Papers by Lene Rubinstein
The European Legacy, 2018
as 'a professional orator'. assembly or the Council of 500 in return for pay (other than the stip... more as 'a professional orator'. assembly or the Council of 500 in return for pay (other than the stipend, misthos, paid from the public treasury to assembly-goers and councillors) laid himself open to charges of bribery and even treason. This in itself may not have deterred a good number of Athenian citizens who were skilled in oratory from generating a substantial income from their activities in the public sphere. Nevertheless, the fact that it was illegal to turn the practice of oratory into one's livelihood meant that no Athenian would have wanted to admit to the designation of himself However, if the Athenians were not prepared, legally or ideologically, to tolerate openly 'professional' orators, their attitudes towards oratorical expertise were more ambiguous. Although modern discussions have often emphasized passages in the Attic Orators where litigants profess their own lack of experience in speaking, it is nevertheless suggestive that this 'topos of inexperience' is deployed most frequently in the context of private legal disputes, 3 but only rarely by defendants in public actions, 4 or by litigants who were volunteering as prosecutors in public actions. The avoidance of the topos by the second and third categories is undoubtedly due to the close connection between certain types of Athenian public legal procedure and the political life played out in the Athenian assembly and, to a lesser extent, in the Council of 500. 6 Citizens who chose to involve themselves in prosecutions concerned with, for example, illegal decree-proposals, treason or embezzlement of public funds are frequently known themselves to have been active as speakers in the assembly and the Council of 500. 7 If such litigants were known already from previous appearances on the platform in the assembly and in the courts in other highprofile public actions, professions of oratorical inexperience on their part would most likely fail to carry conviction. By contrast, a litigant who referred to his lack of experience in the context of a private action may have been entirely honest in making this claim. The modern reader may perceive a glaring contradiction between the speaker's profession of his lack of oratorical
Symposion 2019 (eds K. Harter-Uibopuu and W. Riess), 2021
This paper discusses the legal capacity and motivations of female manumittors in Hellenistic Delp... more This paper discusses the legal capacity and motivations of female manumittors in Hellenistic Delphi, and the penal authority bestowed on female beneficiaries appointed in paramone clauses. These suggest that women enjoyed similar penal authority to that of male beneficiaries, depending on the stipulations in each contract. Manumissions appointing female beneficiaries of paramone may reflect the need to reduce the risk of claims asserted by heir or creditors of the beneficiary's male kin, whom it would often have been difficult for a woman to fend off through the courts.
One of the most significant developments in modern research on the role of the Athenian witness h... more One of the most significant developments in modern research on the role of the Athenian witness has been the emphasis on the witness’s personal connection with the litigant whom he was supporting. It is widely held that an Athenian litigant would attempt to enlist the support of as many family members and personal friends as he possibly could, and that the main function of such witnesses was to make a public display of the loyalty that the main litigant was able to command. In an influential article, S.C. Humphreys (1985) presented a survey of attested Athenian witnesses, grouped in concentric circles around the individuals whom they were supporting, starting from citizens who appeared in their official capacities as magistrates in the outermost circle and ending with the litigant’s closest kin in the innermost circle. One of the conclusions reached by Humphreys (1985: 350) on the basis of this evidence is that an important function of the witnesses was to convey an impression to th...
Litigation and cooperation
Having demonstrated that about a third of the speeches in our corpus of forensic oratory were wri... more Having demonstrated that about a third of the speeches in our corpus of forensic oratory were written for delivery by synegoroi rather than main parties, the author investigates the way in which synegoroi and main parties divided the argumentation between them in individual cases. She shows that trials of major political importance were conducted by teams of pleaders, and she concludes that such legal actions are best understood as team-based contests rather than as rhetorical confrontations between individual members of the Athenian elite. The implications of this for our overall understanding of the Athenian democracy and the political part played by the courts are discussed, and it is suggested as a possibility that team-based public actions offered a wider scope for participation by ordinary citizens than is normally allowed by modern historians.
