CMS 231/ History 231

Litigation in Ancient Athens

Discussion Questions

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Week 5	Week 6	Week 8	Week 9
Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13

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Week 1

Class 1
Class 2

Hansen: 1-85

What types of evidence do we have for Athenian law in the fourth century?
For what period of Athenian history is the evidence strongest?
What role did the "lot" play in various stages of Athenian constitutional history?
What was the purpose and effect of Pericles citizenship law?
Describe the reforms each of the following men made to the Athenian constitution in terms of the role and composition of the Boule (Council), Assembly (Ekklesia) and courts (dikasteria). Where appropriate, describe any new institutions their reforms created:

Solon
Peisistratus
Kleisthenes
Ephialtes
Pericles

Describe the changes the oligarchs made to the Athenian constitution in the oligarchic revolution of 411 and under the regime of the Thirty in 404/3 (in terms of the role and composition of different institutional bodies).
Describe the constitution of Athens after the restoration of the democracy in 403 (in terms of the role and composition of different institutional bodies).
What is a polis? How does it differ from the modern notion of a "state."
How did Athenians use the word "democracy" differently than moderns?
How did Athenians opposed to deomcracy criticize democratic ideology?
What did Athenians understand liberty (eleutheria) to consist of?
What did Athenians mean by equality? What terms did they use to describe it?
How did Athenians distinguish between the public and private sphere?
How is normative equality different than natural equality?

Demosthenes 22, Against Androtion

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Week 2

Class 1

Hansen 86-124

How were the inhabitants of Athens classified? What type of classification was this?
How did the Athenians classify their citizens according to age? What were the consequences of this classification?
What is Hansen's estimate of the demography of Athens (i.e., how many male citizens, metics, slaves, women, children)?
What legal procedures deprived citizens of citizenship status and legal rights?
What rights/privileges and obligations did citizenship-status guarantee or require?
What is a deme? What is its significance for the Athenian constitution and Athenian society?
What is a "riding" (trittyes)? What is its significance for the Athenian constitution and Athenian society?
What is a tribe? What is its significance for the Athenian constitution and Athenian society?
How did Athens organize itself economically? What was is organization for its political and social order?
Define the following terms

eisphora liturgy dokimasia
euthynoi antidosis symmonies

Class 2

Hansen: 125-224
questions for Chapter 6

How did the critics and defenders of the Athenian democracy use the word demos?
What groups within the demos dominated the Assembly/Ekklesia?
What is the Pnyx?
What is a bema?
What were the requirements for participation in the Assembly/Ekklesia?
How many people attended Assembly/Ekklesia meetings? What percentage of Athenian citizens did they represent in the 4th century BCE?
When did Athenians begin to be paid for attendance at meetings of the Athenian Assembly/Ekklesia?
How often did the Assembly/Ekklesia meet?
Who were the pryteneis? What did they do?
What was the Council/Boule?
What is the difference between the prytaneis and a prytanny?
How often did the Council/Boule meet?
What functions did the Council/Boule perform?
What happened at a kyria ekklesia? When was it held?
What do the following terms mean:

epicheirontonia
eisangelia
epikleroi
probolai

What happened at the second ekklesia of each month? What happened at the third and fourth ekklesia of each month?
Who called the meetings of the Assembly/Ekklesia?
What was an ekklesia synkletos?
The Athenians used two different calendars. What are they called and for what were they used?
Who were the proedroi and what did they do?
What do scholars imagine the seating arrangements at the Assembly/Ekklesia to have been?
What were the different types of agendas used for meetings of the Assembly/Ekklesia? How were they created and circulated?
What was a probouleuma [also called a boules psephisma]? Wh was it so important?
What does the use of probouleumata suggest about the nature of Athenian democracy?
What were procheirontia?
Did the Council/Boule's agenda always determine matters discussed at the Assembly/Ekklesia?
When did the Assembly/Ekklesia stop using proedroi and why? How had proedroi been chosen?
What does the term epistates signify? What did they do?
Who were the syllogeis tou demou? What did they do?
Describe the proceedings that opened a meeting of the Assembly/Ekklesia.
How were citizens paid for attending meetings of the Assembly/Ekklesia? How much did this cost the Athenian treasury?
How did speeches in the Assembly/Ekklesia differ from speeches in the Courts/Dikasteria?
Who spoke in the Assembly/Ekklesia? What were speakers called? What percentage of the total Assembly/Ekklesia attendance did these speakers represtn?
What legal penalties did a speaker face for misusing his authority? What honors might a speaker receive?
What were the Athenians who attended meetings of the Assembly/Ekklesia, but did not typically speak, called?
What was the difference between a speaker and a proposer of a decree?
What legal risks did a proposer of a decree face?
How did members of the Assembly/Ekklesia. vote? How were the votes counted and recorded?
Who was responsible for the publication of decrees of the Assembly/Ekklesia.
What was do the following terms mean:

