Regulations Concerning Oikos in Classical Athenian Law

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 40 Sayı: 2, 921 - 948, 30.12.2025

Sultan Deniz Küçüker , Türkan Banu Güler

https://doi.org/10.18513/egetid.1698215

Öz

In Classical Athens, the term oikos referred to the private space as opposed to the public space, and its meanings reflected the socio-economic life of this area. Accordingly, it meant home, family, and property in ancient Greek. This study examines the legal regulations of Athens within the framework of the definitions of oikos. First, it discusses laws related to the institution of marriage, which formed the foundational unit of the social and economic structure of the oikos, as well as laws governing the family and inheritance management. Subsequently, regulations on private property are analyzed. These include citizens’ powers over their property and rules governing commercial and economic activities to protect private property during the exchange of movable and immovable assets. The speeches prepared for the courts of Athens serve as the primary sources of this study, and in addition, epigraphic material is used to attest to the regulations of economic activities. It is commonly known that Athenian government actively interfered with the oikos. This study aims to clarify the dimensions of this relationship by drawing on examples from legal and official historical documents. Thus, it will become more apparent how the polis organized its relations with its citizens on the basis of the oikos.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Oikos , Polis , Athens , Law , Private Space.

KLASİK ÇAĞ ATİNA HUKUKUNDA OIKOSA İLİŞKİN DÜZENLEMELER

Öz

Oikos terimi, Klasik Çağ Atina kaynaklarında kamusal alana karşıt olarak özel alana işaret etmekle birlikte bu alanın sosyo-ekonomik varlığına karşılık gelen anlamlar taşımıştır. Bu bağlamda oikos, konut anlamını taşıdığı gibi bununla bağlantılı olarak aile ve servet, mal, mülk anlamlarında da kullanılmıştır. Mevcut çalışmada, oikosun anlamları çerçevesinde Atina polisinde yapılan hukuki düzenlemeler incelenmektedir. Bu çerçeve içinde öncelikle oikosun sosyal ve iktisadi bünyesinin başlangıç birimi olan evlilik kurumu, aile kurumu ve bunlarla bağlantılı miras yönetimi üzerine planlanmış olan yasal düzenlemeler konu edilmektedir. Ardından oikosun taşıdığı servet, emlak, mülk anlamlarından hareketle, özel mülke ilişkin düzenlemeler de konu edilmiştir. Bu bağlamda ise Atinalı yurttaşın mülkü üzerindeki tasarruf yetkileri ve farklı taşınır ve taşınmazların el değiştirmesi esnasında özel mülkün korunması amacıyla yapılan ticari ve ekonomik faaliyetlerle ilgili düzenlemeler de kaynaklar üzerinden incelenerek gündeme getirilmiştir. Çalışmanın temel kaynakları, Atina mahkemelerinde sunulmak üzere hazırlanmış olan söylevlerdir. Epigrafik malzeme ise ticari ve ekonomik faaliyetlerle ilintili düzenlemelerin tanıklığında kullanılmıştır. Atina’da kamu otoritesinin oikosa aktif olarak müdahale ettiği bilinen bir konudur. Bu çalışmanın amacı ise antik kayıtlarda konu edilen resmi, hukuki verilerden örneklerle bu ilişkinin boyutlarını ortaya koyabilmektir. Böylelikle Atina polisinin, oikos temelinde yurttaşları ile ilişkilerini nasıl düzenlediği de daha belirgin hale gelecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Oikos , Polis , Atina , Hukuk , Özel Alan

