Genos Dikanikon: Amateur and Professional Speech in the Courtrooms of Classical Athens: 33 (Hellenic Studies Series) - Softcover

Bers, Victor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674032039 ISBN 13: 9780674032033

Verlag: Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Amateur and Professional Speech in the Courtrooms of Classical Athens

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Reseña del editor

Under the Athenian democracy, litigants were expected to speak for themselves, though they could memorize a speech written for them. The texts of about one hundred judicial speeches of the genos dikanikon (the forensic genre) have survived, all attributed to Demosthenes or another of the ten writers of canonical status. These professionals wrote either for themselves or members of a small elite. Victor Bers argues that men too poor to afford a professionally written speech frequently spoke before judicial bodies in procedures crucial to their status, wealth, or even their lives, and that these amateur performances often manifested an unmanly yielding to emotions of anger or fear. Professional speech, Bers seeks to demonstrate, was to a large degree crafted in reaction to amateur stumbling.

Biografía del autor

Victor Bers is Professor of Classics at Yale University.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0674032039
• ISBN 13: 9780674032033
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 160