RECHTS- UND VERFASSUNGSINSTRUMENTE ALS MITTEL DER KONFLIKTBEWÄLTIGUNG IN DER ATHENISCHEN DEMOKRATIE: STASISGESETZE, OSTRAKISMOS UND GRAPHE PARANOMON

Der Artikel versucht, einige Institutionen der athenischen Staats- und Rechtsordnung in ihrer Funktion als Mittel zur Konfliktbewältigung bzw. –prävention zu erfassen. Im Fokus stehen dabei das solonische Stasisgesetz, der Ostrakismos und die graphe paranomon. Bei dem angeblich solonischen Gesetz liegt die Problematik darin, dass es von seinem Wortlaut her eher zur Verschärfung als zur Lösung von Stasis-Situationen geeignet scheint. Da diverse neuere Deutungsversuche auf der Basis des überlieferten Textes keine wirklich überzeugenden Lösungen ergeben haben, scheint es gerechtfertigt, mit einer Korruption der Überlieferung des Gesetzeswortlauts zu rechnen.This article attempts to view some institutes of Athenian public law as means of conflict resolution and conflict prevention. The focus lies on the Solonian law of stasis, ostracism and the graphe paranomon. The law attributed to Solon causes irritation because in the form handed downto us it seems prone to incite stasis rather than prevent it. As modern attempts to get a plausible meaning out of the text as it is remain unconvincing, it seems best to accept the possibility that a textual corruption has taken place in the transmission of the wording of Solon’s law. As far as ostracism is concerned, its effects in conflict resolution and prevention were twofold. Sometimes an ostracisms played a role in solving internal conflicts by bringing about a clear decision in favour of one or the other of the contesting factions. Moreover, the potential to prevent conflicts is inherent in the main function of the institution, insofar as the threat of being ostracized had a mitigating effect on the rivalries between elite politicians. The purpose of preventing conflicts can also be attributed to the graphe paranomon, the legal action against unconstitutional proposals. Here it lies mainly in the fact that the graphe paranomon had the potential to limit the escalation of conflicts arising from disputes about the legitimacy of popular decrees. The graphe paranomon could achieve this effect because it forced the parties concerned to seek the decision of their contests in the proceedings of a regular court. Notwithstanding their intended purposes, ostracism and the graphe paranomon were in practice subject to the risk of improper use. In the case of ostracism this fact was recognized by the Athenian public and the institution ceased to be used after 416 B.C. Regarding the graphe paranomon, however, the Athenians seem to have accepted the possibility of misapplication; in the fourth century B.C. they used it abundantly and in many cases not as an instrument to secure legitimacy, but as a weapon in the personal feuds between competing politicians

Bemerkungen zur Rolle der Probuloi während des oligarchischen Umsturzes in Athen 411 v. Chr.

Interpretation of, and commentary on, Aristot. Ath. Pol. 29.2

The rule of law as the measure of political legitimacy in the Greek city states

This paper explores how a conception of the rule of law (embodied in a variety of legal and political institutions) came to affirm itself in the world of the ancient Greek city states. It argues that such a conception, formulated in opposition to the arbitrary rule of man, was to a large extent consistent with modern ideas of the rule of law as a constraint to political power, and to their Fullerian requirements of formal legality, as well as to requirements of due process. Section 2 analyses how this ideal was formulated in the Archaic period, and how it became a key feature of Greek identity. Section 3 argues that in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE it came to be used as the measure of the legitimacy of Greek political systems: democracy and oligarchy, as they engaged in an ideological battle, were judged as legitimate (and desirable) or illegitimate (and undesirable) on the basis of their conformity with a shared ideal of the rule of law. Then as now, to quote Tamanaha, ‘the rule of law’ was ‘an accepted measure worldwide of government legitimacy’

Das Große Verfahrenstechnisch-Historische Scholion über den Ostrakismos [Philochoros FGrHist 328 F 30 / Theophrast fr. 640ab Fortenbaugh]: Versuch einer Rekonstruktion

The paper aims at the reconstruction of a treatise on Athenian ostracism, whose traces are found in five passages of anonymous lexicographic and scholiastic texts. Three of them name Philochorus as source, but a closer scrutiny reveals that this attribution holds true only for the first part of the treatise, which deals with the procedure of ostracism. The second part is a compilation of various notices, made up and combined with Philochorus’ text by an author who wanted to give a concise report of the main aspects of ostracism and who is perhaps to be identified with the Alexandrinian scholar Didymus (1th cent. B.C.)The paper aims at the reconstruction of a treatise on Athenian ostracism, whose traces are found in five passages of anonymous lexicographic and scholiastic texts. Three of them name Philochorus as source, but a closer scrutiny reveals that this attribution holds true only for the first part of the treatise, which deals with the procedure of ostracism. The second part is a compilation of various notices, made up and combined with Philochorus’ text by an author who wanted to give a concise report of the main aspects of ostracism and who is perhaps to be identified with the Alexandrinian scholar Didymus (1th cent. B.C.

Marius und der Eid auf das Ackergesetz des Saturninus. Zu Appian, Bella civilia I 29-31 und Plutarch, Marius 29

Das Jahr 100 v. Chr. markiert einen der dramatischsten Abschnitte der an Krisen und Turbulenzen an sich schon nicht armen Geschichte des spätrepublikanischen Roms. Es erlebte den Höhepunkt und den Untergang der Macht tellung de bedeutendsten 'poplilaren ' Politiker der auf die Gracchen folgenden Generation , des Volk tribunen L. Apuleius Saturninus, und es brachte zugleich auch einen entscheidenden Wendepunkt für die Laufbahn de großen Feldherrn-Politikers C. Marius

Der Beginn von Sullas Proskriptionen

Zu den Anfängen der sullanischen Proskription sind uns in den Quellen zwei divergierende Versionen überliefert.Die eine, die sich in ihrer ausführlichsten Form in Plutarchs Sulla-Biographie findet, weiß zu berichten, daß Sulla nach dem entscheidenden Sieg an der Porta Collina zunächst eine ,wilde' , ungeregelte Verfolgungs welle gegen wirkliche und vermeintliche politische Gegner entfesselte, die seinen Gefolgsleuten Gelegenheit gab, neben der Vergeltung an den Bürgerkriegsgegnern zugleich auch ihre persönlichen Rechnungen  ungestraft zu begleichen