DICASTES
DICASTES (
δικαστής), in its
broadest acceptation a judge, more particularly denotes the Athenian
functionary of the democratic period, commonly rendered
“juryman.” Except, however, in the circumstance that they were
sworn “well and truly” to discharge the duties intrusted to
them, there was little resemblance between an Attic dicasterion and an
English jury. As distinguished from the district judges (
οἱ κατὰ δήμους δικασταί, better known by
their later name of
οἱ τετταράκοντα), and
from the Nautodicae or judges in commercial cases, the Dicastae are
frequently styled Heliastae, and their courts the Heliastic courts. The name
comes from
ἡλιαία, a word which, like
ἀγορά, denotes both the assembly and
the place in which it was held; and the court of the Heliaea, as the most
strongly manned and the first in dignity, being taken as a representative of
the rest, both names were used indiscriminately. Their jurisdiction extended
to matters of every kind without exception. In private causes it is highly
probable that they acted originally as judges of the second instance, i. e.
of appeal; but in public matters they acted as the primary and sole judicial
authority. The Heliastae were instituted by Solon; but what was their
original number, and how they were nominated at first, we do not know. At
the time when democracy was fully developed, when the causes even of the
subject allies were brought before the Athenian courts, there were 6000
dicasts or heliasts, 600 for each tribe, chosen by lot. Previously the
number cannot have been very small; and divisions of the whole body into
sections, such as we find afterwards, may without hesitation be assumed to
have existed in the earlier times also. The ballot (
κληροῦν, ἐπικληροῦν τὰ δικαστήρια, Dem.
c.
Everg. p. 1144.17;
c. Pantaen. p. 978.39 ; sometimes
also
πληροῦν, after the analogy of
“manning” a ship,
c. Timocr. p. 729.92) was
conducted annually by the nine archons: according to some authorities their
secretary (
γραμματεύς) made the tenth [
ARCHON p. 167
a]. The lots were drawn, and the persons chosen were sworn,
in the earlier ages at a place called Ardettos, without the city, on the
banks of the Ilissus; but in after-times at some other spot, of which we are
not informed (Harpocrat. s. v.
Ἀρδηττός,
quoting Theophrastus). The formula of the Heliastic oath, preserved in
Demosthenes (
c. Timocr. p. 746, § §
149-151), passed until lately as genuine, and was accepted as such by
Schömann in his early writings (
Att. Process,
&c.) as well as by other recent scholars. The first hint that, like
most of the documents embodied in the Demosthenic speeches, it was the
patchwork of a late grammarian, seems to have been given by
Schömann in his
Antiquities (1855): and the point
was completely proved in a special dissertation by Westermann in 1859. Some
possibly genuine clauses are mingled with inconsistencies and
improbabilities, and on the whole it seems beyond the reach of criticism to
sift the old from the new (Perrot,
Essai sur le Droit Public
d'Athènes, p. 240). The whole number of 6000 was
divided into ten sections of 500 each, so that 1000 remained over, in order,
when necessary, to serve for the filling of vacancies in the sections. These
sections, as well as the places of meeting, were called Dicasteria, and in
each section members of all the tribes were mingled together. Each Heliast
received, as a certificate of his appointment, a bronze tablet (
πινάκιον, σύμβολον) with his name and the
number or letter of the section to which he belonged (from A to K). Three of
these
σύμβολα have been found, inscribed as
follows:--
Β. ΑΝΤΙΧΑΠΜΟΣ
ΛΑΜΠ[ΤΠΕΥΣ], Δ. ΔΙΟΔΘΠΟΣ ΦΠΕΑ[ΠΠΙΟΣ], Ε.
ΔΕΙΝΙΑΣ ΑΛΑΙΕΥΣ and bear besides representations
of owls and Gorgon heads, and other devices symbolic of the Athenian people
(Boeckh,
C. I. G. Nos. 207-209; and the monographs mentioned
under BOULÉ, p. 313
b). As often as courts were to be held the Heliastae
assembled in the Agora, and the courts in which each section had to sit for
the day were there assigned by the Thesmothetae by lot. But it did not
happen always, or in every suit, that whole sections sat; on the contrary,
sometimes cases were tried only by parts of a section, sometimes by several
sections combined, according to the importance of the issues. Provision,
however, was made that the number should be always an uneven one, in order
to avoid an equality of the votes; and if we find the number of 200 or 2000
dicasts mentioned, we are to assume that the round numbers only are
[p. 1.628]given instead of 201 or 2001. For examples of the
actual figures, we have in Demosthenes a court of 1001 dicasts taken from
two sections (
δικαστηρίοιν δυοῖν εἰς ἕνα καὶ
χιλίους ἐψηφισμένων,
c. Timocr. p. 702.9); and one of 1501 from three sections in
Lex Seguer. s. v.
