Free Speech In Classical Antiquity (Mnemosyne)

463 Pages·2004·2.25 MB·English

by  Ineke Sluiter

FREE SPEECH IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA
COLLEGERUNT
H. PINKSTER •H.S. VERSNEL
D.M. SCHENKEVELD •P.H. SCHRIJVERS
S.R. SLINGS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
H. PINKSTER, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM, OUDE TURFMARKT 129, AMSTERDAM
SUPPLEMENTUM DUCENTESIMUM QUINTAGESIMUM QUARTUM
INEKE SLUITER and RALPH M. ROSEN
FREE SPEECH IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
FREE SPEECH IN
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
EDITED BY
INEKE SLUITER
&
RALPH M. ROSEN
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2004
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Penn-Leiden Colloquium on Ancient Values (2nd : 2002 : University of Pennsylvania)
Free speech in classical antiquity / edited by Ineke Sluiter and Ralph M. Rosen.
p. cm. — (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum,
ISSN 0169-8958 ; 254)
Consists of a collection of papers presented at the second Penn-Leiden Colloquium on
Ancient Values, held in June 2002 at the University of Pennsylvania.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-13925-7 (alk. paper)
1. Classical literature—History and criticism—Congresses. 2. Politics and
literature—Greece—Congresses. 3. Law and literature—History—To 500—Congresses.
4. Politics and literature—Rome—Congresses. 5. Freedom of speech in literature—
Congresses. 6. Freedom of speech—Greece—Congresses. 7. Political oratory—Greece—
Congresses. 8. Freedom of speech—Rome—Congresses. 9. Political oratory—Rome—
Congresses. 10. Oratory, Ancient—Congresses. I. Sluiter, I. (Ineke) II. Rosen, Ralph Mark.
III. Title. IV. Series.
PA3015.P63P46 2004
880’.09—dc22
2004050330
ISSN 0169-8958
ISBN 90 04 13925 7
© Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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printed in the netherlands
Toour teachers
DirkM. Schenkeveld
Martin Ostwald
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CONTENTS
Preface MartinOstwald............................................... ix
List ofContributors.................................................... xi
Chapter.Ineke Sluiterand RalphM.Rosen,General
Introduction......................................................... 1
Chapter.Jeremy McInerney, Nereids, Coloniesandthe Origins
ofIsêgoria ............................................................ 21
Chapter.KurtA. Raaflaub,Aristocracy andFreedomofSpeech
intheGreco-RomanWorld ........................................ 41
Chapter.Eric Casey, BindingSpeeches: Giving VoicetoDeadly
ThoughtsinGreek Epitaphs....................................... 63
Chapter.Hanna M.Roisman,Women’sFree SpeechinGreek
Tragedy ............................................................. 91
Chapter.StephenHalliwell,Aischrology,Shame, and Comedy ..115
Chapter.AlanH. Sommerstein, Harassing theSatirist: The
AllegedAttemptstoProsecuteAristophanes ......................145
Chapter.EmilyGreenwood, MakingWordsCount:Freedomof
Speechand NarrativeinThucydides..............................175
Chapter.D.M. Carter,CitizenAttribute,NegativeRight:A
ConceptualDifference BetweenAncient and ModernIdeasof
FreedomofSpeech .................................................197
Chapter.RobertW.Wallace,The PowertoSpeak—and notto
Listen—in Ancient Athens .........................................221
Chapter.RyanK. Balot,Free Speech, Courage,and
DemocraticDeliberation...........................................233
Chapter.JosephRoisman,Speaker-AudienceInteractionin
Athens: A PowerStruggle..........................................261
Chapter.MarleinvanRaalte,SocraticParrhêsiaanditsAfterlife
inPlato’sLaws.......................................................279
Chapter.J.J. Mulhern, Παρρησ(cid:7)αinAristotle.....................313
Chapter.StefanG. Chrissanthos, FreedomofSpeech andthe
RomanRepublicanArmy..........................................341
Chapter.VictoriaPagán, Speaking Before Superiors:Orpheus
inVergiland Ovid..................................................369
Chapter.Mary R.McHugh,Historiographyand Freedomof
Speech: TheCaseofCremutiusCordus...........................391
 
Chapter.Susanna MortonBraund,Libertas orLicentia?
FreedomandCriticisminRomanSatire..........................409
Index ofGreek Terms.................................................429
Index ofLatinTerms..................................................433
Index Locorum ........................................................435
General Index .........................................................447
PREFACE
‘FreedomofSpeechinClassicalAntiquity’wasthethemeofthesecond
Penn-Leiden Colloquium on Ancient Values, held in June  at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania. The timeliness of the theme resulted, as the Table
of Contents shows, in a wide range of approaches to ‘free speech’ in
both Greek and Roman contexts, in politics, the lawcourts, religion,
tragedy, comedy, and so forth. What the Table of Contents does not
show is the lively and wide-ranging discussions that followed the deliv-
ery of each paper. Much of it is recaptured in the published versions
offered here.
It is the variety of the connotations of ‘free speech’ in our times
that admirably informs the papers presented here. What we regard
as ‘free speech’ is applied to the practices of the ancients in the fields
enumeratedabove,andthisshows,ifanysuchdemonstrationisneeded,
how fertilethe consequences ofthe practicesof uninhibited speech are,
especially—but not exclusively—in democratically governed states in
post-classicaltimes.
We all too often forget that our concepts of ‘free speech’ evoke
associations which they may not have had, or not in the same way,
in Greco-Roman antiquity, such as slander, libel, blasphemy, and the
like. The reason seems to be that the conception of ‘rights’ which
underlies our ideas is no older than the Bill of Rights appended to the
Constitution of the United States in  and the Déclaration des droits
de l’homme et du Citoyen proclaimed in France two years earlier; in the
former, free speech isconnectedwiththe protectionofthe free practice
of religious worship; in the latter, with establishing the supremacy of
the written law. If it is permitted to remark on just one of the papers
contained in this volume, this difference receives due attention in the
paper by D.M. Carter, who rightly stresses that ‘freedom of speech’ as
a right which is inalienable and which is protected by law is a concept
alien to classical Antiquity. It was, rather, a characteristic of Athenian
citizenship.
Althoughnotregardedas‘rights’inAntiquity,thetermsparrhêsiaand
isêgoria (to which might have been added eleutherostomia), most closely
express our modern ideas of ‘free speech’. Thus, they are the ultimate
origin of a concept underlying notions of freedom and democracy.
However much reshaped and reconceptualized, our modern society