Fig. 2.—Grant of proxenia to Dionysios (No. 5). Ht. 12⅞ in.
Two bronze tablets recording decrees of proxenia, passed by the people of Corcyra, are here exhibited. No. 5 (fig. 2), probably of the end of the fourth century B.C., records the grant of proxenia to Dionysios, son of Phrynichos, an Athenian.[2] It mentions the date, the appointment, and the right of possessing land and house property in Corcyra, the last evidently a reward granted to the proxenos for his services. No. 6 (fig. 3), of about 200 B.C., is a grant of proxenia to Pausanias, son of Attalos, a citizen of Ambrakia.[3] He is accorded the usual honours, and the Treasurer is directed to provide the money for the engraving of the decree on bronze. Both these tablets were found in Corfu, the modern name of the ancient Corcyra. The persons appointed acted, of course, in Athens and Ambrakia respectively.
Fig. 3.—Grant of proxenia to Pausanias (No. 6). Ht. 8⅞ in.
Law-courts at Athens.—One of the most striking features of democratic Athens was its elaborate machinery for the administration of justice. The system of popular control began in the fifth century B.C., and reached its full development in the fourth. For petty offences the various magistrates had the power of inflicting a small fine, but graver charges were usually decided by a jury court. Those who composed these jury courts were called dikastae. They were chosen at first up to the number of six thousand from the entire body of citizens over thirty years of age, but later on apparently any citizen over thirty years of age was a qualified juryman. From the time of Perikles each juryman received three obols (about 5d.) a day for his services. The whole body of jurymen was divided into ten sections, each of which was distinguished by one of the first ten letters of the Greek alphabet (A to K). Each dikast received a ticket (πινάκιον), at first of bronze, but in Aristotle's day of boxwood, inscribed with his name, his parish, and the number of his section. In Aristotle's day the father's name was always given as well.[4] Four of these dikasts' tickets (in bronze) are exhibited in this case, together with a fragment of a fifth. Upwards of eighty are known, all apparently belonging to the fourth century B.C. The tickets shown are:
Fig. 4.—Ticket of Thukydides (No. 10). L. 4¼ in.
No. 7, which belonged to Deinias of Halae, of the third section (Γ). The ticket is stamped with the Athenian symbol of an owl within an olive wreath, two owls with one head, and a Gorgoneion.
No. 8, belonging to Archilochos of Phaleron, of the fifth section (Ε).