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Spectator sport or serious politics? όί περιεστηκότες and the Athenian lawcourts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Adriaan M. Lanni
Adriaan M. Lanni
Affiliation:
Yale Law School
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Extract

In his tract A Rationale of Judicial Evidence, Jeremy Bentham repeatedly refers to the courtroom as the ‘theatre of justice’. Bentham's description has been borne out by recent scholarship on Athenian law. As a form of civic space, the Athenian lawcourts were similar to the Theatre of Dionysos in many respects: litigants faced each other in a competitive agon, delivering lines written for them by logographers to a mass audience which would range, ordinarily, from 200 to 1500 jurors. Moreover, modern scholars have drawn on the notion of ‘social drama’ introduced by the anthropologist Victor Turner to describe the Athenian lawcourts as an arena for socially constructive feuding behaviour, as a public stage for the social élite to compete for prestige, or as a forum for ongoing communication between élite litigants and mass jurors ‘in a context which made explicit the power of the masses to judge the actions and behavior of élite individuals’.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 117 , November 1997 , pp. 183 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1997

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References

1 Ober, J. and Strauss, B.S., ‘Drama, political rhetoric, and the discourse of Athenian Democracy’ in Nothing to do with Dionysos? Athenian drama in its social context, edited by Winkler, J.J. and Zeitlin, F.I. (Princeton 1990) 238;Google ScholarHall, E., ‘Lawcourt dramas: the power of performance in Greek forensic oratory’ BICS xl (1995) 39–52Google Scholar.

2 It is of course possible that some spoke with no ‘professional’ assistance.

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5 Ober, J., Mass and elite in democratic Athens: rhetoric, ideology, and the power of the people (Princeton 1989) 145Google Scholar. However, C. Carey has pointed out the dangers of overemphasising the alien elements in Athenian law and of oversimplifying the Athenian system: ‘Legal space in classical Athens’ G&R xli (1994) 172–86Google Scholar.

6 E.g., Cic. Flac. 69; Brut. 289-90; Caecin. 28. For discussion of the Roman corona see Frier, B.W., The rise of the Roman jurists (Princeton 1985) 235 ffGoogle Scholar.

7 A word should be said about the evidentiary value of the speeches. We can very seldom adduce any external evidence to verify or falsify a speaker's claims, including any description he offers of the circumstances of a trial. Given this limitation, my method is to assume that anything a speaker says about the bystanders would, at the very least, fall within the range of credibility.

8 Ant. vi 14, 24; P1. Apol. 24e-25b, 35b; Andoc. i 105; Aesch. i 77, 117, 173; ii 5; iii 8, 56, 207; Dem. xviii 196; xix 309; xx 165; xxv 98; xxx 32; liv 41; lvi 48; Is. v 20; Din. i 30, 46, 66; ii 19; Hyp. v 22; Lys. xii 35; xxvii 7. Ant. vi 24 refers to the corona of previous trials rather than spectators present at the time.

9 E.g., Din. i 10. Bers, V., ‘Dikastic thorubos’ in Crux: essays in Creek history presented to G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, edited by Cartledge, P.A. and Harvey, F.D. (Exeter and London 1985) 10Google Scholar.

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11 Admittedly, it is possible that the celebrity of certain trials would insulate them from the tendency to omit references to the corona in the process of publication.

12 Aesch. iii 56. cf. Aesch. ii 5; Lys. xii 35.

13 E.g. Dem. xxi 103; xlv 8. For the inherently greater public interest in graphai see R.G. Osborne (n.4) 53.

14 Plutarch (Mor. 580d-f) relates a story in which a group of Athenian youths is knocked down by a herd of pigs while walking διὰ τῶν ἐρμογλύϕων παρὰ τὰ δικαστήρια.

15 While public prosecutions took a whole day, private suits involving claims worth more than 5000 drachmas lasted a few hours, and cases worth less than 1000 drachmas may sometimes have been completed in less than an hour: see Hansen, M.H., The Athenian democracy in the age of Demosthenes (Oxford 1991) 187–8Google Scholar.

16 M.H. Hansen (n.15) 186.

17 E.g., Theophrastus' citizen agroikos (Char. 6) attends the Assembly while he is in the city running errands.

18 E.g., Ar. Ach. 375; Eq. 798; Lys. 380. For discussion see Todd, S.C., The shape of Athenian law (Oxford 1993) 147–54Google Scholar.

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20 At the end of this case the bailiff announced from the stage, ‘The regular show will be tomorrow; matinee in the afternoon and another performance at 8:30. Court is now adjourned until 7:30’ (quoted in Ball, M., ‘The play's the thing: an unscientific reflection on courts under the rubric of theater’ Stanford Law Review xxviii [1976] 84)Google Scholar.

