OI´KIAS DIKE
OI´KIAS DIKE (
οἰκίας
δίκη), an action to recover a house (like any other action where
property was the subject of litigation, as
χωρίου,
ἀνδραπόδων, νεώς, ῾ίππου δίκη), belonged to the class of
διαδικασίαι, i. e. actions in which the
dispute was
ὅτῳ προσήκει μᾶλλον,
Lex. Seguer. 236 =
Etym. M. p. 267, 7), e. g.
one claiming it because he had bought it, the other because it had been
mortgaged to him. Certain speeches of Lysias, Isaeus, Hyperides, and
Deinarchus, which dealt with this subject, are all lost; in some, it would
seem, private creditors made claims upon a confiscated estate by this action
(Harpocr. s. v.
παρακαταβολή). By the laws
of Zaleucus (
Plb. 12.16) possession of the
property in dispute was secured till after the action to the last
bonae fidei possessor; Attic law directed probably
the same. Such actions belonged to the jurisdiction of the Forty
(
Att. Process, ed. Lipsius, pp. 674-81). The
ἐνοικίου δίκγ was another action to recover a
house, not merely the bygone rents, as Hudtwalcker (
Diaet. p.
143 n.) supposed; cf. Thalheim,
Griech. Rechtsaltert. p. 84,
n. 2. If house-rent was not paid by the tenant, the owner might evict him,
but he was not, it seems, assisted by the authorities in so doing:
καθάπερ καὶ ἐξ οἰκίας, φησὶν ὁ Βίων,
ἐξοικιζόμεθα, ὅταν τὸ ἐνοίκιον ὁ μισθώσας οὐ κομιζόμενος τὴν
θύραν ὰφέλῃ, τὸν κέραμον ἀφέλῃ, τὸ φρέαρ ἐγκλείοη
(Stob.
Floril. 5.67).
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