The Forensic Stage: Settling Disputes in Graeco-Roman New Comedy

by Adele C. Scafuro

• ISBN13: 9780521443838
• ISBN10: 0521443830
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Graeco-Roman New Comedy has traditionally provided a source for legal historians examining the language and operation of law both in Athens in the fourth century and in Rome in the second century BC. Adele Scafuro here provides the first comprehensive treatment in English of one crucial area of this vast field, namely, the way legal disputes are settled out of court in Athens, both on and off the comic stage. Beginning with a close examination of pre-trial scenarios in the Attic orators and looking for comparable ones in pre-classical Roman law, Dr Scafuro then turns to the plays of Greek New Comedy and their adaptations by Plautus and Terence. There she identifies similar scenarios especially in disputes concerning sexual violations, the marriages of heiresses, and divorces. She shows how the recognition of legal procedures aids interpretation of New Comedy texts.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi	(4)
Author's note on terminology, transliteration, translation, and texts	xv	(3)
List of abbreviations	xviii
Introduction	1	(24)
PART I: PRE-TRIAL PLAYS	25	(92)
1 The staging of dispute settlement	25	(43)
2 Initiating justice: threat, summons, and arrest	68	(49)
PART II: RECONCILIATION AND ITS RHETORIC	117	(212)
3 Arbitration and reconciliation in Athens and Rome	117	(37)
4 Scenarios of arbitration and reconciliation in New Comedy	154	(39)
5 Redress for sexual offenses in Athenian and Roman law	193	(39)
6 The resolution of seduction and rape in New Comedy	232	(47)
7 Arguing behind closed doors	279	(50)
PART III: PLAYING ON THE BOUNDARIES OF THE LAW	329	(54)
8 Entrapment and framing	329	(54)
APPENDICES	383	(97)
1 Official arbitration in the Attic orators	383	(10)
2 Private arbitrations and reconciliations in Athens	393	(7)
3 Remedies for enslavement, kidnapping, and slave stealing in Athens and Rome	400	(9)
4 Controversial summonses in Rudens and Persa	409	(15)
5 Threats of lawsuits and self-help remedies in Graeco-Roman New Comedy	424	(43)
6 Ambiguous arbitri in Roman Comedy	467	(7)
7 Moikhos and moikheia	474	(6)
Works cited	480	(19)
General index	499	(7)
Index locorum	506