[Meaning] withdrawal from a [sc. certain amount of] intervening space.
Polybius [writes]: "none of the citizens knew what was happening because of the distance, the city being large".[1]
[The terms] 'distance' and 'distancing' [a)postasi/a] are [construed with] 'from someone' and 'toward someone'.
"He is changing his benefactor by a)postasis".[2]
Also [sc. attested is the] a)postasi/ou di/kh, the [lawsuit] brought against freedmen, when they reject those who have freed them.
An a)postasi/ou di/kh[3] is a particular lawsuit, against freedmen, provided for those who have freed them, if [the freedmen] abandon them or register with another patron, and fail to do what [else] the laws prescribe. And those convicted must be slaves again, whereas those who have won their case are left completely free.
Prosecution for a)posta/sion: when a slave insists upon freedom, claiming that he does not belong to those who are contending that he is a slave. Contrast that for a)prosta/sion: each of the metics has, by law, one of the citizens as patron [prosta/ths], and through him both pays the metic-tax annually and manages everything else. So whenever anyone appears to be a metic but does not have a patron or is not paying the metic-tax or claims to be an Athenian and has been improperly enrolled as a citizen, anyone who likes can prosecute him; this is called a)prosta/sion.[4]