Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeanceTreston, Hubert Joseph
History
Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeance
Treston, Hubert Joseph
Criminal law (Greek law); Greece -- Civilization; Greek drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism; Homicide (Greek law); Vendetta
Demosthenes[187] attributes to a certain Diodorus, whose uncle was
indicted for impiety by Androtion, because he had not prosecuted his
nephew on a charge of parricide, the following statement: ‘If Androtion
had succeeded in his prosecution of my uncle I as a convicted parricide
should have been deprived not only of my property but of my life: nay,
even to die, which is the common lot of all, would not for me have
been easy.’ This passage implies that Diodorus, if convicted, in this
indirect manner,[188] of parricide, would have suffered a cruel death.
The conjunction of the death penalty with confiscation in this instance
points very forcibly to State execution. Hence we believe that the cruel
death to which Diodorus refers was the public execution which Plato
describes when he speaks of stones being hurled at the corpse, and of its
abandonment to the dogs and the birds. Glotz has, we think, completely
misinterpreted this passage. He thinks[189] that the penalty indicated is
perpetual exile and thus renders the concluding words of Diodorus: ‘Je ne
serais pas seulement dépouillé de ma fortune, je ne pourrais plus vivre,
et le réfuge commun de tous les hommes, la mort libératrice, ne serait
pas un asile pour moi.’
Demosthenes confirms our hypothesis of the evolution of State execution
in another passage which concerns wilful murder. Speaking of the accuser,
he says[190]: ‘If his accusation is considered just and he obtains a
conviction for murder, even then he gets no power over the condemned
man, who is given over for punishment to the laws and to the persons
charged with that official duty: the accuser may be a spectator while the
condemned suffers the penalty which the law imposes, but he can do no
more.’ This quotation speaks for itself. Its value as a link in our chain
of reasoning it would be impossible to overestimate. The conclusion which
it points is indisputable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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