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23 Ant. v 11. For discussion, see Parker, R.C.T., Miasma: pollution and purification in early Greek religion (Oxford 1983) 122Google Scholar.

24 H.A. Thompson and R.E. Wycherley (n.21); A.L. Boegehold 1995 (n.22); Townsend, R.F., The Athenian agora, Vol. 27. The east side of the agora: The remains beneath the stoa of Attalos (Princeton 1995);Google ScholarTravlos, J., ‘The law court ΕΠΙ ΠΑΛΛΑΔΙΩΙ’ Hesperia xliii (1974) 500–11;CrossRefGoogle ScholarBoegehold, A.L., ‘Philokleon's court’ Hesperia xxxvi (1967) 111–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 A.L. Boegehold 1967 (n.24); A.L. Boegehold 1995 (n.22) 95-6.

26 For the testimonia for druphaktoi, see A.L. Boegehold 1995 (n.22) 195-201.

27 A.L. Boegehold 1967 (n.24) 119.

28 Trials held in the Stoa Poikile would similarly draw crowds because it served as a central meeting place: Wycherley, R.E., The Athenian agora, Vol. 3. Literary and epigraphical testimonia (Princeton 1957) 31Google Scholar.

29 R.F. Townsend (n.24) 41 ff; A.L. Boegehold 1995 (n.22) 10-15.

30 Boegehold, A.L., ‘Three court days’ in Symposion 1990: Papers on Greek and Hellenistic legal history, edited by Gagarin, M. (Pacific Grove 1991) 178Google Scholar.

31 R.F. Townsend (n.24) 30-34.

32 It is impossible to determine the height of this screen wall, but it certainly did not extend to the entablature: R.F. Townsend (n.24) 31.

33 J. Travlos (n.24) cf. A. L. Boegehold 1995 (n.22) 47-8. Boegehold suggests that the Palladion was near Phaleron.

34 J. Travlos (n.24) 508.

35 See also Alk. Epist. II 3.11 (discussed above) and Ar. Rhet. II 1385a 10-13.

36 Hansen, M.H., ‘Two notes on the pnyx’ GRBS xxvi (1985) 129–35Google Scholar. On perischoinisma and barriers in public meeting places generally see Lavelle, B.M., ‘A note on perischoinisma’ Rivista di filologia cx (1982) 129–39Google Scholar and R.E. Wycherley (n.28) 163-4.

37 For discussion see Rhodes, P.J., The Athenian boule (Oxford 1972) 30–49Google Scholar.

38 See also Dem viii 4; Xen. Hell. II 3.55.

39 Dem xxv 23.

40 B.M. Lavelle (n.36) 37. For the more formal atmosphere required by Areopagites, see Aesch. i 84 and Isoc. vii 38, discussed in V. Bers (n.9) 15.

41 The verb ἀναβεβηκέναι could refer to visiting the Areopagos merely to read laws inscribed on stelai, but the run of the passages strongly suggests attendance at sessions of the Council.

42 See Segal, C.P., ‘Spectator and listener’ in Vernant, J.-P. (ed.), The Greeks (Chicago 1995) 184–217Google Scholar.

43 M.H. Hansen (n.15) 187.

44 Aristophanes' Wasps (103, 690, 774) indicates that prospective jurors who arrived late were turned away.

45 The speaker in Isaeus i 1 notes that it is unusual that οὐδ'ἀκροασόμενοι οὑδέποτ' ἤλθομεν ἐπὶ δικαστήριον.

46 Throughout the speech, the speaker contrasts the ignorance of Theomnestos with the jury's knowledge of the functioning of the lawcourts.

47 Aesch. i 117; iii 56; Lys. xii 35; Dem. xxv 98; Din. i 46; Hyp. v 22; Pl. Apol. 35a-b. See also Alkiphron, Epist. II 3.11Google Scholar (quoted above).

48 Foreigners observing the lawcourts might also bring knowledge about Athenian political institutions to their own polis. In the Rhetoric (1360a), Aristotle notes that travellers can provide Athenian legislators with useful information about the laws of foreign states.

49 Strauss, B.S., ‘Ritual, social drama, and politics in classical Athens’ AJAH x (1985) 73Google Scholar. In a similar vein, S.D. Goldhill compares the way in which ‘the polis represents itself to itself’ (368) in the Assembly, lawcourts, Dionysia, and Panathenaia, and in particular how each of these civic spaces was gendered in order to map the ‘civic topography’ (351) of the Athenian democracy: ‘Representing democracy: women at the Great Dionysia’, in Ritual, finance, politics: Athenian democratic accounts presented to David Lewis, edited by Osborne, R.G. and Hornblower, S. (Oxford 1994)Google Scholar.

