First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Athenian Law and Society focuses upon the intersection of law and society in classical Athens, in relation to topics like politics, class, ability, masculinity, femininity, gender studies, economics, citizenship, slavery, crime, and violence. The book explores the circumstances and broader context which led to the establishment of the laws of Athens, and how these laws influenced the lives and action of Athenian citizens, by examining a wide range of sources from classical and late antique history and literature. Kapparis also explores later literature on Athenian law from the Renaissance up to the 20th and 21st centuries, examining the long-lasting impact of the world’s first democracy. Athenian Law and Society is a study of the intersection between law and society in classical Athens that has a wide range of applications to study of the Athenian polis, as well as law, democracy, and politics in both classical and more modern settings.

This book offers the first attempt at understanding interpersonal violence in ancient Athens. While the archaic desire for revenge persisted into the classical period, it was channeled by the civil discourse of the democracy. Forensic speeches, curse tablets, and comedy display a remarkable openness regarding the definition of violence. But in daily life, Athenians had to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. They did so by enacting a discourse on violence in the performance of these genres, during which complex negotiations about the legitimacy of violence took place. Performances such as the staging of trials and comedies ritually defined the meaning of violence and its appropriate application. Speeches and curse tablets not only spoke about violence, but also exacted it in a mediated form, deriving its legitimate use from a democratic principle, the communal decision of the human jurors in the first case and the underworld gods in the second. Since discourse and reality were intertwined and the discourse was ritualized, actual violence might also have been partly ritualized. By still respecting the on-going desire to harm one’s enemy, this partial ritualization of violence helped restrain violence and thus contributed to Athens’ relative stability.

Six presentations followed by discussions. Contents: Introduction par P. DUCREY; H.VAN WEES, -Stasis, Destroyer of Men. Mass, Elite, Political Violence and Security in Archaic Greece-; W.RIESS, -Private Violence and State Control. The Prosecution of Homicide an its Symbolic Meanings in Fourth-Century BC Athens-; A. CHANIOTIS, -Policing the Hellenistic Countryside. Realities and Ideologies-; C. BRELAZ, -Ladieu aux armes: La defense de la cite grecque dans l'empire romain pacifie-; A. W. LINTOTT, -How High a Priority did Public Order and Public Security have under the Republic?-;R. MacMULLEN, -The Problem of Fanaticism-; Y. RIVIERE, -L'Italie, les iles et le continent: Recherches sur l'exil et l'administration du territoire imperial (Ier-IIIe siecles); Epilogue par C. BRELAZ et P. DUCREY.

In 621/0 B.C., the Athenians appointed Draco as their first lawgiver. His homicide laws, which alone survived the general recension of Athenian law by Solon (594/3 B.C.), remained in force down through the Classical period. This book traces the development of Athenian legal and social responses to homicide from the legislation of Draco to the time of the orator Demosthenes (d. 322 B.C.), with particular attention to the Athenian institution of private enmity (echthra), the circumstances and aims of Draco's legislation, familial and religious issues surrounding homicide, and the regime of the Thirty Tyrants and its aftermath.

This timely volume brings together leading scholars and rising researchers in the field to examine the role played by the law in thinking and practice in the legal system of classical Athens. The aim is not to find a single perspective or method for the study of Athenian law but to explore the subject from a variety of different angles. The focus of the collection on ‘use and abuse’ raises fundamental questions about the status of law in the Athenian constitution as well as the use of law(s) in the courts, the nature of law itself, and the elusiveness of a definition of ‘abuse’. An introduction sketches the major developments in the field over the last century.

A topic fundamental to understanding the ancient world