psephismata
hypomosia
graphe paranomon
Metroön

What were the powers of the Assembly/Ekklesia in the 5th century BCE? How and why did they change in the 4th century BCE?
What was the Heliastic oath? Who took it and when?
Who were the nomothetai?
What types of decisions did the 4th century Assembly/Ekklesia make? What was the Assembly/Ekklesia's most importan field of action in the 4th century bCE? Why?
What financial authority did the 4th century Assembly/Ekklesia have? How were its financial powers constrained?
What were kriseis?
How and when was the eisangelia procedure reformed? What was the effect of the reform?
What were hairesiai?
Who were the magistrates selected by Assembly election? why were they elected rather than chosen by lot?

questions for Chapter 7

What are the differences between a thesmos, nomos and psephisma? How did the meanings of these words change over time?
Why and when did the Athenians revise their laws?
What was the anagrapheis tou nomou?
How were the laws revised in 403? What role did the Assembly/Ekklesia play in this revision? Where was the revision published?
What did 4th century bCE Athenians mean when they said, "the laws of Solon" or "the laws of Drako"?
How did Athenians organize their laws?
How did the revisions of 403 BCE effect Athenian law making?
What laws governed 4th century BCE law making?
What is the differenc between a graphe nomon and a graphe paranomon?
Who were the nomothetai and what did they do?
What were the procedures in the 4th century for adopting a new law or changing an old law?
After 403 BCE how did Athenians define "law?"
Why did magistrates and jurors have different obligations under this definition?
How do we know that Athenians distinguished between laws and treaties?
What was the consequence of treating laws as more authoritative than decrees?

questions for Chapter 8

What does the term dikasterion mean?
Why were courts important in the Athenian democracy?
Whar are Athenian courts properly described as "amateur" courts?
Who was eligible to serve on Athenian juries?
How were jurors chosen annually?
How were jurors chosen on a daily basis?
What do selection procedures tell us about Athenian democracy?
What does the archeological evidence of juror "tickets" consist of? What does this evidence tell us about the nature of jury service?
What was the Heliastic oath?
What do we know about the social identity of Athenian jurors?
How often did the Athenian courts hold trials/hearings?
How large were the juries?
How many cases did a jury hear in a day?
How were jurors paid? What were they paid?
What authority did Athenian magistrates have over courts?
How did the role of a magistrate/archon in an Athenian court change over time?
What magistrates/archons typically supervised what kind of courts and what kind of cases?
What is an "accusatorial" system of justice? How does it differ from a "prosecutorial" system?
Who could initiate a law suit? How did this change over time?
What is the difference between a dike and a graphe?
What were the differences and similarities between Athenian legal procedures?
What was a synergos, a logographos, and a sykophant? How were they different than what moderns mean by "lawyer?"
How did Athenian law encourage the sykophant? Why did it?
How did Athenian law discourage the sykophant? Why did it?
What do the following terms mean:

