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Adeia
ELISABETTA PODDIGHE
The Greek term adeia corresponds to the concept of immunity as a special permission, such
as safe conduct when passing through enemy
territory (Plut. Alc. 23), as well as to the
immunity vote granted in Athens by the
assembly (ekklesia) allowing discussion of
a subject that otherwise could not be discussed.
The immunity vote was prescribed when
persons who had a statement to make were
debarred from addressing the assembly (e.g.,
slaves, metics, women, criminals), or when the
statement concerned an entrenched matter.
In both cases an assembly competent to grant
an adeia required definition as to the voting
method (two votes at separate meetings before
the action could be taken) and attendance
(a quorum of 6,000 votes: Dem. 24.45).
When the adeia was granted to a criminal who
was prepared to turn informer for the prosecution, he could not be prosecuted as an accomplice: this was the case of the slave Menon
against Pheidias (Plut. Per. 31) and of the
metic Teukros against ALKIBIADES (Andoc.
1.15). An adeia was granted as a general
amnesty in 405 BCE when the assembly enacted
a law that all the disenfranchised (atimoi) and
public debtors could propose measures in the
assembly with impunity (Andoc. 1.77). The
abuse of adeia as indemnity may explain its
late usage with the meaning of impunity
(Dem. 19.190, 272; McElwee 1975).
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 6566.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04003