Legal Self–Help on Private Property in Classical Athens

This book provides a fresh perspective on Athenian democracy by exploring bad citizenship, as both a reality and an idea, in classical Athens, from the late sixth century down to 322 B.C. If called upon, Athenian citizens were expected to support their city through military service and financial outlay. These obligations were fundamental to Athenian understandings of citizenship and it was essential to the city's well-being that citizens fulfill them. The ancient sources, however, are full of allegations that individuals avoided these duties or performed them deficiently. Claims of draft evasion, cowardice on the battlefield, and avoidance of liturgies and the war tax are common. By examining the nature and scope of bad citizenship in Athens and the city's responses-institutional and ideological-to the phenomenon, this study aims to illuminate the relationship between citizen and city under the Athenian democracy and, more broadly, the tension between private interests and public authority in human societies.

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Law and Order in Ancient Athens

Lanni¹

2016

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The classical Athenian 'state' had almost no formal coercive apparatus to ensure order or compliance with law: there was no professional police force or public prosecutor, and nearly every step in the legal process depended on private initiative. And yet Athens was a remarkably peaceful and well-ordered society by both ancient and contemporary standards. Why? Law and Order in Ancient Athens draws on contemporary legal scholarship to explore how order was maintained in Athens. Lanni argues that law and formal legal institutions played a greater role in maintaining order than is generally acknowledged. The legal system did encourage compliance with law, but not through the familiar deterrence mechanism of imposing sanctions for violating statutes. Lanni shows how formal institutions facilitated the operation of informal social control in a society that was too large and diverse to be characterized as a 'face-to-face community' or 'close-knit group'.

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Legal Self–Help on Private Property in Classical Athens

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Violence, Law and Community in Classical Athens

Violence, Law and Community in Classical Athens

The Bad Citizen in Classical Athens

Law and Order in Ancient Athens

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