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Anapsephisis in Fifth-Century Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

K. J. Dover
K. J. Dover
Affiliation:
Balliol College, Oxford
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Extract

ἀναψηφίƷειν is to put to the vote for the second time an issue on which a decision has already been taken. Until recently known only from Thuc. vi 14 in pre-Aristotelian prose, the word is now shown by SEG X 38B 11–14 (v. infra) to have been not a literary coinage but a recognised procedural term. The noun *ἀναψήφισις is not yet recorded; but since a convenient way of referring to this rather complex conception is needed, I suggest that ‘anapsephisis’ should be used. I include in this conception the putting of the issue either in exactly the same terms as on the first occasion or in the form λῦσαι τὸ ψήφισμα ὃ εἶπε … περὶ …

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 75 , November 1955 , pp. 17 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1955

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References

1 E.g. IG I2 45. 20–6, 58. 1–5, 71. 70–2.

2 I hope to discuss IG I2 98–9 in detail elsewhere; on grounds of content, there is no doubt that 98 (frr. b and c) is one decree and 99 (frr. a and d + g) another, and it now appears that they are different stelae, since c, which has a portion of smooth back preserved, is 8 mm. thinner than g, whose back may not be original, and a has a portion of top edge preserved. I owe these facts to Mr. D. M. Lewis.

3 We should not forget that the attribution of a large part of the legal code to Solon necessarily made the associations of the word νόμοι somewhat different from those of ψηφίσματα.

4 Ueber den Gebrauch des Infinitivs mit Artikel bei Thukydides (Berlin, 1886), pp. 8–9.

5 For the different grounds on which 1264–75 or 1264–8 have been regarded as an interpolation, see England ad loc. ProfessorPage, (Actors' Interpolations, pp. 185–6)Google Scholar does not find these grounds adequate, while recognising the conflict between θέσφαγ' εἰ λὑσω θεᾶς and Soph. O.T. 407. For the use of λύειν in post-Classical Greek we may compare λύειν νόμον, ‘contravene a law’, in Ev. Jo. 7, 23 and λύειν νραφήν, ‘render scripture false’, id. 10. 35.