Overview

In this volume, Mirko Canevaro studies the 'state' documents (laws and decrees) preserved in the public speeches of the Demosthenic corpus. These documents purport to be Athenian statutes and, if authentic, provide invaluable information about Athenian history, law, and institutions. Offering a comprehensive account of the presence of the documents in the corpora of the orators and in the manuscript tradition, this volume summarizes previous scholarship and delineates a new methodology for analyzing the documents. Examining the documents found in Demosthenes' On the Crown, Against Meidias, Against Aristocrates, Against Timocrates, and Apollodorus' Against Neaera, the core of the volume, which includes a chapter by Edward M. Harris, provides a guide for the reliability of the individual documents, and advances new interpretations of important Athenian laws, such as homicide regulations, legislative procedures, laws on theft, seduction, naturalization, and outlawry. Canevaro argues that some of the documents have been inserted into the speeches in an Athenian environment at the beginning of the third century BC and are therefore reliable, while many others are later forgeries. These forgeries are early products of the tradition of historical declamations and progymnasmata, and could be used as evidence of Hellenistic oratory and rhetorical education.

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9780199668908

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This book is a formidable work of scholarship from a brilliant young scholar ably assisted by his doctoral advisor Edward Harris, who in fact is directly responsible for the analysis of the documents in Dem. 21 Against Meidias. The author reviews and illuminates innumerable issues that have been raised in the last two hundred years of scholarship (though a glance atWentzelas 1895 study of lexicography would not have gone amiss)2 and will no doubt prevent mistaken assumptions about the historical reliability of these legal documents for generations to come. David C. Mirhady, Phoenix

This book is a formidable work of scholarship from a brilliant young scholar ably assisted by his doctoral advisor Edward Harris, who in fact is directly responsible for the analysis of the documents in Dem. 21 Against Meidias. The author reviews and illuminates innumerable issues that have been raised in the last two hundred years of scholarship (though a glance atWentzelas 1895 study of lexicography would not have gone amiss)2 and will no doubt prevent mistaken assumptions about the historical reliability of these legal documents for generations to come. * David C. Mirhady, Phoenix * a work of fundamental importance * Matej Novotny, Eirene *

a work of fundamental importance * Matej Novotny, Eirene * This book is a formidable work of scholarship from a brilliant young scholar ably assisted by his doctoral advisor Edward Harris, who in fact is directly responsible for the analysis of the documents in Dem. 21 Against Meidias. The author reviews and illuminates innumerable issues that have been raised in the last two hundred years of scholarship (though a glance atWentzelas 1895 study of lexicography would not have gone amiss)2 and will no doubt prevent mistaken assumptions about the historical reliability of these legal documents for generations to come. * David C. Mirhady, Phoenix *

Author Information

Mirko Canevaro is Chancellor's Fellow in Classics at the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, The University of Edinburgh.

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