prosklesis
graphe
autographe
paragraphe
kleteres

What were the magistrate/archon's duties and authority before the trial?
What was the anakrisis? What happened at it?
What was the prytaneia? What happened at it?
What was the parastasis? What happened at it?
Who were the diaitetes? What did they do?
Who were the thesmothetai? What were the responsibilities regarding trials?
How were jurors chosen on the day of trial?
What was the klepsydra? Click here to see a picture of one.
Describe the order of events on the day of trial?
What different kinds of evidence could be used at trial?
Who could be a witness?
What was a proklesis?
What role did precedent play in the decision of the jury?
What did the jurors do after the parties presented their cases?
How were votes counted?
How may votes did it take to acquit?
What were atimia and epobelia?
How was the penalty determined if the plaintiff won?
How did the dikasteria excercise political power?
What is the difference between dikai idiae and dikai demosiai?
What features characterized defendants in political trials?
What were the most frequent legal procedures used in political trials? Who were they typically used against?
What was the graphe paranomon? When was it introduced? What was its purpose?
How was the graphe paranomon initiated and pursued?
How many jurors heard a graphe paranomon?
What happened if the plaintiff won a graphe paranomon?
What were the political consequences of the procedure?
What was the graphe nomon me epitedeion theinai?
When was it instituted and why?
How did it differ from the graphe paranomon?
What was an eisangelia to the people? When was it instituted? Why?
How was an eisangelia to the people initiated and pursued?
What role did the Council/Boule play in the initiation of an eisangelia to the people?
How was the defendant's position in an eisangelia to the people different than in other procedures (e.g., graphe paranomon).
What court heard the eisangelia to the people?
Against what kinds of officials did Athenians use the dokimasia and euthynai?
What was the dokimasia and when did it occur.
What was at issue in a dokimasia?
Where were dokimasia heard?
Who prosecuted the dokimasia?
What happened to magistrates/archons who were rejected at the dokimasia?
What happened to citizens who made accusations at a dokimasia, but failed to convince anyone (or up to less than half) to vote against the magistrate/archon?
Why do you think Athenians held dokimasia?
What was the epicheirontonia ton archon? How often could they occur?
What happened to a magistrate/archon who lost an epicheirontonia?
Who were the logistai? What did they do?
What is the difference between an eisangelia eis ten boulen (eisangelia to the Council/Boule) and an eisangelia eis ton demon (eisangelia to the People/Demos).
What were euthynai?
Who were the synegoroi? What did they do?
What charges could be made at an euthynai?
Who were the euthynoi? What did they do? How are they different from euthynai?
Who were the paredroi? What did they do?
What happened after an accusation was laid at an euthynai.
How long was the period of inspection of the magistrates?
What conclusions can we draw about the role of euthynai in Athenian democracy based on the apparent rate of prosecution and conviction from them?

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Week 3

Class 1

Hansen Chapter 9

According to Aristotle, what nine principles characterize the role of magistrates/archons in a democracy?
What two additional principles doe Hansen add?
Why is a priest not an archon?
What were the criteria that defined archons and what rights did they have?
Were members of the Council/Boule magistrates/archons? What arguments could be made for and against the proposition?
What were the functions of magistrates?
Into what analytical categories was Athenian political power divided? Who exercised power in each of these catagories?
How was the magistrates/archons' authority demonstrated and protected?
How many magistracies/archonships did Atheniens fill each year? How many of these did they fill by election?
How was the pool from which candidates were chosen limited?
How were the Chief Archons selected? Who were the Chief Archons?
How many times could the same citizen hold the same magistracy/archonship?
Why couldn't a citizen be selected for different offices two years in a row?
What magistracies/archonships tended to be underfilled? Which were always filled?
What kind of offices were filled by election? Why?
What effect did election have on the role of an office holder?
How were elections conducted? How were the votes counted?
What was the purpose of selection of magistrates by lot?
How did the principal of collegiality serve the democracy?
Boards of magistrates/archons divided their duties according to what principles?
How were magistrates/archons paid before the revolution of 403? After?
What is the significance of this change?
What other benefits than pay did magistrates/archons receive?
What costs might be associated with different magistracies/archonships?
What tasks did magistrates/archons perform?
Who were the grammateis and why were they important according to Hansen?

