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CH. II.] ATHENS THE EYE OF GREECE."

CHAPTER II.

THE ATHENIAN COURTS.

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"Thence to the famous orators repair,

Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence

Wielded at will that fierce democratie,

Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece." MILTON.

WHEN we speak of the eloquence of Greece, we mean that of Athens only, for no other city or state produced a single orator1; and it is to her alone that we must look for anything relating to the profession of an advocate. But here we shall be somewhat disappointed. Amongst the Athenians there was no distinct class of men whose peculiar office it was to speak on behalf of parties in a court of justice. The practice was not uniform, but the rule generally seems to have been, that a speaker was not allowed to appear as an advocate, unless he had some interest in the cause himself. Thus, when Demosthenes defended Ctesiphon in the oration for the crown, it is obvious that he considered himself upon his trial; for the charge which Eschines had brought against Ctesiphon was, that he had illegally proposed that Demosthenes should be rewarded for his patriotic exertions by a golden crown; and the accusation was intended to give his great rival an opportunity

1 "Hoc autem studium non erat commune Græciæ, sed proprium Athenarum. Quis enim aut Argivum oratorem, aut Corinthium, aut Thebanum scit fuisse temporibus illis?"— Cic. Brut. 13.

of making an attack upon him. So likewise in the case where Demosthenes spoke on behalf of Phanus, he was interested in the result, for the action against the latter arose out of the proceedings which Demosthenes had been compelled to take against his guardians, to recover property which they had embezzled. But although originally parties were not allowed to avail themselves of the assistance of advocates to plead their causes for them, this rule was so far relaxed in after times, that a relative or friend was permitted to speak in their behalf, if they were prevented by illness or other inability from conducting their own case. It was upon this principle that, when Miltiades was impeached before the sovereign people, and, being incapacitated by disease from addressing the multitude, he appeared in the assembly borne upon a litter, his brother Tisagoras rose and spoke in his behalf; and, in the speech for the inheritance of Nicostratus, Isæus, who appeared for two of the claimants, commences by saying, "Gentlemen of the Jury, Agnon and Agnotheus, who are the plaintiffs in this suit, are friends and connections of mine, as their father was before them. It seems, therefore, to me to be reasonable that I should advocate their cause to the best of my ability." Sometimes several relatives were allowed to divide the task amongst them. Thus the party who opened the defence which Demosthenes wrote for Phormion, commences by saying, "You are well aware, Athenians, how incompetent Phormion is to make a speech, and it is necessary for us, who are his connections, to inform you of the facts which we know, having often heard them from his own lips."

In the mock trial that occurs in Lucian's Bis Accusatus, where Drunkenness brings an action against the Academy for enticing away and

CH. II.]

EMPLOYMENT OF ADVOCATES.

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Sometimes, however, we find a party to a suit lamenting his inefficiency as a speaker, which proves that it was by no means an universal rule to employ a friend as an advocate, even when there might be a valid plea for making use of his services. Thus, in the defence which Antiphon composed for Helus the Mitylenaan, who was prosecuted for the murder of Herodus in the course of a voyage, he makes him put forward his inexperience in legal proceedings, and his want of fluency, as reasons why the jury should be upon their guard, and pay strict attention to the evidence, and not suffer themselves to be led away by the eloquence of his accuser.

It is obvious that these are cases very different from the employment of counsel, who are strangers to the parties, and who have no personal interest in the issue of the trial. They were offices of friendship performed gratuitously, and can hardly be said to fall within the scope of the present work. The persons at Athens who corresponded most nearly to our idea of advocates, were not speakers in the courts, but those who composed speeches for clients (Moyoypápor), to be delivered by the parties themselves in their own causes, as is the case in our own courts martial. This was the ordinary occupation of

harbouring one of her slaves, the plaintiff is allowed to be represented by counsel for a very sufficient reason:

Justice (loquitur). "State your case, Madam Drunkenness. Why do you keep silence and nod your head in that way? Go, Mercury, and ascertain the reason."

