È esistita l’epidikasia arghias? Considerazioni intorno a Anecd. Graeca I 310, 1-5

Abstract

This paper aims at verifying the reliability of a passage from Bekker’s Anecdota Graeca (I 310 1-5). In this passage the very existence of the adjudication procedure concerning a disputed property (epidikasia) in connection with criminal behaviours as idleness (argia) and insanity (paranoia) seems to be attested. The paper (firstly) reconstructs the procedure normally used to prosecute these crimes; (secondly) it assesses the applicability of the epidikasia proce- dure in the case of argia and paranoia; (finally) it asserts that the passage lacks reliability and that the epidikasia procedure was never used in connection with argia and paranoia. At the same time, the paper argues that the source of the error lies in the synthesis that seems to have marked the composition of the lexicon’s section in which the passage is included