Chapter 10

How was the Council/Boule different than other boards of magistrates/archons in Athens?
What was the Council/Boule central to Athenian democracy?
What six things do we know about the selection of Councillors?
Who supervised the selection of Councillors?
Why could the same person serve on the Council/Boule twice, but hold other magistracy/archonships only once?
What demographic reason made it so hard to recruit candidates for the Council/Boule? What steps did Athens take to overcome these limitations?
What does Socrates' service on the Council/Boule suggest about the place Council members had in Athenian politics?
What was the executive committee of the Council/Boule called? What were its duties? What were benefits for service on it?
How was it chosen?
Who was the epistates ton prytaneon? What did he do?
What was the tholos?
How many days a year did the Council/Boule meet?
Where did it meet?
Who were the proedroi? What did they do? How were they chosen?
Who was the epistates ton proedron? What did he do? How was he chosen?
What limitations were placed on the right to address the Council/Boule?
What limitations were placed on the right to propose decrees and probouleumata?
How were votes counted on the Council/Boule?
How Councilors paid?
What factors affected attendance at Council/Boule meetings?
What factors limited the power of the Council/Boule?
What were the two different kinds of boules psephisma? What did they govern?
What was the central role of the Council/Boule in the Athenian democracy?
What relationship did the Council/Boule have with the nomothetai?
What five rights/authority did the Council/Boule have regarding criminal law?
What was a katagnosis? How did one arise?
What three dokimasiai did the Council/Boule administer?
what sort of administrative duties did the Council/Boule perform?
What sources of revenue did Athens have in the 4th century BCE?
Who were the apodektai? What did they do? What was their relationship to the Council/Boule?
Why didn't the Council/Boule administer the central Athenian treasury?
What happened if their were more revues than expenses in a given year?
What was the Theoric fund? When was it established? Why was it important?
What were the Council/Boule's responsibilities regarding foreign policy? How did they administer these responsibilities?

Class 2

Chapter 11 (266-287)

What for Hansen is the most striking difference between the Athenian and modern democracies?
Who was "ho boulomenos"? What was his function or role in the Athenian democracy?
How were the activities of "ho boulomenos" subject to review?
What kinds of Athenians filled the role of "ho boulomenos"?
What does the phrase "rhetores kai strategoi" refer to? What does the "rhetor" do? By what other names was he called?
What does the "strategos" do? How were rhetors and strategoi selected? What functions and rights did the strategoi have? Did the rhetors have comparable functions and rights?
How did the functions/roles of rhetores and strategoi differ in the fifth and fourth centuries bce?
What accounts for the difference?
Why is the word "politician" a bad translation of the Greek word "rhetor"?
Who were the political leaders of Athens?
Why do scholars believe that political power was concentrated among the rhetors and strategoi? Why might this concentration represent a threat to the democracy?
From what segments of society did Athens recruit her political leaders during the 5th century bce? During the 4th century bce?
By what legitimate and illegitimate sources of income did Athenian political leaders get rich? Why did Athenians tolerate the pecuniary habits of their leaders?
What caused the increasing professionalism of political life in Athens?
What does the word "condottieri" mean? (if you don't know, look it up)
Why is not appropriate to speak of "political parties" in Athens?
What did Greeks mean by the words "stasis," "hetaireia," and "synomosia"?
What evidence do we have of collaboration between political leaders in Athenian politics?
What evidence do we have that political leaders were supported by large groups of citizens?

Chapter 12 (288- 295)

Who could be a member of the Areopagus? How were members of the Areopagus selected? What can we estimate about the composition of its membership (size, age, class, etc.)?
How did the political authority of the Areopagus change in the 5th century?How did the political authority of the Areopagus change during the 4th century?
What was apophasis? How did the procedure work?
Summarize the facts of the Harpalos affair.
What kind of political institution was the Areopagus? Was it democratic or undemocratic?

Chapter 13 (296-320)

What does the term "patrios politeia" mean? Why was this concept important for Greek political oratory in general and Athenian oratory in particular? Why didn't fourth century Athenian democrats like it?
Why did fourth century Athenians attribute so much of their constitution to Solon? Were the historically correct to do so?
How did the democracy of Perikles' day differ from the democracy Athenians liked to attribute to Solon?
How did the Athenian democracy of the fourth century differ from Periklean democracy?
Why did critics of the 4th century democracy believe that it was as "radical" as the democracy of Perikles' day? (4 reasons)
What does the word "kyrios" mean?
Were the courts or assembly kyrios in 4th century Athens?
What does Hansen believe are the primary characteristics of fourth century democracy? (He names 15.)
How was the role of political rhetoric different in Athenian democracy than it is in modern democracies?
What sort of political activity did Athens expect of her ordinary citizens?
How did Athenian democracy prevent demagoguery?
How did Athens keep its democracy amateurish? Why did it want to?
How was Athens able to encourage citizens to participate in the democracy?
Did the Athenian democracy depend on slavery and imperialism in order to function?

