PARACATA´BOLE
PARACATA´BOLE (
παρακαταβολή), a sum of money required of a plaintiff or
petitioner in certain cases, as a security that his complaint or demand was
not frivolous, or made on slight and insufficient grounds. Such was the
deposit made in certain inheritance causes, viz. not only by a person who
claimed an inheritance already adjudged ([Dem.] c.
Macart. p.
1054.16; Isae.
Hagn. § § 13, 27; Bunsen,
de jure hered. Ath. p. 92, limits the paracatabole to
such causes, and Boeckh,
Sthh.3 i. p.
430, explains Harpocr. s. v. in the same sense), but also by a person who
entered a
διαμαρτυρία μὴ ἐπίδικον εἶναι τὸν
κλῆρον (Isae.
Philost. § 12, etc.),
or who claimed an inheritance as having a better title than others by having
been adopted (Dem.
c. Leoch. p. 1090.34) or by testament
(Isae.
Nicostr. § 4): cf. Pollux, 8.32,
ἀντιλέγει ὡς αὐτὸς δικαιότερος ὢν ἔχειν τὸν
κλῆρον ἐξ ἀγχιστείας ἢ διαθηκῶν. The amount of the
deposit in such causes was a tenth part of the value of the property
claimed: it was returned to the petitioner, if successful; otherwise it went
to the opponent, or in case of rival claims to an inheritance to the state
(Isae.
Nicostr. § 11). In the proceeding termed
ἐνεπίσκημμα, which was a suit
instituted against the public treasury by a creditor to obtain payment out
of his debtor's confiscated goods ([Dem.]
c. Timoth. p.
1198.46), a fifth part of the value was deposited (Harpocr.
s. vv.
παρακαταβολὴ and
πρόπεμπτα), which sum went to the state in case the
petitioner was not successful (
C. I. A. ii. No. 777). From
this inscription it is likewise evident that the term
ἐγγύης καταβολὴ was used in the sense of
παρακαταβολὴ in this proceeding (cf. Suid. s. v.
ἐνεπισκήψασθαι καὶ ἐγγύην
καταβαλεῖν=
Etym. M. p. 340, 38, etc.). The
money was deposited either on the commencement of the cause or at the
ἀνάκρισις The word
παρακαταβολὴ signifies both the paying of the
deposit and the money deposited; and being a word of more general import, we
find it used to denote other kinds of deposits, as the
πρυτανεῖα and
παράστασις
(cf. Isocr.
c. Leoch. § 2); it is probably used in
this wider sense in Dem.
c. Pantaen. p. 978.41, in a
δίκη βλάβης. (
Att. Process, ed.
Lipsius, pp. 800, 814-822.)
[C.R.K] [H.H]
