Aspectos formales y tópicos de los contratos privados sicilianos

Abstract

Since F. Pringsheim (1950) the reading of the Greek law of sale has changed. He interpreted the Greek sale as a cash-contract, where the formalism of the transactions and the difference —though not legal— between possession and ownership are the main elements. This character of the Greek law of sale is confirmed by the epigraphical material. The formal analysis, and also the content’s one, of the Sicilian contracts of Camarina and Morgantina (spanning from IV b. C. to I b. C) compared with that of the contracts of other parts of the Greek world reveal that, despite the absence of juridical complexity, the sale transaction is a very formalized and unified one throughout the Greek world, at least since the fourth century b. C., with a tradition which is probably much older. The structure of these contracts is the following: invocation to the gods or Tyche; date; names of seller and purchaser; verb which defines the kind of transaction; object to be acquired, with the elements which define and specify it; price; in case of πρᾶσις ἐπὶ λύσει, term within which the λύσις must be effected; guarantor and/or witnesses. The existence of the πρᾶσις ἐπὶ λύσει and of witnesses to be added to the written contract even in the latest epigraphical sources confirms the need for formalism and the absence of a complex law, that could cover contracts with the possibility of deferred payment.