『ネアイラ弾劾』の史的背景

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This paper is an attempt to discuss a law cited in pseudo-Demosthenes LIX 16 and to depict a phase of Athenian society in the fourth century B.C. Two opposing views are expressed by scholars as to the interpretation of this law. Some regard the law, which is supposed to have been made in the middle of the fourth century B.C., as the one that forbids aliens the intermarriage with Athenians, but others maintain that it prohibits only the intermarriage on false pretences. The author attempts to examine the whole of the above-mentioned oration and to study the law in its actual application and effect. The following is his conclusion. Though apparently the text of the law interdicts aliens from intermarrying with citizens, it must be admitted that in spite of the law citizens hardly regarded the intermarriage as a matter for prosecution. Whenever someone was actually accused, there was some particular cause or causes, which affected the interests of both parties. In the case of Neaira, the defendant of the oration, it was an abusive lawsuit which her husband Stephanos brought in against Apollodoros, the plaintiff's synegoros. Generally speaking, however, the law must have been applied, when the citizenship of a young man came into question and a judicial dispute arose. The purpose of the law was not to prohibit the intermarriage itself, but to prevent more effectively children of mixed blood from having their names entered in the civic register. As a result of this enactment, perhaps some citizens refrained from attempting to enrol their sons of mixed blood in their own demos or phratria, because such an attempt exposed their foreign-born wives to the danger of prosecution. The legislation suggests that the Athenian state entertained apprehensions of the effectiveness of Periclean citizenship law. According to two Athenian orations of the same period, Demosthenes LVII (§§ 25, 51, 55, 59) and Isaeus XII (§ 2) , the illegal enrolment of aliens seems at that time by no means rare among citizens. Since the end of the fifth century B.C. the self-consciousness of Athenians as members of the polls community was on the wane, and the function of demoi, which controlled the enrolment of citizens, showed a marked decline under these circumstances. The illegal enrolment of children of mixed blood was also on the increase, and so it was necessary for the state to enact the law as a preventive measure. The legislation suggests not only that the foundation of Athenian society was gradually undergoing a transformation in the fourth century B.C., but also that the Athenian state was nevertheless sound enough to face squarely such a crisis.
日本西洋古典学会の論文
1975-03-29

『ネアイラ弾劾』の史的背景

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