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Week 4

Class 1

Introduction: p. 1-14

What are the similarities between Athenian and American "hyperlexis" [look it up if you don't know what it means]? [1-2]
What are some differences Christ notes between Athenian and American "hyperlexis"? [2-3]
What were Athenian criticisms of Athenian litigation? Why should we study these criticism? [3-4]
What features of our sources for Athenian law make them difficult to interpret? [4]
What features of forensic orations make these sources difficult to interpret? [4-5]
Why does the uneven distribution of sources over time make the study of them more difficult? [5-6]
What is the object of Christ's study? Why do the features of the sources which make them difficult to analyze it? [6-7]
What biases have modern scholars of Athenian litigation typically suffered from? How have more recent scholars recognzied and corrected these biases? Have they been entirely successful? [6-8]
Why does Christ believe an examination of the assumptions inherent in modern debates about litigiousness helpful for the study of Athenian litigiousness? [8]
What does Christ conclude about the nature of the discussion of litigiousness in America? [8-9]
What role does the rhetorical appeal to a better past play in American discussions of American litigiousness? [9-10]
Why is discussion about litigiousness a useful object of historical study? [i.e., what does the study of this discussion tell us about the society?] [11-12]

Chapter 1: 14-47

What factors brought litigants before popular courts in increasing numbers after the Ephialtic reforms? [14-15]
How did private citizens who were not personally active in politics contribute to the rise in litigation? [15-16]
How did the sophists help fuel the Athenian legal revolution? [16]
Why isn't the rise of litigation a good indicator of the rise of conflict in Athenian society? How might rising litigation have fostered social stabiliy? [16-18]
What tools did Athenians have to ensure that they were not stuck with total losers when they selected magistrates by lot? [19]
What tools did they have to keep the rhetores in line? [19]
Why were the popular courts the most distinctive feature of democratic rule in Athens? What sort of authority did the courts have?[19-20]
What function did the Metroön serve? [21]
How did Athenians at the end of the 5th century bce reform the way they created laws? What was the effect of these reforms? What was the purpose? [21-22]
Why does Christ believe that the reforms did not submit the demos to the rule of law? [22]
The 4th century ideology that laws were kurioi reflected what idealized relationship between the laws and the people? [22-23]
What three features of Athenian legal regulation does Christ find noteworthy? [23-24]
Why did critics of Athenian democracy believe that laws should be very detailed? [24-25]
What were the difference between a dike and a graphe? [26]
What events occurred before trial in the prosecution of a lawsuit? [26-27]
How were judgments enforced? [28]
Describe three ways in which Athenians discouraged the abuse of litigation. [28-32]
Give three reasons why the wealthy were far more likely to litigate in Athens than ordinary Athenians? [32-4]
For what reasons did Athenians litigate? What reasons did they say they litigated for? [34-35]
Why was the trial a form of agon[contest; e.g., athletic, military, artistic competition]? [35]
Why does Christ believe too much emphasis can be placed on the role of honor in Athenian litigation? [35-36]
What do allegations of abuse tell us about the way Athenians litigated? What are the difficulties of this evidence? [36-37]
Christ identifies three ways in which Athenian legal behavior in practice was less than what it was supposed to be at an ideal level. What are they? [37-39]
What roles did the jurors play at the trial? [39-40]
Upon what criteria did jurors make their decisions? [40-41]
What kinds of arguments that moderns would consider "extra-legal" did litigants typically make to Athenian juries?
Does Christ believe that Athenian courts were fair? [43]
What are the difficulties in determining how much Athenians litigated? What sorts of evidence does Christ analyze to answer this question? What conclusion does Christ reach? [43-47]

Class 2

Demosthenes 59: Apollodorus Against Neaera

Professor Katz of Weslyan University has a web page on the speech with links to explanatory notes that you may find useful.

