The relevance of liturgies in the courts of classical Athens

What was the function of classical Athenian courts? Did they intend to enforce the rule of law? The greatest obstacle to accepting an affirmative answer is the wide use of, at first sight and from a modern (sometimes anachronistic) perspective, remotely relevant argumentation by litigants. In this paper, by reference to Greek ideas of personality, I analyse and demonstrate the legal relevance of extra-legal argumentation in classical Athenian courts, using as a case study the widely criticised invocation of liturgies (public services) by litigants. In particular, by applying a model of human action and ethical motivation which is more appropriate to the Greeks (rather that the unsuitable for the ancient context Cartesian / Kantian), a better understanding of forensic rhetoric and argumentation is achieved. Therefore, in accordance with Greek psychology, the admittedly liberal approach to legal relevance of the Athenian courts was a calculated step towards the attainment of legal justice and the rule of law as the Athenians perceived it

The theory and practice of torture in ancient Athenian courts

There has been much debate in scholarship over the actual existence of torture (basanos) of innocent slaves for evidentiary purposes in the courts of classical Athens in the age of the orators. In the absence of direct evidence in the forensic speeches, scholars have pointed to a putative inconsistency between theory and practice regarding this institution. On the one hand, belief in the reliability of torture is evident in the works of the Attic orators, as well as challenges to evidentiary torture. Furthermore, rhetorical theory (in Aristotle's Rhetoric and Anaximenes' Rhetorica ad Alexandrum) supposedly provides guidance to orators as if recourse to basanos was a real possibility and classifies torture under the category of artless or supplementary proofs. On the other hand, not even one of such challenges has evidently been accepted and actually carried out and the sources are silent as to the actuality of evidentiary torture. This study closely examines the evidence of the primary sources and seeks to provide a solution to the aforementioned putative inconsistency. It demonstrates that it is far from certain that Aristotle and Anaximenes referred to the particular type of evidentiary basanos, since closer analysis shows that the shape of this institution is complex and much nuanced. Moreover, the presence in the courts of testimonies elicited by other than evidentiary types of torture, points to the root of the Athenian belief in the reliability of torture. Consequently, it is plausible to suggest that by the time of the Attic orators, evidentiary basanos had become obsolete and its remnant was primarily of rhetorical value

Character Evidence in the Courts of Classical Athens

This doctoral thesis aims to explore the underlying rationale of the (by modern standards) wide use of character evidence in the courts of classical Athens. Linking divergent areas of social sciences such as law, history, psychology and social anthropology, this interdisciplinary quest examines under a socio-political prism the question of legal relevance in Athenian forensic rhetoric. Specifically, I am concerned with an in-depth analysis of the surviving court speeches placed in their context in order to reveal the function of the Athenian courts and the fundamental nature of Athenian law. I explore the utmost aims of the first democratic system of justice and give a verdict as to its orientation towards the attainment of key notions such as the rule of law, equity and fairness, or social stability through utilitarian dispute resolution. My claim is that, although ancient and modern definitions of such ideals are in essence incomparable, the Athenians achieved the rule of law in their own terms through the strict application of legal justice in their courts. In such a legal system, no ‘aberrations’ or irrelevant ‘extra-legal’ arguments may carry significant weight. Central for my argument is the homogeneous approach to (legal and quasi-legal) argumentation from Homer to the orators, in a period covering more than four centuries. Close analysis of the dispute-resolution passages in ancient Greek literature exposes the striking similarities with the rhetoric of litigants in the Athenian courts. Therefore, instead of isolating (in time and space) the sphere of the Athenian courts of the mid-5th to the late-4th centuries, my holistic approach discloses the need for an all-embracing interpretation of the wide use of character evidence in every aspect of argumentation. I argue that the explanation for this practice is to be found (on a subjective level) in the Greek ideas of ‘character’ and ‘personality’, the inductive method of reasoning, and (on an objective level) in the social, political and institutional structures of the ancient Greek polis. Thus, a new exegesis to the question of legal relevance for the Greeks emerges

Solon the lawgiver: inequality of resources and equality before the law

The focus of this paper is on Solon's attitude towards wealth as can be extracted by his legislation and poems. The argument is that part of the rationale of Solon's legislation aimed at the regulation and check of the influence of wealth in the Athenian administration of justice and the emerging legal system of the polis. In this era of spreading monetisation, there was a conscious effort on the part of the Athenian lawgiver to place limits on the use of wealth and to make economic resources a positive feature, at the service of law and community, rather than the opposite. In the Solonian reforms we find traces of subsequent dominant characteristics of the Athenian legal system (such as amateurism and egalitarianism) which might offer new insights on the modern manifestations of inequality before the law

The Romulus and Remus Myth as a Source of Insight into Greek and Roman Values

The Romulus and Remus myth is a useful source of insight into Greek and Roman values, particularly in the Augustan Age. Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Diodorus Siculus, are three authors that give an account of the myth with varying extents of similarities and differences. Livy was nervous about Roman identity at the time he was writing in the Augustan Age, Dionysius tried to show how the Greeks and Romans are similar in their origins and from a cultural standpoint, and Diodorus shows how there is not one single authoritative version of a myth. The Romulus and Remus myth is then compared to the myth of Cadmus and the founding of Thebes, in order to determine how a Greek myth differs from a Roman myth

Post-liquefaction reconsolidation of sand.

Loosely packed sand that is saturated with water can liquefy during an earthquake, potentially causing significant damage. Once the shaking is over, the excess pore water pressures that developed during the earthquake gradually dissipate, while the surface of the soil settles, in a process called post-liquefaction reconsolidation. When examining reconsolidation, the soil is typically divided in liquefied and solidified parts, which are modelled separately. The aim of this paper is to show that this fragmentation is not necessary. By assuming that the hydraulic conductivity and the one-dimensional stiffness of liquefied sand have real, positive values, the equation of consolidation can be numerically solved throughout a reconsolidating layer. Predictions made in this manner show good agreement with geotechnical centrifuge experiments. It is shown that the variation of one-dimensional stiffness with effective stress and void ratio is the most crucial parameter in accurately capturing reconsolidation.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Royal Society Publishing via https://doi.org10.1098/rspa.2015.074

Use of viscous pore fluids in dynamic centrifuge modelling

The scaling laws that arise from dynamic centrifuge modelling contain an inconsistency regarding the scaling of time between dynamic and diffusion events. This problem can be resolved by reducing the permeability of the soil, with the help of high-viscosity pore fluids. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose is a water-soluble cellulose ether that is widely used to create such fluids. In this paper, the effects that concentration, temperature, ageing and shearing rate have on the viscosity of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose solutions are examined and equations that quantify them are presented. This information is meant to act as a guideline for the preparation of high-viscosity pore fluids for dynamic centrifuge tests. This is the accepted manuscript currently embargoed pending publication. Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees

Social responsibility in ancient Greece: the role of the individual and socio-political structures [Abstract]

Conference abstract