Mercury. "She says that she cannot speak, as she is tongue-tied from the effects of strong liquor, and is afraid of making herself ridiculous in court; and she says that she can scarce stand, as you perceive."

Justice. "Well, then, let her retain one of these clever fellows as her advocate; for there are many of them ready and willing to burst themselves for a fee - (ἐπὶ τριωβόλῳ διαρραγῆναι ἕτοιμοι).”

C

a class of distinguished men at Athens, such as Antiphon, Lysias', Isæus, Isocrates, Dinarchus, and Demades, who gained a livelihood by it, after Antiphon had first set the laudable example of receiving fees, for his services in thus providing litigant parties with the means of attack and defence in the courts of law. It was even thought by some of the ancients, that the spirited speeches in which Demosthenes attacked his fraudulent guardians when only nineteen years of age, were composed for him by Isæus. And he used to employ himself in the same vocation, until public affairs absorbed the whole of his attention. Thus many of the speeches which are found in the list of his extant orations were composed, but not delivered by him; as, for instance, that against Androtion, which he wrote for Diodorus ; and that against Zenothemis for Demon, who was one of his relatives. In the latter case the plaintiff describes his application to Demosthenes to assist him. "I went to him and begged him to aid me and stand by me if he possibly could; on which he said, Demon, I certainly will comply with your request; for it would be a hard case if I did not. I must consider, however, my own interest as well as yours. It so happens that since I began to speak on political questions, I have never undertaken a single private cause.""2

Lysias did not speak in the courts of law himself, for in this sense we must understand what Cicero says of him, ipse quidem in causis forensibus non versatus, as he certainly composed forensic pleadings for others, of which we possess several specimens. The same remark applies to Isocrates, whom Cicero calls magnus orator et perfectus magister, quanquam forensi luce caruit. He gave lectures in rhetoric, and we are told that all Greece flocked to his house, as to a school of oratory. Cic. Brut. 8.

• Quintilian says that there was a law at Athens which prohibited a person from pleading the cause of another in court: Et tum maximè scribere litigatoribus, quæ illi pro se ipsi dicerent, erot moris; atque ita juri, quo non licebat pro altero agere, fraus adhibebitur. - Inst. Orat. ii. 15.

CH. II.]

INSTANCE OF BARRATRY.

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The occasion on which this rather reluctant consent was given by Demosthenes, was an action arising out of some curious circumstances, which may be shortly mentioned. Hegestratus was the master of an Athenian vessel on a voyage to Syracuse and back; and Zenothemis, who seems to have been a sort of partner of his, was a passenger on board. While at Syracuse, these two worthies, (if we are to believe the account as we find it in the speech written by Demosthenes,) entered into a conspiracy to borrow money upon bottomry, that is on the security of the vessel, and afterwards sink her, in order to avoid the necessity of payment. The ship was at the time loading a cargo of corn on account of Protus, an Athenian, who had purchased it with money which he had borrowed from Demon. Hegestratus and Zenothemis got the sum they wanted, by representing that the cargo belonged to them, and having put the money on board of another ship they sailed homewards. During the voyage the former proceeded to put their plan into execution, and one night he went down into. the hold, and began to knock a hole in the bottom of the vessel, while Zenothemis, his accomplice, remained on deck with the passengers. The noise, however, attracted attention the sailors hastened below, and Hegestratus was caught in the fact; but to escape seizure he threw

In a learned note on this passage Spalding notices an exception to this law, namely, the case where a party had not the right of being heard himself in a court of justice, of which an instance occurs in the speech of Lysias on behalf of Callias, a metic, or alien ami resident in Athens. Other instances were speeches made for minors and females. But expressions are found in the ancient writers which seem to imply that no such law existed, and Spalding admits the difficulty of coming to an accurate conclusion on the point. He says, Res ad liquidum deducta a VV. DD. non videtur.