How to lease an Orphans estate in classical Athens

Abstract

A recently discovered new fragment of a court speech by one of the famous ten Attic orators, Hyperides, sheds new light on the Athenian law of guardianship in the fourth century BC. The article focuses on the legal measures to secure orphans estates. First, the text of the entire fragment is given in English translation; the full Greek text is attached as an Appendix. The second section analyzes the actual guardianship case: it was a private action of a ward that had come of age, not a public one as recently suggested. He called his guardian to account. In section three new details about leasing an inherited business concern are established. It took place by auction; a law court gave the acceptance to the person who offered the highest valuation of the business concern. Also the guardian himself was allowed to bid. The lessee had to pay interest to sustain the ward and after the wards coming of age had to return the capital assessed in court. In this case no account of the business had to be rendered. Section four deals with phasis, a denunciation that every citizen was entitled to file when a guardian was suspected of incorrectly administering the wards business concern. A new conclusion is that the denunciator himself would submit a claim to lease the property and that the phasis would result in an auction.