Syla as Self-Help in Greek International Law

Abstract This chapter surveys the history of syla, international self-help seizure, through careful study of practically all the surviving evidence over three centuries and interprets it with the tools of group identity and legal sociology. It studies documents from such geographically scattered locations as Olbia on the Black Sea, Oianthea and Chaleion in west Lokris, Salamis on Cyprus, and Cyrene in North Africa. It proposes ways in which group identity, especially but not only a common sense of Greekness, encouraged recognition and enforcement of a simple but sturdy set of rules for resolving international legal conflicts without courts. It argues that, despite the lack of courts, rhetoric still played a role in the use, recognition, and dissemination of those rules. And it reveals syla as a legal institution that remained remarkably consistent and robust for centuries.