Christ, p. 48-71

How does Christ establish the "alterity" of the sykophant? [do you know what he means by "alterity"]. What kinds of evidence does he use? What kinds of arguments does he make. Is any of the evidence or arguments more/less compelling than others?
Christ argues that "the creation of a sykophant was a cooperative social enterprise in the public arena." [p. 60] What does he mean?
How were sykophants created?
Why might one believe that sykophancy was a profession and/or a social class in Athens? Why would one be wrong to believe this?
What role did the sykophant have in the articulation of Athenian civic ideology?

Christ, p. 72-117

Who constituted the Athenian elite ("leisure class") and how were they defined?
How did the discourse of sykophancy reveal divisions between economic classes in Athens in their most extreme form? [i.e. under the Thirty]
Why would litigation present unique risks to a wealthy Athenian regardless of his political ideology?
In what kinds of evidence do we find expressions of elite concerns about litigation? How are these types of sources different? How does the substance and style of elite expression within them differ?
How did radical oligarchs use the idea of sykophancy to critique democracy?
How and why was the treatment of sykophancy by the Attic orators different than that offered by radical oligarchs?
How did the comic poets treat sykophancy? Does comedy offer any special interpretive problems? How was their use of the topic like the orators and how was it like the radical oligarchs? Why the similarities and differences.
What does the persistance of sykophancy as a theme in Athenian writing suggest about the nature of the communication between the elites and demos in Athens on the nature of litigation?

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Week 5

Class 1
Class 2

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Week 6

Class 1

Why does Clytemnestra kill Agamemnon? Do the reasons she offers change from the Agamemnon to the the Libation Bearers? What might it mean if they do?
Must Orestes kill Clytemnestra? What are the consequences if he does not?
What constitutes justice in the Agamemnon?
Why are Clytemnestra and Agamemnon less then perfect defenders of this conception of justice?
Are the Eumenides better defenders of this conception of justice?
What role does the chorus play in the articulation and critique of this conception of justice?
What role does Cassandra play in the articulation and critique of this conception of justice?
What constitutes justice in the Eumenides?
Is Athena's vote cast rationally or irrationally?
What constitutes justice in the Eumenides? What are the consequences of this new conception of justice?
Sites you might want to visit:

Study guide for the Agamemon

another Study guide for the Agamemon

Ian Johnstone's page On Aeschylus' Oresteia
Aeschylus' Oresteia and Greek Tragegy
Aeschylus' Oresteia Resources
The Classics Page: Aeschylus Oresteia

Class 2

Allen, p. 1-96

How do modern jurors differ from Athenian jurors with respect to their understanding of punishment according to Allen?
How is the study of punishment related to the study of values?
What was Foucault's contribution ot the study of punishment?
What different models have been used to study punishment? Why does Allen prefer Bourdieu's model of "practice?"
Why, according to Allen, does the traditional opposition of revenge and punishment not obtain for the Oresteia?
What does the invention of the Areopagus contribute to the practice of punishment at Athens?
On what is the authority of the Areopagus to punish based according to Allen?
How does Allen define punishment and revenge?
What is the concept of "desert?" What role does it play in Allen's analysis of punishment?
What are the three methods of punishment Zeus will deploy against Prometheus?
What are the only legitimate bases on which to attempt to punish someone in Athens, according to Allen?
How did the Athenian practice of punishment help democratic politics in Athens?
What is the fundamental difference between a graphe and dike?
According to Allen, why are the graphe and dike alike?
What were the three basic procedures in Athens to respond to a wrongdoing?
What authority did archons have to punish?
What authority did generals have to punish? Why was the authority of generals potentially more anti-democratic than that of archons?
What three procedures did a a lay prosecutor have to redress a wrongdoing he had suffered?
In idological terms, how did Athenians define the "best" prosecutor?
What four concepts underlay the behavioral norms that regulated Athens system of honor?
What concepts are embedded in the Greek word orge?
How did Athenians use the concept of orge to structure punishment?
How was orge regulated at Athens?
How did the Athenian construction of honor provide for both equality and hierarchy in Athenian society?
How does Allen describe the relationship between honor, anger, litigation and justice in Athens?
Describe the principles of positive and negative reciprocity in Greek social life.
How did anger become justice in the Athenian legal system according to Allen?
What is social memory?
Why were trials important for the construction of social memories in Athens?