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 1996
A Typology of the Women Recorded on Gravestones from Attica
Clauses out of Context: Partial Citation of Statutes in Attic Forensic Oratory
Use and Abuse of Law in the Athenian Courts
Ancient Greek Law in the 21st Century
Symposion 1999 Vortrage Zur Griechischen Und Hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte 2003 Isbn 3 412 19202 3 Pags 193 207, 2003
Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies, Feb 17, 2011
T HE LARGE CORPUS of Attic tombstones commemorating citizens is an extremely valuable source for ... more T HE LARGE CORPUS of Attic tombstones commemorating citizens is an extremely valuable source for the study of Athenian demography. The sepulchral inscriptions, which span the period ca 400 B.C. to ca A.D. 250, record the names of 4,519 Athenians: 2,905 men, 1,472 women, 142 of unknown sex.! For males we learn the name, the demotic, and often the patronymic of the individual commemorated on the stone; and a comparison of the recorded demotic with the provenance of the grave monument may give valuable information about population movements within Attica. In a study of population in town and country A. W. Gomme adduced as his principal evidence a count of Attic tombstones of the fourth and third centuries B.C. 2 In a recent re-examination and updating of Gomme's material, A. Damsgaard-Madsen has corroborated his conclusion that the tombstones testify to a 1 At the Copenhagen University Institute of Classics a group consisting of the five authors has built up a data base of Athenians recorded on private funerary monuments in this period. The inventory comprises all the sepulchral inscriptions
hiatus, Greek
Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2015
Differentiated Rhetorical Strategies in the Athenian Courts
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law, 2005
... the only formal restriction on the litigant's ~ The three most important Atheman terms f... more ... the only formal restriction on the litigant's ~ The three most important Atheman terms for punishment and the act of punishing are: timaria/timoreisthai, holasis ... the way in which witness statements and law texts should be presented in the courtroom, a litigant would be free, at least ...
Nomothetai
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
Polis & politics: studies in ancient Greek history
Polis & Politics © Museum Tusculanum Press 2000 Cover design by Henrik Maribo Composition by Ole ... more Polis & Politics © Museum Tusculanum Press 2000 Cover design by Henrik Maribo Composition by Ole Klitgaard Printed in Denmark by AKA Print, Aarhus ISBN 87 7289 628 0 Cover: The abduction of Helen, after a drawing by Mr. Gillieron, published by SA Koumanoudis in Ephemeris ...
Aigis Suppl. I (ISSN 1901-6859), 2011
Lysias 18 og den athenske amnesti af 403/2 f.Kr. 1 af Lene Rubinstein 1. Kort om den athenske amn... more Lysias 18 og den athenske amnesti af 403/2 f.Kr. 1 af Lene Rubinstein 1. Kort om den athenske amnesti af 403/2 Efter afslutningen på De Tredive Tyranners raedselsregimente, der efterfulgte Athens kapitulation i Den Peloponnesiske Krig, og efter en blodig borgerkrig, der førte til demokratiets genindførelse, vedtog athenerne at indføre amnesti i forbindelse med en fredsslutning mellem oligarker og demokrater i 403/2. Amnestien beskyttede både de borgere, der havde kaempet for genindførelsen af den demokratiske forfatning, og de borgere, der havde vaeret tilhaengere af en oligarkisk styreform. Der kan ikke herske megen tvivl om, at amnestien blev indført med det formål at undgå en situation, hvor et egentligt retsopgør kunne føre til en ny opblussen af de interne stridigheder og voldshandlinger mellem demokrater og oligarker. Amnestien medførte, at langt de fleste athenere, der havde deltaget aktivt i bystatens styre under de to på hinanden følgende oligarkiske juntaer, De Tredive og De Ti, hverken kunne retsforfølges eller straffes for de handlinger, de havde begået før Eukleides' archontat, der markerede borgerkrigens afslutning i 403/2. Eftersom begge fraktioner var omfattet af amnestiforordningen, medførte den ligeledes, at de athenere, der som tilhaengere af den demokratiske modstandsbevaegelse havde deltaget i krigshandlinger mod deres egen by og medborgere, ikke behøvede at frygte et retligt efterspil. De eneste, der ikke var omfattet af amnestien, var de allerøverste ledere af de to oligarkiske regimer, De Tredive selv og De Ti, samt embedskollegierne De Ti i Piraeus og Ellevemaendene. De sidstnaevnte havde vaeret ansvarlige for administrationen af Athens faengsel og for henrettelsen af arrestanter uden forudgående rettergang. Men selv disse individer kunne få del i amnestiens beskyttelse, hvis de indvilligede i at aflaegge regnskab for deres embedsførelse for Folkedomstolen. Vi ved, at mindst én af De Tredive valgte denne udvej: Lysias 12 blev holdt af Lysias personligt som anklagetale mod Eratosthenes, der uden tvivl havde tilhørt den mest moderate fløj af det
Uploads
Papers by Lene Rubinstein