CLETE´RES
CLETE´RES or
CLE´TORES
(
κλητῆρες or
κλήτορες), summoners. The Athenian summoners were not official
persons, but merely witnesses to the prosecutor that he had served the
defendant with a notice of the action brought against him, and the day upon
which it would be requisite for him to appear before the proper magistrate,
in order that the first examination of the case might commence. (Harpocrat.)
In Aristophanes (
Aristoph. Cl. 1246;
Vesp. 1408) we read of one summoner only being employed,
but two are generally mentioned by the orators as the usual number. (Dem.
c. Nicostr. p. 1251.14;
de Coron. 244.55;
c. Boeot. ii. p. 1017.28.) The names of the summoners
were subscribed to the declaration or bill of the prosecutor, and were, of
course, essential to the validity of all proceedings founded upon it. What
has been hitherto stated applies in general to all causes, whether
δίκαι or
γραφαί: but in some which commenced with an information laid
before magistrates, and an arrest of the accused in corsequence (as in the
case of an
ἔνδειξις or
εἰσαγγελία), there would be no occasion for a
summons, nor, of course, witnesses to its service. In the
εὔθυναι and
δοκιμασίαι also, when held at the regular times, no summons was
issued, as the persons whose character might be affected by an accusation
were necessarily present, or presumed to be so ; but if the prosecutor had
let the proper day pass, and proposed to hold a special
εὔθυνα at any other time during the year in
which the defendant was liable to be called to account for his conduct in
office (
ὑπεύθυνος), the agency of
summoners was as requisite as in any other case. Of the
δοκιμασίαι that of the orators alone had no
fixed time; but the first step in the cause was not the usual legal summons
(
πρόσκλησις), but an announcement from
the prosecutor to the accused in the assembly of the people. (Meier,
Att. Process, pp. 212, 576.) In the event of persons
subscribing themselves falsely as summoners, they exposed themselves to an
action (
ψευδοκλητείας) at the suit of the
party aggrieved.
[
J.S.M]