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Week 8

Class 1
Class 2

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Week 9

Class 1
Class 2

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Week 10

Class 1

Cohen, 1-69
Chapter 1 (1-24)

According to Cohen, how does the plot of Aeschylus' Oresteia capture the standard account of the development of legal institutions in Athens?
According to Cohen, the standard account of Athenian legal history suffers from three types of analytical presuppositions. What are they?
These presuppostions have lead scholars to make what sort of conclusions about the Athenian legal system?
How does Cohen characterize the role of conflicts and dispute within a society? How does his view differ from that inherent in the "standard account" of Athenian legal history.
Does Cohen believe that the Athenian political system was stable or unstable during its last century? Why?
Cohen describes Athenian society as "agonistic." What does he mean?
What are the characteristics of "functionalist theories" of societies and their institutions, according to Cohen?
Why are functionalists interested in studying feud and warfare? What do they conclude the function of feud and warfare is?[
What are some of the criticisms scholars have made about the functionalist account of feud? (be able to identify at least three)
How do evolutionary theories of legal history account for feuds? (By the way, do you know what Cohen means by "acephalous societies?" If not, you should look up "acephalous" and think about it.)
Why is Cohen critical of evolutionary theories of law
According to Cohen, why does the example of the Kotaro brothers' request for kataki-uchi demonstrate the inherent limitations of evolutionary accounts of legal history?
Rather than reading the Orestia as a monument to the end of feud, how does Cohen suggest we might read it?
How does characterizing the distinction between public and private violence as "rhetorical" permit Cohen (citing Bartlett) to criticize evolutionary accounts of Athenian legal history?
According to Wilson's study of the Corsican feud, what is feud fundamentally about?
Can feud co-exist with centralized institutions of legal and political authority?
Rather than define feud soley as a homicidal activity ("blood feud") how does Cohen believe we should characterize the feud or feuding behavior?
What does this type of definition of feud do to our understanding of the role of conflict and the role of litigation within a society?
In Athens, private citizens rather than state agencies inititiated litigation (even for criminal prosecutions). What are the consequences of this fact for our understanding of the nature of disputing in Athens, according to Cohen?
How, therefore, should we understand the nature of litigation in classical Athens
Why does Cohen adapt the old French adage, "always mistrust the law"? How does Cohen believe "the law" operates within society?

Chapter 2 (25-33)

What did the term stasis mean to the classical Greeks. How does the story of Peithias in Corcyra demonstrate the relationship between law, feud and politics?
According to Thucydides, what was the cause of stasis? How did different Greek cities attempt to limit the consequences of stasis?
How can stasis promote and preserve community values?
Under what conditions can stasis threaten civil society?
Why don't modern scholars believe that theories of "factionalism" help illuminate the problem of stasis in Greek societies?
How does Aristotle link the concepts of equality and stasis in the Politics?
Why does Aristotles understanding of the relationship between equality and stasislead him to conclude that political stability in democracies and oligarchies is always precarious?
How does Aristotle link human envy to stasis?
How does private competition become a matter of public or political upheaval in the oligarchic examples Aristotle offers?
How does envy cause stasis in democracies?
What role does the law play in Aristotle's [and Plato & Thucydides'] analysis of stasis?

