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PHASIS (φάσις) was often used in a general sense to denote any kind of information (Pollux, 8.47, κοινῶς δὲ φ. ἐκαλοῦντο πᾶσαι αἱ μηνύσεις τῶν λανθανόντων ἀδικημάτων), but technically it was one of the various methods by which public offenders at Athens might be prosecuted (Andoc. do Myst. § 88, γραφαὶ φάσεις ἐνδείξεις ἀπαγωγαί: cf. [Dem.] c. Aristog. i. p. 793.78, etc.). The charge, as in the γραφή, was made in writing (also called φάσις), with the names of the prosecutor and defendant, the proposed penalty (τίμημα), and the names of the, κλητῆρες affixed (Pollux, l.c.; [Dem.] c. Theocr. p. 1323.5 ff.). The peculiarity by which the (φάσις was distinguished from other methods of prosecution seems to have been that, if the prosecution was one of a purely public nature, i. e. where the offence immediately affected the state, the prosecutor received half the penalty (τὰ ἡμίση τῶν φανθέντων, [Dem.] c. Theocr. p. 1325.13;--C. L. A. ii. No. 203 b; cf. No. 17, 1. 41 ff.; No. 546, 11. 18, 28;--Plat. Legg. v. p. 745 A). According to Pollux (l.c.), it might be brought against five classes of offenders: viz. 1st, against those who committed offences against the mining laws,--e. g. those who encroached in their mining operations on the district reserved by the state as its own (ὀντὸς τῶν μέτρων, Hyper. pro Eux. 100.44 f.; Att. Process, ed. Lipsius, p. 1020 f.), those working unregistered mines (ἀναπόγραφα μέταλλα, Hyper. l.c. 100.43; Heffter, Athen. Gerichtsverf. p. 188); cf. Photius, s. v.; Lex. Rhet. Cantabr. p. 676, 23, emended by Meier, etc.;--2nd, against those who committed offences against the laws and customs,--e. g. those who conveyed corn anywhere but to Athens, or lent money for any other mart but Athens ([Dem.] c. Lacr. p. 940.50 f.; Dem. c. Phorm. p. 918, 37; Lyc. c. Leocr. § 27; Dem. c. Dionysod. p. 1284.6, cf. Platner, Proc. [p. 2.384]u. Klag. ii. p. 358 ff.), or who contravened the regulations of import and export (C. I. A. i. i. No. 31, i. A; ii. No. 546) by importing goods from hostile countries (Aristoph. Ach. 819 f., 908 f.; Isocr. Trap. § 42), or exporting arms and shipbuilding material to the enemy (Dem. F. L. p. 433.286; Aristoph. Kn. 278, Ran. 362) or by defrauding the customs (Aristoph. Kn. 300);--3rd, against those who appropriated state property sine justo titulo (Isocr. c. Callim. § 6; Lex. Rhet. Cantabr. p. 676, 23. Harpocration's definition is too narrow, ὅταν τις ἀποφαίνῃ τῶν δημοσίων ἔχοντα μὴ πριάμενον: see also Bekk. Anecd. 315, 16, κατὰ τῶν ἀδικούντων χωρίον οἰκίαν τι τῶν δημοσίων);--4th, against συκοφάνται--i. e. those who brought false accusations against others, not in general, but for the offences enumerated above (Schömann, de Com. p. 178, n. 19):--5th, against guardians who wronged their wards (Dem. c. Naus. et Xen. p. 991.23; Harpocr. s. v.). Pollux (l.c.) goes on to say, ἐφαίνοντο δὲ πρὸς τὸν ἄρχοντα: here as in the following paragraphs ἄρχων is used in a more general sense, denoting any magistrate to whom a jurisdiction belonged. Before the archon only a φάσις against guardians might be preferred; but the σύνδικοι were the presiding magistrates in all cases of appropriation of public property sine justo titulo [SYNDIKOI, 2], and the ἐπιμεληταὶ τοῦ ἐμπορίου in all cases of offences against the import and export laws, whilst offences relating to the mines and customs and cases of false accusations came before the thesmothetae. All (φάσεις were τιμητοὶ ἀγῶνες. In prosecutions against fraudulent guardians the τίμημα went to the wards (Pollux, l.c. τὸ τιμηθὲν ἐγίγνετο τῶν ἀδικουμένων εἰ καί τις ἄλλος ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν φήνειεν: Schömann, Antiq. Jur. Publ. p. 271, n. 4, the prosecutor probably receiving a share of it); in other cases it was shared by the state and the prosecutor; sometimes a severer punishment than a fine was inflicted (Dem. c. Phorm. p. 918.37, τὰ ἔσχατα ἐπιτίμια: cf. Lyc. c. Leocr. § 27), and the cargoes and ships of those contravening the export and import laws were confiscated (Boeckh, Seeurk. p. 230; cf. Dem. c. Mid. p. 558.133). The prosecutor was probably liable to the payment of πρυτανεῖα, inasmuch as he might reap advantage from the result; if he failed to obtain a fifth part of the votes, he was subject to the fine of a thousand drachmas and partial disfranchisement (Dem. c. Theocr. p. 1326.6; Lex. Rhet. Cantabr. p. 677, 10). Pollux (l.c.), it is true, says that in that case he was liable to the ἐπωβελία, but he very probably confounds the two fines. We have no speech left us by the Orators on the subject of a (φάσις, but only mention of a lost speech of Lysias, πρὸς τὴν φάσιν τοῦ ὀρφανικοῦ οἴκου (Harpocr. s. v. = fragm. 203).

The proceedings taken against those who cut down more olive-trees than the law permitted resembled much those of the φάσις: the offender had to pay for each tree a fine of a hundred drachmas to the state, and a like sum τῷ ἰδιώτῃ τῷ ἐπεξιόντι, and the prosecutor had to pay πρυτανεῖα τοῦ αὑτοῦ μέρους ([Dem.] c. Macart. p. 1074.71, lex). (Att. Process, ed. Lipsius, pp. 294-302, 812).

[C.R.K] [H.H]

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