ἡλιαία (Bekker's
Anecd. p. 262, where
ἐκ τριῶν φυλῶν is an incorrect expression for
ἐκ τριῶν δικαστηρίων). The usual
number in the Heliaea appears to have been 501: the case mentioned by
Andocides (
de Myst. § 17) of the whole 6000 dicasts
sitting at once in a
γραφὴ παρανόμων is
accepted without question by Schömann (
Antiq. 1.474,
n.), doubted by Perrot (
Essai, p. 246). Andocides is
habitually loose in his statements; and if the Athenian constitution had
provided for such a monster dicastery in the most important cases, it is
likely that some mention of it would occur elsewhere in the orators and
grammarians.
For the trial of certain classes of cases Heliastae of a peculiar
qualification were required: as, for instance, in the case of profaners of
the mysteries, when the initiated only were allowed to judge; and in that of
military offenders, who were left to the justice of those only whose
comrades they were, or should have been at the time when the offence was
alleged to have been committed. After this ballot on the day of the trial
each member of the section received a staff with the colour and number of
the court in which he had to sit: this might serve both as a ticket to
procure admittance, and also to distinguish him from any loiterer who might
endeavour clandestinely to obtain a seat after business had begun. That the
dicasts were not sworn afresh before every case seems certain; the oath
originally taken at the annual election sufficed. The legal age of the
Heliastae was at least thirty, and of course the full franchise (
ἐπιτιμία) was another condition of eligibility.
No perquisite was ever more jealously guarded. For an atimos to attempt to
earn the dicast's fee was a capital offence; and a case is mentioned in
which this law was actually carried out. (Dem.
c. Mid. p.
573.182.) It would appear that they were only balloted for from among those
who voluntarily offered themselves: we have no information on this point,
but after the custom of payment was introduced there would be no lack of
candidates. We might rather expect that the lot would be modified by some
system of rotation with a view of giving every one an equal number of turns;
but of this also there is no trace.
This payment (
μισθὸς δικαστικός, more
usually
τὸ δικαστικόν) is said to have
been first instituted by Pericles. It is generally supposed from
Aristophanes (
Aristoph. Cl. 863), who
makes Strepsiades say that with the first obolus he ever received as a
dicast he bought a toy for his son, that it was at first only one obolus.
According to the Scholiast (on
Ran. 140) the pay was
subsequently augmented to two oboli, but this seems to be merely an
erroneous inference from the passage of his author. There is no sufficient
proof that the pay of the dicasts was ever two oboli, but it increased
rapidly under the influence of the demagogues (Aristot. ap. Schol.
Aristoph. Wasps 682; Schol.
Ran. 140; Pollux, 8.113;
Hesych. sub
voce
δικαστικόν: Suid. s. v.
ἡλιασταί). Three oboli or the
triobolon (
τριώβολον) occurs as early as B.C. 425 in the comedies of
Aristophanes, and is afterwards mentioned frequently (
Aristoph. Kn. 51,
255;
Vesp. 300, 663, 684).
The payment was made at the end of the day's work by the
COLACRETAE (
q.v.), in exchange for the staff (
βακτηρία) and ticket (
σύμβολον) with which, as we have seen, each dicast was
already provided on entering the court. (Schol.
ad
Aristoph. Pl. 277; Suid. s. v.
βακτηρία:
Etym. M. s. v.
σύμβολον: Pollux, 8.16.) No doubt the
staves only were given up, to be redistributed on another trial; the bronze
σύμβολα merely shown, and retained by
the dicast, as they were inscribed with his name and had to serve him
throughout the year: unless we are to suppose that two different kinds of
σύμβολα were used. Demosthenes
certainly speaks of the
βακτηρία and
σύμβολον as delivered together to the
dicast (
de Cor. p. 298.210). Those who had come
too late had no claim to the
triobolon (cf. BOULÉ, p. 313
b). The annual amount of these fees is reckoned by Aristophanes
(
Aristoph. Wasps 663, with the
Schol.) at 150 talents, implying 300 days' pay for every dicast (6000 at
half a drachma would require exactly half a talent a day) : the sum is a
high one, but it refers to a period when the total revenue of the state was
as much as 2000 talents. (Boeckh,
P. E. p. 227;
Att.
Process, p. 125 ff. = 145 ff. Lips.; Schömann,
Antiq. 1.474 ff., E. T.; Perrot,
Essai sur le
Droit Public d'Athènes, ch. 3. § §
4-9.)
[
J.S.M] [
W.W]
