The fragment of Craterus the Macedonian is part of a decree issued in Athens following Pericles’ citizenship law of 451/0 BC. It concerns the registration of citizens in the phratries and establishes that, in cases of fraudulent registration, jurisdiction lies with the Athenian magistracy of the nautodikai. These magistrates were judges who, in the 5th century BC, dealt with cases related to xenia (guest-friendship or foreign status). Notably, the decree defines as illegal the registration in a phratry of someone born to both non-citizen parents, while leaving open the question in cases where only one parent was a xenos. This suggests, by implication, that registration might have been permitted in such cases. This possibility thus marks a distinction from Pericles’ citizenship law and seems to presuppose a different procedure for registering new entrants into the civic body through minor civic subdivisions.
From Craterus’ fragment, it can be inferred that graphai xenias were presented monthly. However, the procedure by which the nautodikai dismissed such cases – effectively without referring them to the proper court – is harder to reconstruct. This practice seems to be implied by the epithet hybristodikai attributed to them, which the fragment interprets as “those who did not wish to bring cases to trial.”
Crater. FGrHist 342 F4a ap. Harp. s.v. Ναυτοδίκαι· Λυσίας ἐν τῷ πρὸς ’Αλκιβιάδην, εἰ γνήσιος ὁ λόγος. ’Αρχή τις ἦν ’Αθήνησιν οἱ ναυτοδίκαι· Κράτερος γοῦν ἐν τῷ δ́ τῶν Ψηϕισμάτων ϕησίν· «’Εὰν δέ τις ἐξ ἀμϕοῖν ξένοιν γεγονὼς ϕρατρίζῃ, διώκειν εἶναι τῷ βουλομένῳ ’Αθηναίων, οἷς δίκαι εἰσὶ· λαγχάνειν τῇ ἕνῃ καὶ νέᾳ πρὸς τοὺς ναυτοδίκας». ’Αριστοϕάνης Δαιταλεῦσιν· «’Εθέλω βάψας πρὸς ναυτοδίκας ξένην ἐξαίϕνης».
Nautodikai: Lysias, in the Against Alcibiades speech—if authentic—mentions them. The nautodikai were an Athenian magistracy. Craterus, in the fourth book of The Decrees, writes: “If an individual born of two foreign parents attempts to register in a phratry, any Athenian legally entitled to do so may bring a charge against him; he shall then be tried on the last day of the month before the nautodikai.”
Aristophanes, in The Banqueters (fr. 237 K-A), says: “Once the oars are dipped into the sea, I’ll immediately denounce you to the nautodikai as a foreigner.”
- E.E. Cohen, Ancient Athenian Maritime Courts, Princeton 1973
- C. Patterson, Pericles’ Citizenship Law of 451/0 BC, New York 1981
- D. Erdas, Cratero il Macedone. Testimonianze e frammenti, Tivoli 2002
- D. Erdas, I nautodikai. Note su una magistratura ateniese tra cause di xenia e giurisdizione sugli emporoi, Dike 24, 2021, 33-62