Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical Athens

Edward M. Harris is Professor of Classics at the University of Durham. A scholar of Athenian law, economy, and social history, he is the author of Aeschines and Athenian Politics and co-editor (with Lene Rubenstein) of The Law and the Courts in Ancient Greece.

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.