Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:03:17.647Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The Rhetoric of Law in Fourth-Century Athens

from Part 2: - Law in Athens I: Procedure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2006

Michael Gagarin
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
David Cohen
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Get access

Summary

Following a brief exposition of the rise of rhetoric in Athenian democracy, the first task of this chapter is to explain how rhetoric became a primary instrument of the judicial process in fourth-century Athens even though rhetoric had no intrinsic interest in the law. The second task of this chapter is to demonstrate how rhetoricians spoke about the law and used it for rhetorical purposes in speeches delivered by them or others before the law courts of Athens.

Athenian Democracy and the Rise of Rhetoric

The Athenian democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E had no executive office or executive council. Rather, official, binding decisions were made in two public, democratic institutions, the Assembly and the courts. The purpose of both institutions was to express the will of the demos – that is, the mass of ordinary citizens who made up the vast bulk of the citizen body and wielded power in the state – in a fair, open, institutionally stable way. The demos delegated tasks and decisions to lesser institutions or colleges of magistrates in the name of efficiency. Initiatives in the Assembly and courts were in the hands of individuals, who competed for political leadership. And the demos often reconsidered or revised its own decisions. But there were no institutional mechanisms to limit the demos’ sphere of activity, and there was no doctrine of rights restricting the will of the demos. The power of the demos within the state was absolute, its decisions in the Assembly and courts were final and not subject to appeal.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×