Kaynakça

• Ackermann 2018 D. Ackermann, Une Microhistoire D’athènes: Le Dème D’aixônè Dans L’antiquité, École Française D’Athènes, Athens.
• Arnaoutoglou 1998 I. Arnaoutoglou, Ancient Greek Laws: A Sourcebook, Routledge, London.
• Cantarella 2005 E. Cantarella, “Gender, sexuality, and law”, The Cambridge companion to ancient Greek Law, ed. Michael Gagarin, David Cohen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 236–253.
• Carey 2017 C. Carey, Democracy in Classical Athens, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New York.
• Cecchet 2015 L. Cecchet, Poverty in Athenian Public Discourse: From the Eve of the Peloponnesian War to the Rise of Macedonia, Franz Steiner, Stuttgart.
• Chantraine 1979 H. Chantraine, “Drachme”, Der Kleine Pauly C. 2, ed. K. Ziegler, W. Sontheimer, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München, s. 155-156.
• Christ 1998 M. R. Christ, “Legal Self-Help on Private Property in Classical Athens”, The American Journal of Philology, 119/4, s. 521-545.
• Cohen 1991 D. Cohen, Law, Sexuality, and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Cohen 2006 E. Cohen, “Commercial Law”, The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law, ed. Michael Gagarin, David Cohen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, s. 290-302.
• Cox 2011 C. A. Cox, “Marriage in Ancient Athens”, Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds, ed. Beryl Rawson, Blackwell, Oxford, s. 231-244.
• Çelgin 2011 G. Çelgin, Eski Yunanca- Türkçe Sözlük. Kabalcı Yayınları, İstanbul.
• Delios 2019 A. Delios, “The Protection of Oikoi under Extinction by the Eponymous Archon in Ancient Athens: The Law and It’s Application”, Studia Iuridica, 80, s. 59-70.
• Donlan 1982 Walter Donlan, “Reciprocities in Homer”, Classical World 75/3, s. 137-175.
• Engels 1998 F. Engels, Ailenin, Özel Mülkiyetin ve Devletin Kökeni, çev. Kenan Somer, Sol Yayınları, Ankara.
• Fine 1951 J. V. A. Fine, Horoi. Studies in Mortgage, Real Security, and Land Tenure in Ancient Athens. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton.
• Gagarin 2011 M. Gagarin, Speeches from Athenian Law, University of Texas Press, Austin.
• Garland 2014 R. Garland, Wandering Greeks: The Ancient Greek Diaspora from the Age of Homer to the Death of Alexander the Great, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
• Garner 1987 R. Garner, Law and Society in Classical Athens, Routledge, New York.
• Harris 2006 E. M. Harris, Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical Athens: Essays on Law, Society, and Politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Harris 2013 E. M. Haris, “Finley’s Studies in Land and Credit Sity Years Later”, Dike, 16, s. 23-46.
• Harris 2016 E. M. Haris, “The Legal Foundations of Economic Growth in Ancient Greece: The role of property records”, The Ancient Greek Economy. Markets, Households and city-states, ed. E.M. Harris, D.M. Lewis, M. Woolmer, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, s. 116–148.
• Harrison 1968 A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens: The Family and Property, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Hoofs 2010 K. Hoofs, “Property Rights in Legal History”, Property Law and Economics, ed. Boudewijn Bouckaert, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, s. 5-30.
• Kapparis 2018 K. A. Kapparis, Athenian Law and Society, Routledge, London, New York.
• Kennedy 1963 G. Kennedy, A History of Rhetoric, I: The Art of Persuasion in Greece, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
• Kılıç 2014 Y. Kılıç, Eskiçağ Aile Hukuku, Çizgi Kitabevi, Konya.
• Lamb 1967 W. R. M. Lamb, Lysias: With An English Translation, William Heinemann, London.
• Lambert 1997 S. D. Lambert, Rationes centesimarum: Sales of public land in Lykourgan Athens, Brill, Amsterdam.
• Lewis 1990 D. Lewis, “Public Property in the City”, The Greek City from Homer to Alexander, ed. O. Murray, S. Price, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 245-263.
• LSJ 1996 H. G. Liddell- R. Scott- H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
• MacDowell 1978 D. M. Macdowell, The Law in Classical Athens. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life, Cornell University Press, Ithaka.
• MacDowell 1989 D. M. Macdowell, “The Oikos in Athenian Law”, Classical Quarterly, 39, s. 10-21.
• Maffi 2005 A. Maffi, “Family and Property Law’, The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law, ed. Michael Gagarin, David Cohen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, s. 254–266.
• Manville 1900 P. B. Manville, The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
• Oliver 2006 G. J. Oliver, “The Economic Realities”, A Companion to the Classical Greek World, ed. Konrad H. Kinzl, Blackwell Publishing, Malden, 281-310.
• Pernot 2005 L. Pernot, Rhetoric in Antiquity, trans. W. E. Higgins. Catholic University of America Press, Washington.
• Rhodes 2007 P. J. Rhodes, The Greek City States: A Source Book, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Roy 1999 J. Roy, “Polis and Oikos in Classical Athens”, Greece and Rome, 46/1, s. 1-18.
• Schaps 1977 D. Schaps, "The Woman Least Mentioned: Etiquette and Women's Names" Classical Quarterly, 27, s. 323-330.
• Thompson 1967 W. E. Thompson, ''The Marriage of First Cousins in Athenian Society", Phoenix, 21/4, s. 273-282. Todd 2000 Stephen C. Todd, Lysias: The Oratory of Classical Greece, II, University of Texas Press, Austin.
• Westbrook 2015 R. Westbrook, Ex Oriente Lex: Near Eastern Influences on Ancient Greek and Roman Law, ed. Deborah Lyons, Kurt Raaflaub, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• Whitehead 1977 D. Whitehead, The Ideology of the Athenian Metic, Cambridge Philological Society, Cambridge.
• Wolf 1975 H. J. Wolf, “Commentary: Greek Legal History—Its Functions and Potentialities”, Washington University Law Quarterly, 2, s. 395-408.
• Wolicki 2007 A. Wolicki, “Moicheia: Adultery or something more?”, Palamedes: A Journal of Ancient History, 2, s. 131–142.
• VerSteeg 2010 R. VerSteeg, The Essentials of Greek and Roman Law, Carolina Academic Press, Durham.
• Zelnick-Abramovitz 2013 R. Zelnick-Abramovitz, Taxing Freedom in Thessalian Manumission Inscriptions, Brill, Leiden.
• Zelnick-Abramovitz 2015 R. Zelnick-Abramovitz, “Public registers of land sales in ancient Greece”, Sale and community: documents from the ancient World, ed. É. Jakab, Trieste, s. 41-65.