Chapter 3 (34-57)

What does it mean that Greek political theorists, regardless of their own political ideology agreed that "the rule of law" was the best way to contain the destructive effects of envy, competition and stasis?
According to Cohen, what is Aristotle's "censorial" model of the rule of law? What is Plato's model of the rule of law? What was the model offered by Athenian democrats? How do they differ from each other?
According to Aristotle, why is the human capacity for reason (logos) not sufficient to sustain political association?
Why does the rule of law make political association possible? Upon what inherent feature of the human personality does the rule of law depend? Therefore, according to Aristotle, what must all political constitutions or governments be concerned with?
According to Aristotle, how do laws differ under different types of constitutions?
How does Aristotle's view of the rule of law differ from that of modern legal theorists?
Why does Aristotle believe that radical democracies are hostile to the rule of law? What, according to Aristotle are the crucial defects of the rule of law under such constitions ?
What are the two components of constitutional government, according to Aristotle? How do these features of constitutional government protect political communities from the flaws inherent in democracy?
What is Aristotle's view of the "natural" moral state of human beings and human communities? What conclusions does this lead Aristotle to make about the nature of the "ideal" state?
Does Plato believe in the rule of law? On what two principles does Plato rest his understanding of the rule of law?
What is the inherent tension between these principles and how does Plato resolve it?
In the Laws, Plato recommends approaching the reform of human society at two separate levels. What are they and what are the consequences, for Plato, of so defining reform? [
Why, according to Plato, is conflict the primary obstacle to the rule of law?
Why, according to Plato, is education critical to overcoming that obstacle?
How, according to Plato's Laws, does the law rule in an ideal state? How is this conception of political organization different from that articulated in the Republic?
How do education and the rule of law address the political problems of faction and domination?
What does Plato believe to be the true source of social disorder? How does he theoretically solve these problems with respect to political institutions? With respect to human nature?
What is the parodox of Plato's rule of law according to Cohen?
What is the role of legislation in Plato's ideal state? What are the theoretical limitations of the rule of law in his ideal state?
How did Athenenian democrats define the rule of law?
Why did Thirty represent the antithesis of the rule of law under this definition?
For the democrats, what did the rule of law prevent?
Of what does liberty consist under democratic ideology? What limits individual liberty under democratic ideology?
How does the democratic conception of the rule of law differ from that of Plato and Aristotle?

Chapter 4 (61-86)

Why does Cohen believe that an understanding of Athenian social values is particularly important to the study of Athenian law?
What does Cohen believe that Aristotle's Rhetoric is a useful source for Athenian normative values [do you know what he means by "normative" values, expectations, etc?)
According to Cohen, Aristotle provides evidence that Athenians divided or categorized their social relations into five classes. What are they? How do these categories demonstrate that Athenians were competitive and what were they competitive about?
How did Athenians define honor? How did one acquire or lose it? Why was this conception of honor not democratic?
How could the un-democratic notion of honor exist within a democratic ideology? [
Why do Athenian values of shame and honor foster vengence? Why is this "natural" according to Aristotle?
Why, according to Aristotle, does anger bring pleasure? Why do men take vengence?
Is it possible to strive too much for honor, victory or vengence? What limits the pursuit of honor, victory and vengence How does Cohen explain the logical inconsistency of the Athenian value of honor, and its limitation of it?
Why, according to Aristotle, are men envious?
How is envy different from rivalry and emulation? Which of these emotions is good for the community and which are bad? Why?
How did attitudes towards competition play out within Athens' democratic ideology?
What did an Athenian orator mean when he said he and his opponent were in a state of emnity?
What function did emnity serve as a legal category?
What kinds of behavior were evidence of a state of emnity?
What role did the law play in structuring relationships of emnity?
How did Athenian notions of egalitarianism get invoked in rhetorical discussions of emnity?
According to Cohen, how does Demosthenes speech, On the Trierarchic Crown, illustrate the tension between the egalitarian democratic ideology of Athenian politics and the hierarchical organization of Athenian society resulting from its agonistic values?
How does rhetorical invective and insult actually demonstrate respect for a rival?
Why must one be cautious in interpreting invective in legal speeches?
Why didn't the jury for Demosthenes speech in defense of Ctesiphon regard his claims to honor and his invective against Aeschines as anti-democratic
Why, according to Cohen, did the nature of Athens political democracy promote intense rivalry and emnity?
Why is emnity an acceptable motive for prosecution to an Athenian jury, but not envy?
What consequences arise from the fact that Athenian values of emnity and envy, honor and vengence were often ambiguous and contradictory?

Class 2

Cohen, 70-170

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Week 11

Class 1

Cohen, 171-240

Class 2

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Week 12

Class 1
Class 2

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Week 13

Class 1
Class 2

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