Justice or harmony? Reconciliation after stasis at Dikaia and the fourth-century BC polis

Gray, Benjamin (2013) Justice or harmony? Reconciliation after stasis at Dikaia and the fourth-century BC polis. Revue des Etudes Anciennes 115 (2), pp. 369-401. ISSN 0035-2004.

Abstract

When peace was restored after a civil war (stasis), a Greek city faced a difficult choice between justice and harmony : it had to give priority either to assigning blame and punishment, or to re-establishing civic order and concord among all citizens, without provoking recriminations. This article discusses the approach taken to this question at Dikaia in Chalkidike in the period c. 365-359 BC, in the light of a recently published inscribed reconciliation settlement. The argument is that it is striking that the arbitrators at Dikaia, unlike most authors of Greek bipartisan reconciliation settlements, did not hold back from giving citizens an opportunity to pursue claims to justice against alleged wrongdoers. It is suggested that this unusual and quite bold decision must be explained partly as an application of the complex and consistent civic values and ideals expressed in the inscription. Indeed, this text demonstrates well how the inscriptions of Greek cities can shed new light on ethical and political thinking within the Greek polis.

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