The Forensic Stage Settling Disputes in Graeco-Roman New Comedy [Paperback]

This pioneering work explores how legal disputes were settled out of court in fourth-century BC Athens and second-century BC Rome.This book explores the ways in which legal disputes were settled out of court in fourth-century BC Athens and in second-century BC Rome. After examining pre-trial scenarios in the Attic orators and comparable ones in Roman legal sources, the author turns to the plays of Greek New Comedy and their later Roman adaptations.This book explores the ways in which legal disputes were settled out of court in fourth-century BC Athens and in second-century BC Rome. After examining pre-trial scenarios in the Attic orators and comparable ones in Roman legal sources, the author turns to the plays of Greek New Comedy and their later Roman adaptations.This book explores the ways in which legal disputes were settled out of court in fourth-century BC Athens and in second-century BC Rome. After examining pretrial scenarios in the Attic orators and comparable ones in Roman legal sources, the author turns to the plays of Greek New Comedy and their later Roman adaptations. There she identifies similar scenarios, especially in disputes concerning sexual violations, the marriages of heiresses, and divorces, and shows that recognition of legal scenarios aids interpretation of New Comedy texts.Introduction; Part I. Pre-Trial Plays: 1. The staging of dispute settlement; 2. Initiating justice: threat, summons, and arrest; Part II. Reconciliation and its Rhetoric: 3. Private arbitration and reconciliation in Athens and Rome; 4. Scenarios of arbitration and reconciliation in New Comedy; 5. Redress for sexual offences in Athenian and Roman law; 6. The resolution of seduction and rape in New Comedy; 7. Arguing behind closed doors; Part III. Playing on the Boundaries of the Law: 8. Entrapment and framing; Appendices: 1. Official arbitration in the Attic orators; 2. Private arbitrations and reconciliations in Athens; 3. Remedies for enslavement, kidnapping and slave-stealló2