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| On the day appointed by the magistrate for the trial, a large group of potential jurors (dikastai) appeared at a specified place in the Agora. Each eligible juror carried a bronze ticket (pinakion) with his name, his father's name, and the name of his deme inscribed upon it: |
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| This juror's ticket belonged to DHMOFANHS, the son of FIL..., who was a Cephisian (KHFISIEUS), a member of the deme Cephisia, NE of Athens. |
| The juror deposited his ticket at an allotment machine (kleroterion), in the section for his tribe. |
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Restored Drawing of a Kleroterion |
| The magistrate took a group of tickets and inserted them into the slots for the appropriate tribes. Then the magistrate dropped a mixture of black and white marbles into the funnel at the top of a bronze tube running down the side of the kleroterion. When the crank was turned, if the marble was white, all ten jurors in that row were selected for service; if it was black, they were all dismissed for the day. The procedure continued until the requisite number of dikastai was reached (between 201 and 2500 for each jury). |
Marble fragment of the top of a kleroterion (2nd
century BCE) |
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Marble fragment of the bottom of a kleroterion (3rd century BCE) |
| Thereupon, the juror was issued a lawcourt token (symbolon) with a letter indicating the court to which he had been assigned. At the end of the day, the juror presented his symbolon to collect his payment for service. |
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