Popular attitudes to judicial activity in the age of Aristophanes
The aim of the thesis is to understand popular attitudes in Athens to judicial activity in the late fifth and early fourth centuries, the period in which Aristophanes wrote and performed his plays. Within the Aristophanic world, characters are frequently portrayed as engaging in litigation and jury service. Moreover, this portrayal of judicial activity is decidedly ambivalent, with the comic hero often fleeing from judicial activity into a fantastical paradise within which judicial activity is consciously banished. And yet as the play continues, judicial activity often resurfaces within the fantastical paradise. These on-stage images of judicial activity are compared with portraits which litigants paint of themselves and their opponents in the Attic Orators. Litigants characteristically present themselves as inexperienced and reluctant to engage in judicial activity, while portraying their opponents as experienced to the point of sycophancy. Yet the same litigant who professes judicial reticence may in reality be a seasoned veteran of the jury courts. On the basis of evidence from the theatre and the court room, I argue that the pursuit of judicial activity is governed by an ideology of judicial reticence.
Crichton, Angus Julian Dewar
Athenian law; Theatre
Popular attitudes to judicial activity in the age of Aristophanes. The aim of the thesis is to understand popular attitudes in Athens to judicial activity in the late fifth and early fourth centuries, the period in which Aristophanes wrote and performed his plays. Within the Aristophanic world, characters are frequently portrayed as engaging in litigation and jury service. Moreover, this portrayal of judicial activity is decidedly ambivalent, with the comic hero often fleeing from judicial activity into a fantastical paradise within which judicial activity is consciously banished. And yet as the play continues, judicial activity often resurfaces within the fantastical paradise. These on-stage images of judicial activity are compared with portraits which litigants paint of themselves and their opponents in the Attic Orators. Litigants characteristically present themselves as inexperienced and reluctant to engage in judicial activity, while portraying their opponents as experienced to the point of sycophancy. Yet the same litigant who professes judicial reticence may in reality be a seasoned veteran of the jury courts. On the basis of evidence from the theatre and the court room, I argue that the pursuit of judicial activity is governed by an ideology of judicial reticence.
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