Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical Athens
Essays on Law, Society, and Politics

This volume brings together essays on Athenian law by Edward M. Harris, who challenges much of the recent scholarship on this topic.

Edward M. Harris (Author)

9780521852791, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 April 2006

518 pages
23.6 x 16 x 3.6 cm, 0.842 kg

"...this is a useful book. ...belongs in every university library, and especially on the reserve shelf for seminars on Greek Law and History. --Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 11/24/2006

This volume brings together essays on Athenian law by Edward M. Harris, who challenges much of the recent scholarship on this topic. Presenting a balanced analysis of the legal system in ancient Athens, Harris stresses the importance of substantive issues and their contribution to our understanding of different types of legal procedures. He combines careful philological analysis with close attention to the political and social contexts of individual statutes. Collectively, the essays in this volume demonstrate the relationship between law and politics, the nature of the economy, the position of women, and the role of the legal system in Athenian society. They also show that the Athenians were more sophisticated in their approach to legal issues than has been assumed in the modern scholarship on this topic.

Part I. Law and Constitutional History: 1. Solon and the spirit of the law in archaic and classical Greece
2. Pericles' praise of Athenian democracy
3. Antigone the lawyer, or the ambiguities of Nomos
4. How often did the Athenian assembly meet?
5. When did the Athenian assembly meet?
6. Demosthenes and the Theoric fund
Part II. Law and Economy: 7. Law and economy
8. When is a sale not a sale? The riddle of Athenian technology for real security revisited
9. Apotimema: the terminology for real security in leases and dowry agreements
10. The liability of business partners in Athenian law
11. Did Solon abolish debt-bondage?
12. Notes on a lead letter from the Athenian Agora
Part III. Law and Family: 13. Did the Athenians regard seduction as a crime worse than rape
14. Did rape exist in classical Athens? Further reflections on sexual violence in ancient Greece
15. Women and leading in classical Athens: a Horos re-examined
16. The date of Apollodorus' speech against Timotheus and its implications for Athenian history and legal procedure
17. A note on adoption and deme registration
Part IV. Aspects of Procedure: 18. In the act or red-handed? Furtum manifestum and Apagoge to the eleven
19. How to kill in attic Greek: the semantic of the verb and its implication
20. The penalties for frivolous prosecution in Athenian law
Part V. Envoi: Pheidippides the Legislator.

Subject Areas: International law [LB], European history [HBJD]