon in about 594 BC
Solon was appointed law giver in Athens because he did not take any sides. He was known to be a fair man, and so he had full support from all of the various political parties. When he replaced Draco, Solon threw out all of the old laws except for the homicide law, and he created many new laws, especially in the categories of tort and family laws.
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COURTS AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM
In order to have punishments carried out, the Ancient Greeks needed some sort of system to "try," "convict," and "sentence" guilty persons. To do this, they created a court system. Ancient Greek courts were cheap and run by what people today would call amateurs. Court officials were paid little, if anything, and most trials were completed in the same day, private cases even more quickly.
There were no "professional" court officials, no lawyers, and no official judges. A normal case consisted of two "litigants," one who argued that an unlawful act was committed, and the other argued his defense. The audience, or "jurors," would vote for one side or the other. The result was either a guilty or not guilty, after which another vote by the jury would decide the punishment.
Oratory Rhetoric
Oratory rhetoric was divided into epideictic, deliberative, and forensic. Deliberative was used to address the people in the general Assembly. Forensic was delivered in the law courts. These are usually called political oratory because they both deal with government. Epideictic or display oratory included all other orations, such as those delivered during festivals, public rites, or moral discourses
While under Macedonian rule oratory rhetoric languished and Athens became a provincial town. Other cities succeeded Athens, the "School of Greece" as Pericles had called her. However, oratory eventually degenerated into declamation.
The Areiopagos
The Areiopagos is reputed to be the most ancient homicide court in Greece. It first tried cases of homicide, but later began to try other cases as well. It was made up of former arkhons, or magistrates. Actual arkhai (plural of arkhon) were court officials who could conduct a preliminary hearing, but who otherwise had no power over the court or its proceedings. Among the arkhai was a board of eleven members called the Eleven.
The Eleven was in charge of prisoners and executions. They had the right to arrest any criminal that had been denounced to them, and could even execute the criminal if he was 'ep autophoro' - caught in the act.
Around the fifth century BC, the Areiopagos was split into four types of courts, each trying a different type of homicide case.
The Areiopagos remained but now dealt primarily with religious and political cases.
The four new courts were the Prutaneion, which tried cases of death caused by an animal or inanimate object, the Palladion, which dealt with cases of involuntary homicide and the killing of non citizens, the Delphinion, which tried cases of justifiable homicide, and the Phreatto, which tried those who, while in banishment for involuntary homicide, were charged with murder or intent to harm.
These courts were ruled by a group of about fifty-one members, called the ephetai.
These members were selected from the Areiopagos and remained in charge of the courts until about 403 or 402 BC, when they were replaced by dikastai, democratically selected jurors.