The Laws Of Solon

Solon (c 658-558 BC) is famous as both statesman and poet but also, and above all, as the paramount lawmaker of ancient Athens. Though his works survive only in fragments, we know from the writings of Herodotus and Plutarch that his constitutional reforms against the venality, greed and political power-play of Attica's tyrants and noblemen were hugely influential-and may even be said to have laid the foundations of western democracy. Solon's legal injunctions covered the widest range of topics and issues: economics and labour; sexual morality; social issues; and society and politics. Yet despite their fame and influence (and Solon's life and work generated a lively reception history), no complete edition of these writings has yet been published. This book offers the definitive critical edition of Solon's laws that has long been needed. It comprises the original Greek fragments with English translations, commentaries, a comprehensive introduction and important comparative Latin texts. It will be enthusiastically welcomed by specialists in ancient Greek language and history.

The definitive book on judicial review in Athens from the 5th through the 4th centuries BCE. The power of the court to overturn a law or decree—called judicial review—is a critical feature of modern democracies. Contemporary American judges, for example, determine what is consistent with the Constitution, though this practice is often criticized for giving unelected officials the power to strike down laws enacted by the people's representatives. This principle was actually developed more than two thousand years ago in the ancient democracy at Athens. In Control of the Laws in the Ancient Democracy at Athens, Edwin Carawan reassesses the accumulated evidence to construct a new model of how Athenians made law in the time of Plato and Aristotle, while examining how the courts controlled that process. Athenian juries, Carawan explains, were manned by many hundreds of ordinary citizens rather than a judicial elite. Nonetheless, in the 1890s, American apologists found vindication for judicial review in the ancient precedent. They believed that Athenian judges decided the fate of laws and decrees legalistically, focusing on fundamental text, because the speeches that survive from antiquity often involve close scrutiny of statutes attributed to lawgivers such as Solon, much as a modern appellate judge might resort to the wording of the Framers. Carawan argues that inscriptions, speeches, and fragments of lost histories make clear that text-based constitutionalism was not so compelling as the ethos of the community. Carawan explores how the judicial review process changed over time. From the restoration of democracy down to its last decades, the Athenians made significant reforms in their method of legislation, first to expedite a cumbersome process, then to revive the more rigorous safeguards. Jury selection adapted accordingly: the procedure was recast to better represent the polis, and packing the court was thwarted by a complicated lottery. But even as the system evolved, the debate remained much the same: laws and decrees were measured by a standard crafted in the image of the people. Offering a comprehensive account of the ancient origins of an important political institution through philological methods, rhetorical analysis of ancient arguments, and comparisons between models of judicial review in ancient Greece and the modern United States, Control of the Laws in the Ancient Democracy at Athens is an innovative study of ancient Greek law and democracy.

Solon (c 658-558 BC) is famous as both statesman and poet but also, and above all, as the paramount lawmaker of ancient Athens. Though his works survive only in fragments, we know from the writings of Herodotus and Plutarch that his constitutional reforms against the venality, greed and political power-play of Attica's tyrants and noblemen were hugely influential-and may even be said to have laid the foundations of western democracy. Solon's legal injunctions covered the widest range of topics and issues: economics and labour; sexual morality; social issues; and society and politics. Yet despite their fame and influence (and Solon's life and work generated a lively reception history), no complete edition of these writings has yet been published. This book offers the definitive critical edition of Solon's laws that has long been needed. It comprises the original Greek fragments with English translations, commentaries, a comprehensive introduction and important comparative Latin texts. It will be enthusiastically welcomed by specialists in ancient Greek language and history.

This Companion volume provides a comprehensive overview of the major themes and topics pertinent to ancient Greek law. A substantial introduction establishes the recent historiography on this topic and its development over the last 30 years. Many of the 22 essays, written by an international team of experts, deal with procedural and substantive law in classical Athens, but significant attention is also paid to legal practice in the archaic and Hellenistic eras; areas that offer substantial evidence for legal practice, such as Crete and Egypt; the intersection of law with religion, philosophy, political theory, rhetoric, and drama, as well as the unity of Greek law and the role of writing in law. The volume is intended to introduce non-specialists to the field as well as to stimulate new thinking among specialists.

Now available in paperback for the first time, this collection of essays by specialists in the field offers fundamentally new perspectives on the poetry, laws, and historical facts associated with the figure of Solon of Athens.

Probably written by a student of Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution is both a history and an analysis of Athens' political machinery between the seventh and fourth centuries BC, which stands as a model of democracy at a time when city-states lived under differing kinds of government. The writer recounts the major reforms of Solon, the rule of the tyrant Pisistratus and his sons, the emergence of the democracy in which power was shared by all free male citizens, and the leadership of Pericles and the demagogues who followed him. He goes on to examine the city's administration in his own time - the council, the officials and the judicial system. For its information on Athens' development and how the democracy worked, The Athenian Constitution is an invaluable source of knowledge about the Athenian city-state. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

From Solon to Socrates is a magisterial narrative introduction to what is generally regarded as the most important period of Greek history. Stressing the unity of Greek history and the centrality of Athens, Victor Ehrenberg covers a rich and diverse range of political, economic, military and cultural issues in the Greek world, from the early history of the Greeks, including early Sparta and the wars with Persia, to the ascendancy of Athens and the Peloponnesian War.