50 Indeed, Philokleon asks to be buried under the druphaktoi (385-6).

51 The corona of Roman courts included aspiring orators (Cic. de Or. i 173), cognitores, and jurists: B.W. Frier (n.6) 235n2.

52 As Plutarch tells the story, the tutor sneaked the boy past the druphaktoi and into the courtroom itself.

53 See J. Ober (n.4) passim.

54 Dem. liv 41 includes a similar formulation.

55 To be sure, in some circumstances, a speaker might exploit the antagonism between the mass and the elite by reference to the corona: see Lys. xxvii 7 and Aesch. i 173.

56 See V. Bers (n.9).

57 See also Dem. xix 309; Andoc. i 35; Din. i 42; Aesch. i 113; Is. vii 13.

58 Supporters: Dem. xix 1; xlix 10. Children: Lys. xx 34; Dem. xxi 99, 186; P1. Apol. 34c; Ar. V. 568ff, 976 ff. For discussion see Harrison, A.R.W., The law of Athens Vol. II Procedure (Oxford 1972) 163–4;Google Scholar E. Hall (n.l).

59 In this passage this group is associated with those who practise philosophy, which suggests that the court enthusiasts were members of the educated élite. See also P1. Theaet. 172c and cf. [And.] iv 22.

60 The punishment for citing a non-existent law was death according to Dem. xxvi 24.

61 Din. i 66; Dem. lix 109; xxv 98 ff. Theophrastos' Obnoxious man (11.6) confronts losing litigants as they leave the court.

62 Also Aesch. iii 8.

63 E.g., Lyc. i 14; Din i 27; iii 22; Andoc. i 140; Lys. xxii 19-21; Isoc. xviii 42.

64 Also Dem. xxii 64; xxiii 139-40; xxv 6.

65 E.g., Andoc. i 105; Din. i 46; Lys. i 36; v 5; xii 35; xxx 23; Dem. lvi 48. On precedent generally, see Carey, C. and Reid, R.A., Demosthenes: Selected private speeches (Cambridge 1985) 10–11;Google Scholar L. Rubinstein, ‘Persuasive precedent in the people's court’, paper read at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association, Washington, D.C., December, 1993; and Lanni, A.M., ‘Waiting for jurisprudence: Consistency and legal reasoning in the Athenian lawcourts’, unpublished M.Phil, thesis, Cambridge University 1996Google Scholar.

66 See Roberts, J., Accountability in Athenian government (Madison 1982)Google Scholar and M.H. Hansen (n.15) 178ff.

67 V. Bers, ‘The Athenian jury in rhetoric, theory, and spectacle’, paper read at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association, San Diego, December, 1995 and at Royal Holloway College, University of London, March 1996.

68 For the controversy surrounding the precise wording of the oath see M.H. Hansen (n.15) 182-3.

69 E.g. Lyc. i 146; Dem. lix 126. Lys. xii 99 warns that the dead are watching to see whether they will be avenged by the jury.

70 V. Bers (n.67).

71 Also Lys. xxvii 7; Din. i 3.

72 Hunter, V.J., Policing Athens: Social control in the Attic lawsuits, 420-320 B.C. (Princeton 1994)Google Scholar.

73 E.g. among the Tiv (see Bohannan, P., Justice and judgement among the Tiv [London 1968] 13)Google Scholar and the Sunni of Lebanon (see Nader, L. and Todd, H.F., The disputing process-Law in ten societies [New York 1978] 164)Google Scholar.

74 L. Nader and H.F. Todd (n.73) 188.

75 L. Nader and H.F. Todd (n.73) 267.

76 G. Mueller (n.19) 7.

77 E.g., Gagarin, M., Early Greek law (Berkeley 1986) 43, 108;Google ScholarHavelock, E.A., The Greek concept of justice (Cambridge 1978) 133 ff;CrossRefGoogle ScholarWolff, H.J., ‘The origin of judicial litigation among the Greeks’ Traditio iv (1946) 41Google Scholar.

78 MacDowell, D.M., The law in classical Athens (London and Ithaca 1978) 21Google Scholar.

79 Humphreys, S.C., ‘The evolution of the legal process in ancient Attica’ in Tria corda: Scritti in onore di Arnaldo Momigliano, edited by Gabba, E. (Como 1983) 231Google Scholar.

80 An earlier version of this note was written at Cambridge University under the supervision of Paul Millett. I wish to thank Alan Boegehold, Paul Cartledge, Dorothy Thompson, the anonymous readers for JHS, and especially Victor Bers for their help.